ROOTS PICNIC'S VIRTUAL SATURDAY (UPDATE)
The Roots Picnic recently partnered with Michelle Obama's When We All Vote initiative for their 2020 virtual festival. The experience was hosted by Questlove, Black Thought and Michelle Obama, and produced by Live Nation Urban's President Shawn Gee, Questlove, Two One Five (Tarik Trotter) and Dan Parise (DPS).
With performances and segments with musicians, athletes, When We All Vote co-chairs and The Roots echoing the importance of registering to vote, the festival amassed over 380k views and engaged with 540k+ eligible voters, exceeding their original goal of 500k.
The event streamed exclusively on YouTube on 6/27 and included performances from The Roots, H.E.R., Lil Baby, Roddy Rich, SZA, Kirk Franklin, Snoh Aalegra, Earthgang, G Herbo, Polo G, D Nice and Musiq Soulchild (backed by The Roots) and had appearances by Michelle Obama, Lin Manuel Miranda, Chris Paul, Tom Hanks, Liza Koshy, Kerry Washington, Tracee Ellis Ross, Janelle Monáe and Elaine Welteroth.
The event also featured a pre-show Executive-produced and curated by The Bridge (Tina Farris and Suede) and You and Me Inc. Artists included Bam Marley, Brianna Cash, Daniel Sebastian, Iman Omari, Infinity Song, IV Jay, Jac Ross, Jayla Darden, JD & Domi, Justine Skye, LOONY, Nissi, Raye, Riela, RMR, T.Nava, Sampa the Great, Savanna Christina, Shawn Smith, YelloPain, Victory Boyd, Infinity Song, AquilDawud and SUSU.
Throughout the event, a call to action encouraged fans and viewers to to register to vote by visiting weall.vote/rootspicnic or texting ROOTS to 56005. Nearly 43k people have started or completed the voter registration process since Saturday, 40k people signed up to attend through When We All Vote and almost 4k people signed up to volunteer.
The partnership comes from a shared ethos of wanting to reach the most underrepresented community of people when it comes to voting—black people between the ages of 21-35. Michelle Obama’s When We All Vote and The Roots have a common goal, to educate and inspire communities to use their voices and vote to make a difference.
"Historically, Questlove & Black Thought have always been very active participants in the voting process, however I felt that it was imperative that this year I open up both The Roots and my Live Nation Urban platforms as vehicles for both voter education and voter registration," said Gee. "Our goal is to aggressively impact change and we’re going to have some fun while doing so. This year, we are incredibly proud to partner with Mrs. Obama’s When We All Vote to ensure our audience has the resources they need to register and vote in November’s election."
