By John Custodio

The SUNY Oswego Student Association Programming Board (SAPB) will be sponsoring OzFest on May 6, with outdoor activities from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. and culminating in a concert at 7 p.m.

The concert will be hosted in the Deborah F. Stanley Arena and Convocation Hall with openers Angelo Mota and B-Lovee, and Ari Lennox as the headlining performer. The 2022 OzFest will be the first in-person OzFest since 2019, due to COVID-19. Free daytime activities will include axe throwing, laser tag, an obstacle course and a rideable mechanical shark, along with a free henna artist and other customizable products like build-your-own stuffed animals.

The OzFest artist selection process begins in October with a survey to students. According to SAPB president Aiden Burns, around 400 students responded to the survey, but that they are looking to change the survey in the future as respondents would suggest artists that are impossible for SUNY Oswego such as Drake or Beyonce.

Burns has been part of SAPB for three years, as concert coordinator for his first two years and director this year. Burns was the concert coordinator for the virtual 2021 OzFest that featured a virtual, pre-recorded Trippie Redd concert. The budget for that event was $200,000, according to Burns, and included a virtual meet-and-greet with Redd.

The final artist selection was based on SAPB concert coordinator Jaylin Sutherland’s decision, according to Burns.

“Jaylin Sutherland is our concert coordinator, and so based on her personal findings she believed Ari Lennox to be a great artist for Oswego,” Burns said. “She’s on the second lineup of Coachella, she won a Grammy this year, so she is a pretty massive artist. And based on our budget, she worked.”

Burns said that B-Lovee was selected as SUNY Oswego has a large New York City population, and B-Lovee is a New York City-based rapper. For Angelo Mota, Burns said he was selected based on the budget not used on Lennox and B-Lovee.

“For B-Lovee, we have a pretty big New York audience, so we decided to bring in a New York rapper to cater to them,” Burns said. “And Angelo Mota, I don’t want to put this rudely, but we used what was left of our budget for him.”

However, there has been controversy on SUNY Oswego campus due to the artists selected for OzFest, and the budget SAPB received for their event. According to Burns, and Student Association budget information available on LakerLife, the budget for 2022 OzFest is $202,000.

President of SUNY Oswego club baseball Quinn Jones expressed disapproval of the budget, citing the budget allocated to the 23 active club sports teams for the 2022-2023 semesters. In an email sent from Scott Harrison, assistant director of campus recreation, the total budget requests from the 23 teams was over $290,000. However, the teams were only allocated $125,000.

“OzFest is only one day, whereas the club sports budget affects many students year-round, and just using baseball as an example, coming into this season we got completely shafted on the budget,” Jones said. “So we didn’t have uniforms, we didn’t have money to travel, we didn’t have money for umpires. We had absolutely no money this year and it pretty much ruins our entire fall and spring season.”

“Essentially, it’s a solid year and a half of our club experience that’s totally messed up because of [poor] budgeting, whereas one day a year that not many kids care about gets twice as much money,” Jones said. “I just don’t see the reasoning behind that and it doesn’t seem fair to a lot of the kids that work hard.”

“We had to really fight for money this year and it set a lot of our games back, and I know it happened to a few other clubs too,” Jones said. “I just don’t see the logic behind OzFest being twice as much money.”

According to Jones, club baseball received around $5,000. Cheer club president Emily Koenig echoed Jones’s sentiment, citing cheer’s budget allocation for 2022-2023 at $5,550.60 in Harrison’s email on April 21.

Other students expressed disinterest in OzFest in general, stating that the artists did not interest them. Pablo Leon said he did not plan on attending, but attended OzFest in 2019 for Gunna, Ella Mai and Daydream Masi.

“I never feel like the concert is really that fun,” Leon said. “Especially this year, those are random people that I’ve never even heard of.”

However, other students are excited for the concert portion of OzFest. Price Flores said that he plans on attending, and thinks it is a good use of student involvement funds because it is a unique event.

“I feel like it’s a good use of student funds, because people want to go to a concert at the college they go to,” Flores said. “It’s local, so people don’t have to travel far.”

First semester senior Sarah Fazio said she is excited for the events and concert as she has not had the opportunity to attend an in-person OzFest, transferring into SUNY Oswego during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s only my second year at Oswego so I’m excited to get more involved and see what it’s really about,” Fazio said. “I know the past couple of years it’s been on Zoom, so it’s hard to really get a feel for what it’s like but now that everything back on campus is opening up, I’m excited.”

Fazio said she thinks it is a worthwhile use of funds, as a final celebration for students for completing the semester. 

“It’s almost like a reward for students, definitely after all year now that we’re at the end of the semester,” Fazio said. “In the springtime we’re all burnt out and tired, so everyone is looking forward to letting loose and having fun for a night.” 

Speaking on the criticism from individual students, Burns defended the artists and the decisions of the SAPB.

“People are entitled to their own opinions. We think Ari Lennox is an absolutely massive artist like I said before, she’s on the second line of Coachella right below the headliner, she won a Grammy this year,” Burns said. “In our opinion, she’s a really big artist and we’re really excited to have her. That’s what we think, but people can think what they think. You have a couple weeks until the concert, and you can go out and listen to their music and see what you think for yourself.”

Tickets for student attendees cost $15 and can be purchased through the box office in Marano Campus Center or online on tickets.oswego.edu.

Photo from Spencer Bates