One Musicfest steps up with bigger Atlanta site and headliner Janet Jackson

It always struck a nerve with Jason “J.” Carter to see large-scale music festivals schedule few Black musicians, especially hip-hop artists.

In the late 2000s, he decided to change that by co-founding One Musicfest, Atlanta’s now massive, multi-stage Black music festival that he still manages.

In its 14th year, One Musicfest is heading to Piedmont Park for the first time on Oct. 28 and 29 with performances from Janet Jackson, Kendrick Lamar, Megan Thee Stallion, Brent Faiyaz, Bryson Tiller, Kodak Black, Coi Leray, The-Dream and dozens more.

“They’ll all be kicking it,” Carter said.

Credit: Courtesy of One Musicfest

Credit: Courtesy of One Musicfest

It’s been Carter’s goal to produce the festival on the same grounds at Music Midtown ever since the first One Musicfest in 2010 that featured Common and De La Soul. One Musicfest reached capacity with over 45,000 attendees at Central Park last year. And Carter, the former owner of Underground Atlanta hot spot Sugar Hill, knew it was time to up the ante.

“We’ve continued to grow since year one,” said Carter, known for curating the party-meets-live-event series Sol Fusion. “It’s the perfect backdrop and center for a festival, so to have the opportunity is a blessing. We look forward to putting on for the city and the culture.”

Jackson will make a rare appearance as a headliner on Saturday evening. The music legend’s team connected with Carter after a video went viral of him “swag surfin’” beside her during last year’s Essence Festival.

Credit: Invision

“We were sitting back and looked at what the festival could be this year, and we knew we wanted to put an icon on the main stage,” said Carter. “It was a very short list, and Janet was at the top. It’s an honor to have her on the stage, and she should be celebrated and given all of her flowers and glory.”

Carter, who turned 50 in June, is celebrating his milestone birthday in the same year as the 50th anniversary of hip-hop. The hip-hop stage at the festival will include a trip down memory lane from KRS-One, Project Pat, Uncle Luke, Black Sheep, Nice & Smooth, Eightball & MJG, DJ Quik, Big Daddy Kane and Brand Nubian.

It is important to Carter that the stage captures the full diversity of hip-hop from every region of the country.

Credit: Courtesy of One Musicfest

“Representation matters, and all areas of this country contributed,” said Carter, who was born in Harlem in New York City but raised in Stone Mountain. “We’re programming our celebration of hip-hop very differently than the way other celebrations have been handled. When our audience sees it, they’ll automatically get it.”

Tems, who was originally set to perform last year, will appear along with Coco Jones, Danielle Ponder, Smino and T-Pain. Music legend El DeBarge will take the crowd back to the good old days with his timeless R&B classics that have become some of the most sampled melodies and hooks in hip-hop.

“El puts on a show,” said Carter. “He got those singalongs. We’re doing the new school, but you have to give it up for the icons and journeymen that have been putting it down for years.”

Credit: Courtesy of One Musicfest

Despite taking huge financial losses the first five years of operation, One Musicfest captured several milestone live moments. In 2016, Outkast gave its last performance as a duo with the Dungeon Family. Memphis rapper Young Dolph played his last performance there in 2021 before he was shot and killed a month later, while DMX graced the One Musicfest crowd in 2019 before his untimely death two years later.

Seen as one large family reunion by regular attendees, One Musicfest falls this year in the middle of HBCU homecoming season. Atlanta’s Spelman College and Morehouse College, as well as Florida A&M University, are celebrating their homecomings the same weekend at One Musicfest.

Credit: Courtesy of One Musicfest

He noticed the majority of the Sunday one-day passes were purchased by HBCU alumni who plan to split their time between homecoming and the fest.

“Sunday will be a whole vibe,” said Carter, who is a Florida A&M alumni.

The next step for One Musicfest is to expand into the southwest around Memorial Day weekend next year, though the details aren’t final.

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Carter thinks back to his days of attending music festivals like Lollapalooza and Coachella and not finding Black music festival organizers he could look to for guidance and inspiration. The situation has changed, and now he gets requests from people about future partnerships.

“This thing was built because there was a huge void in how festivals were being programmed and how our culture was being represented,” he said. “One Musicfest feels like a Woodstock kumbaya experience that’s a wonderfully safe environment to be celebrated and celebrate the skin you’re in by our culture and our music.”