Oswego State will have a free outdoor concert for homecoming this year on Oct. 4, hosted by the Student Association Programming Board.

The concert will feature hip-hop artist Young M.A, a nationally renowned rapper from Brooklyn, New York.

Oswego State has hosted fall concerts in the past, but according to Director of Campus Life Daniel Roberts, the fall concert fell to the wayside compared to the spring concert.

“This is sort of a rekindling of a tradition that used to exist at SUNY Oswego,” Roberts said. “Way back when, almost a decade and a half ago at this point, SAPB would sponsor a free outdoor fall concert and a free spring concert the following semester.”

Roberts said that after OzFest, the end-of-year event and concert in spring semester, the fall concert became less of a priority until it eventually faded away.

Young M.A is a rap artist out of Brooklyn recently acclaimed for her freestyle and cool charismatic flow. The abbreviation in Young M.A stands for “Me Always.” One of Young M.A’s top tracks, “OOOUUU,” released in 2016 and has since gone triple-platinum. “OOOUUU” has been remixed and sampled by hip-hop artists such as Eminem, Nicki Minaj and 50 Cent.  While she has been an active artist since 2012, her first full album is scheduled to release on Sept. 27, just ahead of the Oct. 4 concert.

The outdoor homecoming concert is free, but tickets are required due to zoning and consideration for a rain location, according to Roberts. Tickets are limited to about 1,400 and are available starting Sept. 20. The venue, the lawn behind Swetman Gym near the outside entrance to The Space, opens at 7 p.m. with the show starting at 8 p.m.

The location, Roberts said, should highlight the beauty of upstate New York and Lake Ontario in autumn.

“We’ll have some opening acts, we’ll have some music playing, people will be able to come and enjoy what will hopefully be a beautiful upstate New York sunset just before Young M.A hits the stage,” Roberts said.

Roberts said that connecting the campus, the community and the fall season was important to SAPB when planning the fall concert so Oswego State students could create lasting memories of their time at the college.

“What SAPB was committed to trying to do was two things. They wanted to bring back a tradition that campus used to enjoy, and they wanted to tie it to homecoming because homecoming is one of those events that we’ve tried to get up and running on this campus but for a lot of reasons it hasn’t yet resonated with students,” Roberts said. “We don’t have a football team to be the signature event for homecoming, so tailgates are kind of out. The hockey team hasn’t started yet, so that signature athletic event that draws our campus together doesn’t happen [in fall].”

Despite budget cuts this year, Roberts said SAPB is still committed to bringing events and experiences to campus that students will remember after graduation. 

“Having this be the signature event for homecoming is, [SAPB] wants to bring this back annually and build on it. [SAPB] don’t want to necessarily replicate OzFest but they want to do something unique to upstate New York in the fall,” Roberts said. “Be it a fall festival, a fall carnival, something like that they can do around this outdoor concert.”

As for OzFest, which SAPB and Roberts said in May that budget cuts might threaten, Roberts confirmed the spring event.

“OzFest is still happening,” Roberts said. “It’s going to look a little bit different because the budget was reduced by Senate last year for OzFest. But that being said, [SAPB] are still commited to putting on all the daytime events and free giveaways that students have enjoyed in the past, and putting on a very high quality evening concert that day too.”

Roberts said SAPB is interested in making the OzFest concert tickets free to students instead of $15 tickets like previous years, but “there’s just some hurdles” SAPB has to cross to make that possible.

Roberts said that connecting the campus, the community and the fall season was important to SAPB when planning the fall concert so Oswego State students could create lasting memories of their time at the college.

“What SAPB was committed to trying to do was two things. They wanted to bring back a tradition that campus used to enjoy, and they wanted to tie it to homecoming because homecoming is one of those events that we’ve tried to get up and running on this campus but for a lot of reasons it hasn’t yet resonated with students,” Roberts said. “We don’t have a football team to be the signature event for homecoming, so tailgates are kind of out. The hockey team hasn’t started yet, so that signature athletic event that draws our campus together doesn’t happen [in fall].”

Despite budget cuts this year, Roberts said SAPB is still committed to bringing events and experiences to campus that students will remember after graduation. 

“Having this be the signature event for homecoming is, [SAPB] wants to bring this back annually and build on it. [SAPB] don’t want to necessarily replicate OzFest but they want to do something unique to upstate New York in the fall,” Roberts said. “Be it a fall festival, a fall carnival, something like that they can do around this outdoor concert.”

As for OzFest, which SAPB and Roberts said in May that the new academic year’s budget cuts might threaten, Roberts confirmed the spring event.

“OzFest is still happening,” Roberts said. “It’s going to look a little bit different because the budget was reduced by Senate last year for OzFest. But that being said, [SAPB] are still commited to putting on all the daytime events and free giveaways that students have enjoyed in the past, and putting on a very high quality evening concert that day too.”

Roberts said SAPB is interested in making the OzFest concert tickets free to students instead of $15 tickets like previous years, but “there’s just some hurdles” SAPB has to cross to make that possible.

Graphic by Patrick Higgins | The Oswegonian