Last week’s reveal party held at the Marano Campus Center concourse officially announced this year’s OzFest headliners, scheduled for May 4. A$AP Ferg and H.E.R. will co-headline the event put on by the Student Association programming board this spring.

This is the first time SAPB has held a reveal party to announce the acts for the campus concert. More than 100 people attended the event with live music, a bounce house, giveaways, food and drinks to start to garner attention for the annual spring event.

“OzFest just isn’t May 4,” said Genesis Felipe Rossi, the concert coordinator for SAPB. “There’s a whole process to it, and we want the school to be involved with the whole thing from when we reveal the artist. We want them to be excited a month out.”

Last year’s headliners were A Boogie wit da Hoodie and DNCE. Trying to appeal to the largest audience possible, the board’s plan was to tinker with years past and have different genres perform. This year, they did not want to follow that same plan in hopes of a better response and turnout by students.

“We didn’t want two different concerts,” Felipe Rossi said. “We wanted a flow. We wanted people to come and enjoy the whole thing. We wanted to change up the genres, but we knew the genres had to go along with one another.”

Together, the co-headliners of A$AP Ferg and H.E.R. cost less than $150,000, each costing roughly the same amount. These two were the third and fourth artist they contacted with help from their middle agent, DEGY Entertainment.

According to the DEGY Entertainment website, “the company now books over 2,000 events each year while working with some of the biggest names in the entertainment business.”

SAPB works directly with the vice president, Jeff Hyman.

This was not the same middle agent the board worked with last year to help book the artists for OzFest. Concert Ideas was dropped by SAPB after not making much progress toward booking acts and the switch has been helpful, SAPB Director Cindy Pietrakowski said.

“When it came down to ‘alright we need an act’ and everyone is saying no, what can we do?,”  Pietrakowski said. “We were texting [Hyman] at 9, 10 o’clock, and he’d answer right away at like 11 o’clock at night. He’s super available, super professional, super nice.”

Dan Roberts, the associate dean of students, had contact with DEGY and also encouraged the switch, Pietrakowski said.

This year’s board wanted to achieve a music festival vibe, according to both Felipe Rossi and Pietrakowski. On top of the two main acts, this includes a ferris wheel, a merry-go-round and potentially four other acts performing outside, in front of Cooper Dining Hall, during the day activities portion of the event. The first 100 students at the outdoor concert will receive complimentary blankets to watch the acts. The confirmed acts include Black Tie Stereo, The Crane Wives and Jordy and Scooter. These were found through National Association of Campus Activities.

“We went to a conference call to NACA, which is the National Association of Campus Activities,” Pietrakowski said. “It’s this cool thing where we sat in this room for hours on end, watching 15-minute acts of different bands and performers. If we saw one we liked, we could block book them. We would block with schools around us. So, it’s on the same tour and saves us a lot of money. One of the bands we paid like $850 for.”

This came from the SAPB budget for 2018, but the board was given $190,000 this year from Student Association, which is $10,000 less than 2017. Director of Campus Life Earnest Washington helped SAPB to find NACA and get these other acts planned. To help make up for the lack of funding compared to years past, student affairs and enrollment management is helping the board.

Tickets will cost $15 for students and $20 for the general public and will also be available at the door for $20. However, one student, Cayla Turner, will be given free admission to OzFest this year after correctly guessing the artists on the silhouette teaser posters distributed around campus. Her two friends, Stephanie Skinner and Alicia Horton will also be given VIP passes for helping in the process.

Image from The Come Up Show via Flickr