Nas & The Roots, Robert Glasper & Questlove, Common and Anthony Hamilton to headline first international edition of ‘Roots Picnic’ at Crystal Palace Bowl
Nas & The Roots, Robert Glasper & Questlove, Common, and Anthony Hamilton will headline the first ever international edition of iconic Philadelphia hip-hop festival Roots Picnic, coming to Crystal Palace Bowl on Saturday 8 – Sunday 9 August 2026. Nas & The Roots will headline the first day with a special two-hour joint performance, as well as Sasha Keable, J.PERIOD Live Mixtape Feat Black Thought & Yasiin Bey & Benny The Butcher, and Nia Smith. The second day will feature a Sunday Jam featuring Robert Glasper & Questlove with special guest Common & Bilal, as well as headliner Anthony Hamilton. Support will come from Musiq Soulchild, Floetry, and Gotts Street Park with Olive Jones. Anthony Hamilton and Floetry will be performing in the UK for the first time in a decade. Both days will feature sounds by Benji B.
Roots Picnic is part of Palace Bowl Presents, a new festival series featuring an eclectic lineup of global headliners from Friday 31 July to Sunday 16 August.
The full lineup includes:
- Friday 31 July: Grace Jones with Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Soul II Soul.
- Saturday 1 August: Mahrajan Festival
- Sunday 2 August: The inaugural ‘Gospel Garden Festival’, headlined in a UK-exclusive by Kirk Franklin and Tasha Cobbs Leonard, supported by Fred Hammond, Mercy Chinwo and Jerub. Gospel Garden is set to become London’s biggest outdoor gospel festival.
- Wednesday 5 August: Sir Tom Jones with special guest Billy Ocean.
- Thursday 6 August: Gary Numan with support from Marc Almond and Ladytron.
- Friday 7 August: City Pop Waves Festival with Masayoshi Takanaka, Junko Yagami, Himiko Kikuchi, and Ginger Root (DJ set).
- Saturday 8 – Sunday 9 August: Roots Picnic
- Thursday 13 August: Bastille and The Wombats, who will both perform headline sets.
- Friday 14 August: Davido & Friends
Palace Bowl Presents will take place at the historic Crystal Palace Bowl, one of London’s most iconic open-air venues. Established in 1961, the Bowl and its famous ‘Garden Party’ events have played host to some of the most eclectic acts in British festival history, from prog to punk, rock to reggae, pop to the proms. As well as Bob Marley’s final London show, the Crystal Palace Bowl has seen concerts from artists including Pink Floyd, The Beach Boys, Lou Reed, Curtis Mayfield, Gil Scot Heron, Ian Dury, Vera Lynn and many more.
Nas (Nasir Jones) first reached an international audience when his track “Halftime” was tapped by producer MC Serch as the opening cut on 1992’s Zebrahead movie soundtrack. Signed to Columbia Records, the first full-length album by poet and rhyme-master Nas arrived in 1994, Illmatic. The RIAA platinum hip-hop landmark featured “It Ain’t Hard To Tell,” “The World Is Yours,” and “One.” 1996 brought the breakthrough double-platinum It Was Written (#1 R&B for 7 weeks, #1 pop for 4 weeks), with his first major crossover singles “Street Dreams” and “If I Ruled the World (Imagine That).” Success continued with the double-platinum I Am in 1999 (again #1 pop and #1 R&B), with the chart singles “Nas Is Like,” “Hate Me Now” (featuring Puff Daddy), and “You Won’t See Me Tonight” (featuring Aaliyah).
GRAMMY® Award winning singer, songwriter, producer, and actor Anthony Hamilton has
achieved global sales of over 50 million albums.
Local residents from postcodes SE19, SE20 and SE26 will be eligible for discounted tickets for Palace Bowl Presents.
Preferred ticket access to some of the best tickets are available to Mastercard cardholders from Friday 20 April at 12PM BST. Check out priceless.com/music for details.
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