By Madelyn Stone, News Staff
Hip hop, rock and indie music are coming to Springfest this year with artists Nelly, Jack’s Mannequin and Passion Pit.
The Council for University Programming (CUP) announced the headliners Thursday night, one week before tickets will be available for $12 on myNEU. The April 14 show marks the second time CUP has decided to showcase a variety of genres.
Eric Frankenberg, a senior music industry major and concert chair for CUP, said the lineup has received a “really great” response so far, since it appeals to a range of music tastes.
“You know we go to a school with 15,000 people so it’s really tough to please everyone,” Frankenberg said. “But I think what we’ve done really well this year and last year is offer a hip-hop act, a rock act, an indie act. We sold out faster last year than we ever have before so I’m expecting a really good turnout this year, and the reaction on Facebook and Twitter has been really positive.”
In choosing the show’s lineup, CUP relied on an online survey posted on myNEU in the fall. More than 5,000 students took the survey, giving the Council a good idea of students’ preferences.
“I’m very happy and lucky to say that we were able to stay very very true to the surveys,” Frankenberg said. “A lot of the top vote getters end up being Adele and Kanye West and Lady Gaga who we obviously don’t have the budget for but based on who is affordable and who’s available we were actually able to get some of the top vote-getters from the survey.”
Frankenberg said he thinks students will enjoy Nelly’s performance since so many of his songs have become popular.
“What I think will be really really awesome about Nelly’s set list is at least half of his set list will be recognizable to everyone at the concert,” he said. “Whereas a lot of the acts that have played in the past play for an hour and it’s really leading up to one song that everyone’s waiting for. But Nelly has so many hits that everyone will be able to say, ‘Oh yeah, I remember that one,’ or ‘That was my favorite song,’ or whatever it is.”
This year’s Springfest is not the first time Boston-based Passion Pit has performed at Northeastern. Frankenberg said he caught their show when the band’s members were still college students.
“My freshman year we had them in afterHOURS before anyone knew who they were,” he said. “They were actually an opening act in afterHOURS. So it’s really cool to see them four years later become this popular that they can be one of the co-headliners for Springfest. I’m really excited about that.”
Students can purchase Springfest tickets through the myNEU portal starting March 29 at 9:30 p.m.
