Delanno Hopkins wanted something at the scale of downtown Fresno’s Tequila Fest, but built with the city’s Black communities in mind.
That dream gave rise to last October’s first-ever R and B in the Park event, which drew nearly 1,000 visitors to West Fresno’s historic Kearney Park.
But it took some mountain-moving to get to that point.
Hopkins and a small team planned the event in just four months. Then, about three weeks before the big day, Hopkins suffered a stroke that left his fellow organizers debating whether to cancel.
They decided to go through with it, anyway, because the community sometimes needs events like this, said organizer Rosalind Butler-Patrick.
“We’re going through a lot, as a country, as a nation,” she said. “And I feel like music always brings people together.”
Now, less than six months later, the team of seven that now make up “Dream Team Promotions” is at it again.
They’re gearing up for the second R and B in the Park for this Saturday, and Butler-Patrick said they’ve already blown past last year’s ticket sales to more than 1,000.
After months of effort organizing musical acts, food trucks and retail vendors, they’re just praying the weather cooperates.
“Rain, rain, go away, come again another day — for real,” Butler-Patrick said.
They have backup plans in the event it does rain, including a reschedule date for mid-May. But this isn’t the only event the team has in store for 2026 — or even the only R and B in the Park — so they hope to momentum up.
“I would like to move onto our next event so that we can continue to be flourishing for the city,” Butler-Patrick said, “and for them to see all different types of things from us, not just R and B in the Park.”
How did R and B in the Park start?
The event is partly the product of longtime friendships between the organizers.
Butler-Patrick, a Los Angeles native, moved to Fresno for college and met Hopkins, whom she now considers a brother. Fresno is Hopkins’ adopted home, too, after he moved from Florida 25 years ago.
David Harris, aka DJ Daave, another friend who oversees all things music and sound at R and B in the Park, met Hopkins when he was working as a UPS driver and would deliver parts to Smokehouse, where Hopkins worked.
All three of them now go to Saint Rest Baptist Church together.
But it hasn’t all been roses. There are nights when Butler-Patricks is on her laptop, “falling asleep on it.” That was especially true for the first R and B in the Park after Hopkins’ unexpected hospitalization.
Harris and Hopkins credit Butler-Patrick for doing much of the heavy lifting in the aftermath. Hopkins joked that he appreciates her ability to keep people on task — even if that sometimes means she has to be the one to say “no” to DJ Daave.
“She’s strict on that budget,” Harris added with a laugh. “I be asking for money. No, but … Roz make it right. She just do.”
Butler-Patrick didn’t get to really experience the event last year — she was mostly holding down the fort at the front gate.
But, after being with Hopkins in the hospital and at rehab appointments following his stroke, “to see him there smiling” in the park that day was the most memorable part.
R and B returns
This year, R and B (and gospel) will be back at Kearney Park — a location the group was deliberate about choosing.
“If you from West Fresno, everybody know when they see that Kearney sign,” Harris said. “I don’t know — it was catchy.”
They’ll have some returning acts, including David Mangum and his band, Mix’d Bag.
But they’ve incorporated some changes after feedback from attendees, too. This year, they’ll be expanding parking options for people with disabilities. There will also be more vendors on deck after last year’s food vendors sold out quickly.
Although this time the event is happening in the spring, the team is also planning to host a second one in the fall — timed to avoid the worst of Fresno’s summer heat.
“Fresno, when you walk out your house, you feel like you’re being followed by the blow dryer. People don’t want that,” Butler-Patrick said. “They don’t want to be sticky dancing. They want to sweat a little bit, but not like a full workout.”
If it were up to Hopkins, she added, they’d do three a year.
But she’s happy if they get the roughly 1,200 who have already bought tickets — plus a little more.
“We’re going to have people pull up the day of,” Butler-Patrick said. “That’s how Fresno is.”
Tickets for R and B in the Park (6725 W. Kearney Blvd.) are available for purchase online via Eventbrite, starting at $25, plus a $3.52 fee. Gates open at 1 p.m., and the event is scheduled to run from 2 to 7 p.m.
The post Meet the ‘Dream Team’ bringing R&B — and thousands of people — to West Fresno’s Kearney Park appeared first on Fresnoland.
