On a rainy Friday afternoon, an overcast hung over Howard University students as they raced to get in line for the 2024 Springfest concert.
The concert, held last Friday in Burr Gymnasium, marked the end of Springfest, an annual week of events giving students a chance to wind down and have fun before finals.
A few student artists opened the show including Atara Romero-Wilson, a senior musical theater major from Houston, who made her Springfest debut after winning the Springfest Talent Show earlier last week.
Aisha June, a senior marketing major from Chicago, who has performed at both Springfest and Yardfest in the past, also made an appearance on stage.
Rapper Flo Milli returned to the Mecca for a second time, performing hits “Never Lose Me,” and “Beef FloMix,” before Gunna made his way to the stage.
The Atlanta rapper performed songs spanning the beginning of his career to now, including “Sold Out Dates,” “pushin’ P” and “Too Easy.”
Taylor Beazer, a junior political science major from Dallas, said she enjoyed the concert.
“The DJ was really good,” Beazer said. “As you know, DJ K. Dimes is from Dallas, so he was really representing between sets.”
Noraa Alston, a freshman health management major from Pittsburgh, echoed these sentiments.
“Honestly, concerts are like a hobby to me,” she said. “So I really enjoyed myself. It was good vibes. It was a little packed but we still had fun.”
However, struggles securing tickets and standing in long lines soured the experience for some students. To streamline the ticketing process, UGSA issued a limited number of tickets online for the first time this year.
“I feel like even though they tried to be organized, it was very unorganized,” Beazer said.
After several scheduled releases, the free tickets sold out in seconds. Many students were left empty-handed, and there was chaos at the doors on Friday’s concert.
“People were pushing and shoving,” Beazer said. “It was crazy.”
But much like the weather, a recent tragedy on campus made it hard for some students to enjoy Springfest and partake in the class of 2028’s Accepted Students Day, held the same day, some said.
“You’d want to welcome the baby bison, but I don’t have the best attitude right now towards how everything is going on campus,” Khariss Bender, a sophomore broadcast journalism major from Atlanta, said. “It’s kind of hard to show school spirit when there is so many other things we are dealing with right now.”
On April 15, Mohamed Samura, a freshman computer information systems major, died after being hit by a car driven by a university faculty member outside of Cook Hall.
“We are right outside of Cook, and we see the yellow tape,” Bender said. She expressed that Springfest is supposed to be a distraction for students, “but we are gonna leave Burr tonight and still have to deal with this.”
Copy edited by Alana Matthew
