PHOTOS: Urban Farm in North Philly Hosts Hoodstock Music Festival

A full-day block party festival of art, live music, farming and social consciousness

Early-afternoon on Saturday, inner-city agricultural collective Philadelphia Urban Creators (PUC) opened the gates of their Life Do Grow Farm in North Philly to host HoodStock – a full-day block party festival of art, live music, farming and social consciousness.

Stemming from the ambition to impact and educate youth in the city’s more under-resourced areas, PUC aims to harness the power of urban agriculture as a means of promoting community sustainability while fostering and engaging the neighborhoods’ youngest residents.



“We chose to host HoodStock on the farm to honor the spirit of Woodstock” says PUC Co-Executive Director Jeaninne Kayembe, “[as well as] to showcase the next legends of our generation.” The day was complete with pop-up art galleries, independent apparel and craft vendors and music artists from over the country.



Germantown native DonChristian took a break from heading Brooklyn record label and art collective Camp & Street, alongside breakout queer emcee LE1F, for a homecoming set to boast his cerebral blend of cosmic hip-hop and ambient soul.



The lineup also featured North Philly’s Troi Lauren who, backed by a full band, belted a blistering half-hour of soul-funk before welcoming the audience up to the stage to dance the whole set to a close.



By 5:30 the stage was set for festival headliner stic.man of venerated political hip-hop duo, dead prez, Coming off this year’s publication of Eat Plants, Lift Iron, stic used the urban farming platform to dovetail what he propagates as his message, his style, his genre of fit-hop – specifically, understanding the impact of  physical health on the health of one’s mind, spirit and community.

“This is ritual to me, this is more than fitness” he riffed in his spoken-word closer “We run these streets.”

Disparate but focused, delivered with dire conviction, stic’s words stood as the ideal culminating sentiment to sum up the spirit of the entire day.