For the third straight year, rap has been the number one genre of music Oswego State students chose on the OzFest survey.

DNCE and A-Boogie Wit Da Hoodie have been confirmed for the annual OzFest concert lineup at 8 p.m. on May 5 in the Marano Campus Center Ice Arena. The concert will also be hosted by Michael Wade 24k featuring DJ Tumbo.

According to Student Association President Emily Nassir, DNCE cost $95,000 and A -Boogie Wit Da Hoodie cost $40,000. The total budget for OzFest is $190,000, and covers artist costs, production costs, security and passes.

Tickets can be purchased at the box office in the Marano Campus Center. The cost will be $15 for students, $20 for the public and $25 at the door.

When selecting OzFest artists, Nassir said they try to keep to three goals. First being to stay within the budget because for the last two years, for various reasons, they have not stuck to it. The second goal was to mix up the genre because rap has been chosen for the last two years and the third goal was to follow the survey that students fill out. 

Nassir said that after taking out unrealistic artists, A-Boogie Wit Da Hoodie was the number one person asked for.

“A lot of people are complaining that we have rap again with A-Boogie,” Nassir said. “That was the number one person asked for on the survey. I can’t do anything about what the survey results are.”

Nassir said she is happy to give students a new genre.

“If you don’t like rap, I’m sorry but I hope you will enjoy DNCE,” Nassir said. “If you don’t like DNCE, I hope you will like the other artist, but I hope you will want to just be a part of the community because, at the end of the day, that’s what this is about.”

Almost 1,500 students filled out the survey this year. According to Nassir, in the past few years only a couple hundred students have responded. SA tried to spread the word and encourage more students to vote this year. 

Nassir said DNCE requested to have a VIP experience go along with the concert and because it did not interfere with the plans for the concert, they allowed it.

This package from hostvip.com is called the “Body Moves Package,” and costs $200. The package is for one person and includes an individual photo with DNCE, a custom DNCE VIP tour laminate, a limited edition DNCE merchandise item, a hand-signed limited edition DNCE poster and host concierge services. The package does not include a concert ticket.

At last year’s OzFest, Dej Loaf refused to get on her plane because she was not given a first-class ticket, Nassir said. This year, they are making sure that the line of communication is clear to prevent something like this from happening again.

“We are being very diligent on our work and making sure that every single request is met,” Nassir said. “We are making sure that we are not missing any details.”

According to Nassir, they also looked into booking Panic! at the Disco, X Ambassadors and The Chainsmokers, but were not successful for various reasons.

Panic! at the Disco no longer plays college shows, X Ambassadors had a festival booked in a different city the day after OzFest and The Chainsmokers were too expensive. Nassir said would have charged more than $600,000.

Sophomore Siena Sheehan said she is excited for the OzFest concert.

“I think it is a good line-up for the concert,” Sheehan said. “Maybe people will go to the concert instead of BSR this year.”

Sophomore Russell Cox said he does not like either act for OzFest.

“A-Boogie seems generic,” Cox said. “DNCE is also the kind of music I’d enjoy if I was a 14-year-old girl.”

In past years, performers have included Big Sean, Flo Rida, B.O.B. and Mac Miller.

Nassir said that there is a big surprise for this year’s daytime activities during OzFest.

“We’re hopefully going to have two new things coming that a lot of students will have participated in before, not here though,” Nassir said.

On May 5, many students also participate in the annual Bridge Street Run, a pub crawl throughout Oswego.

This is Nassir’s third year being involved with planning OzFest.

“It’s very interesting to see the way it has evolved from being BSR centered to not so BSR centered,” Nassir said. “We’re trying to make [OzFest] the most attractive and fun environment it can be.”

Nassir said the motive for planning OzFest is to start a new tradition for students that do not want to participate in BSR.

“I’m really proud of the work that we did,” Nassir said. “I would say this is the biggest accomplishment we’ve had all year. There are going to be a lot of people that aren’t happy, there always are. I’m sorry that you feel that way but I hope you will join us to celebrate a great year.”