Cole Bennett and Berto Solorio say they’re building Summer Smash’s biggest crowd yet at SeatGeek Stadium, with headliners including Playboi Carti, Lil Uzi Vert, Chief Keef and Baby Keem—while keeping the festival rooted in Chicago-area community.
By the time the 2026 Summer Smash lineup was announced, Cole Bennett had already been working for weeks—posting an Instagram video showing the flyer being assembled “delicately” by hand, from cardboard and paper.
Friday through Sunday at Bridgeview’s SeatGeek Stadium. the festival’s founders are rolling that same careful attention into a run they’re calling their biggest yet. Summer Smash includes headliners such as Playboi Carti, Lil Uzi Vert, Chief Keef and Baby Keem. Other standouts on the bill are JT of the City Girls, Sexyy Red, Bigxthaplug, G Herbo and Adamn Killa.
The weekend also features Skrillex and other EDM DJs on Saturday—an addition that Bennett says has drawn mixed reactions from some hip-hop fans, even as he expects more people to give the “rap-adjacent” sound a fair listen.
Perhaps the most striking detail for longtime followers is how quickly the lineup speaks to the festival’s identity. It blends major rap names with boundary-pushing bookings and, at the same time, keeps reaching back into the music’s origin stories through the artists placed on the undercard.
“There’s so much that goes into it, booking so many artists and making sure everyone feels comfortable,” Bennett, 30, said. “It’s surgery. It’s a piece of art that you’re building and curating.” Bennett co-founded the festival eight years ago with Berto Solorio under the Lyrical Lemonade brand.
Solorio, 37, of Park Ridge—CEO of SPKRBX production company—described the effort in the language of impact rather than logistics. “I like seeing how much it means to people,” he said. “Kids will be like. ‘I had the best time of my life at Summer Smash.’ They have these experiences that are going to live with them forever. Just being able to contribute to that is really rewarding.”.
The crowd expectations are tied to that sense of ownership. This year, Bennett and Solorio are projecting 50,000 attendees for day one on Friday, and they say that day is sold out. They’re also projecting about 120,000 attendees across the three days.
They’ve had to scale up before. Since its inception, Summer Smash has grown from a one-day event that drew 10,000 people to Douglass Park in 2018 to the Bridgeview stadium event that attracts more than 100,000 across its three days.
Alongside the festival’s growth, the organizers say they’ve learned to make big changes without losing the community feel they want fans to carry home.
Bennett said the lineup planning involves selecting undercard artists who have been influenced by the headliners. so audiences can “trace the lineage of the music.” He also said that structure benefits the younger performers. because they can finish their set and then watch the artist who directly inspired them.
“You never know who might meet who backstage, and who might then go on to make music together,” Bennett added. He pointed to the way those overlaps have already happened: rapper Ken Carson was brought out by Young Thug in 2025.
For fans who’ve been coming for years, moments like those are part of Summer Smash’s pull. Solorio recalled a highlight from 2021, when Lil Durk made a surprise appearance. “I vividly remember [Lil Durk] performing and the crowd going insanely crazy. with kids running from all different sides of the festival. ” Solorio said. “I was like, ‘Wow, I think we’re making a heavy impact on the culture.’”.
They’ve built momentum through earlier versions of the events, too. In 2016 and 2017. Bennett and Solario partnered on two Summer Bash events in Portage Theater. featuring SoundCloud-era rappers such as Ugly God. Famous Dex. Warhol.SS. Ski Mask The Slump God and Lucki. After the scene gained traction, they upgraded to the Summer Smash outdoor festival.
“The scene was really exploding,” Solorio said. “Cole was shooting videos for a lot of these artists, and I’m doing shows throughout the year. The demand was skyrocketing. A lot of the artists that we started working with were breaking through to the next level, getting record deals. We saw ahead of the curve a little bit.”.
Even with the festival’s confidence, the founders say they can’t ignore the same pressures hitting event organizers everywhere. Summer Smash, like other festivals, has faced rising fuel, food and labor costs. That reality prompted Bennett and Solorio to raise the cost of three-day passes by $25 this year.
For all the business math, their message stays consistent: keep it local as long as they’re able.
Bennett said they plan to remain in the Chicago area because the city takes ownership of the event. “It’s so important to us to keep it here for as long as we’re able to do so. because it’s something the city takes so much ownership in. ” he said. “All these kids that come to the festival every year, they’re so proud. It’s theirs. And that is really beautiful and exciting for us to see.”.
That theme—care, community, and continuity—is what Bennett and Solorio seem to be betting on as Summer Smash opens its gates Friday at SeatGeek Stadium.
Summer Smash Lyrical Lemonade Cole Bennett Berto Solorio SeatGeek Stadium Bridgeview Playboi Carti Lil Uzi Vert Chief Keef Baby Keem Skrillex hip-hop festivals