When the 2026 Summer Smash lineup was announced, Cole Bennett posted an Instagram video of the flyer being delicately assembled, by hand, from cardboard and paper.
Organizing the festival also requires a deft touch.
“There’s so much that goes into it, booking so many artists and making sure everyone feels comfortable,” said Bennett, 30, who co-founded the festival eight years ago with Berto Solorio under the Lyrical Lemonade brand. “It’s surgery. It’s a piece of art that you’re building and curating.”
Returning to Bridgeview’s SeatGeek Stadium Friday through Sunday, Summer Smash boasts a strong lineup of headliners, including Playboi Carti, Lil Uzi Vert, Chief Keef and Baby Keem. Among other standouts are JT, of the City Girls, Sexyy Red, Bigxthaplug, G Herbo, Adamn Killa and 12-year-old North West, the daughter of Ye (formerly Kanye West) and Kim Kardashian.
Since its inception, the fest has increasingly grown, expanding from a one-day event that drew 10,000 to Douglass Park in 2018, to the Bridgeview extravaganza that attracts more than 100,000 across its three days.
This year, Bennett and Solorio are expecting their biggest crowd yet, projecting 50,000 attendees for day one on Friday, which is sold out, and about 120,000 overall. They’ve strategically booked familiar faces of hip-hop, while pushing boundaries by adding Skrillex and other EDM DJs to Saturday’s bill.
But their ultimate goal is to build community among artists and audiences.
“I like seeing how much it means to people,” said Solorio, 37, of Park Ridge, who is CEO of SPKRBX production company. “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.”
Bennett said reception to the EDM acts has been mixed, but he’s hopeful that skeptics will embrace the “rap-adjacent” music.
“I’m really excited for all the people that get to experience the music for the first time and realize that they’re actually really into it,” he said.
When it comes to booking hip-hop acts, the organizers select undercard artists who have been influenced by the headliners, so audiences can trace the lineage of the music. And it’s also rewarding for the younger acts.
“[The performers] get to finish their set and then watch the artist that directly inspired them,” Bennett said.
Or they may even be asked to join the headliners onstage, which was the case for rapper Ken Carson, who was brought out by Young Thug in 2025.
“You never know who might meet who backstage, and who might then go on to make music together,” Bennett said.
Back in the 2016 and 2017, Bennett and Solario partnered on two Summer Bash events in Portage Theater, which featured SoundCloud-era rappers such as Ugly God, Famous Dex, Warhol.SS, Ski Mask The Slump God and Lucki. After gaining 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.”
Over the years, Bennett and Solorio have created memorable moments at the festival, from Chief Keef’s highly anticipated performance in 2024 to Lil Durk’s surprise appearance in 2021.
“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.’”
Like other festivals, Summer Smash has faced rising fuel, food and labor costs, which prompted Bennett and Solorio to raise the cost of three-day passes by $25 this year.
Despite those challenges, they plan to keep producing the festival — and remain local.
“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,” Bennett 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.”