The line up for Music Fest presented by Hofstra Concerts features headliner, Ski Mask The Slump God. // Photo courtesy of Hofstra Concerts.
Music Fest 2023 is officially back at Hofstra, after a disappointing cancellation due to weather in April of this year. This year’s Music Fest will be on Friday, Oct. 20, and is headlined by rapper Ski Mask The Slump God, with special guest rapper cupcakke. The concert will also feature femdot. and OfficialX and the Nice Guys. The lineup this year is the same as what April’s would have been, besides the inclusion of femdot. instead of OMB Peezy.
Students were thrilled for Music Fest last year, and when the cancellation occurred, students were rightfully upset. Katie Rogers, a senior and president of Hofstra Concerts explained the events of the day and how their team quickly got to work on how to right this wrong.
“Morning of, I made the executive decision as soon as possible,” Rogers said. “I said if we have the opportunity toreschedule this and do this right, let’s do it immediately and cancel it as early on as possible, so that it’s not like [four or five] o’clock and people are still asking questions. The rain wasn’t looking like it was dying down whatsoever, and I worked with administration, and they said yes, we would be able to reschedule it.”
This year’s Music Fest has a different feel to it as well, as this will be the first indoor concert put on by Hofstra in quite some time. Typically, you’d see carnival rides, games and more at these festivals. Despite the change in venue, Hofstra is ready for the fresh look and hopes to deliver at the arena within the David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex.
“This is going to be the first concert that we’ve done in the arena in a really long time,” Rogers said. “We have done them before; some of them in the playhouse, some of them in the arena. I think administration at Hofstra was also worried about eating more costs, so it was a good move to push it inside, and we have no issues with capacity and accommodating pretty much the entire student body of whoever wants to go.”
Coming out of Fall Fest on Sept. 30, Hofstra is looking to put on another entertaining night for their students.
“I enjoyed Fall Fest,” said Tom Norman, a sophomore journalism major. “I thought it was a nice event, and it was a great way to let students just have fun, and it’s always nice to have a free concert. It’s great to have another concert to look forward to.”
Both Ski Mask and cupcakKe are well-known musicians when it comes to the collegiate demographic, with both artists leaving students excited for their performances.
“I’m very excited for the headlines for Music Fest,” Norman said. “I personally like Ski Mask’s music a lot, and I think that he is a very good fit for a college campus – same thing for cupcakKe. I feel like for a cupcakKe concert, a college campus is the ideal environment because that is kind of her target audience.”
“Ski Mask and cupcakKe are going to be a very interesting combination,” said Ryan Monke, a sophomore journalism major. “I think cupcakKe’s performance is going to be very wild. I’m excited.”
Thankfully for Hofstra Concerts, they had no trouble in getting their original top performers to come to Hempstead and perform. In fact, that was a top priority for the administration.
“That was the best thing of, like, if we put this on, we need at least Ski [Mask] and cupcakKe to come back together, so we worked around their availability and their scheduling in order to find a date that was mutual for them to do,” Rogers explained. “Unfortunately, OMB [Peezy], our original opener, wasn’t available, so femdot. stepped in and will be the opener instead.”
Despite the excitement of there being another event to go to here at Hofstra, Hofstra Concerts received some backlash for not announcing their lineup well ahead of time. Music Fest announced their lineup on Sunday, Oct. 1, and Hofstra announced their Fall Fest headliners on May 15. With this late announcement, students may have already made plans for that weekend already.
“I think it’s a little weird that they didn’t say who the headliners were,” Norman said. “I guess it was used to help build some hype around the event, so I kind of get why, but at the end of the day, I kind of had a feeling it would be the same guests anyway. But it was definitely a little strange from an outsiders’ perspective that they didn’t tell anyone who the headliners were going to be.”
“We’re not allowed to announce anything until our contracts are signed, and the legal department definitely has to spend some time reviewing them, so we weren’t able to announce it until recently just because our contracts weren’t finalized yet,” Rogers said.
On the day of the festival, Hofstra’s student room record label, CIV, is scheduled for 7 p.m., OfficialX & the Nice Guys for 7:45 p.m., femdot. for 8:15 p.m., cupcakKe for 9 p.m. and Ski Mask The Slump God, the show’s closer, for 10 p.m.
At Music Fest, there will be standing room for general admission along with available seating. Guest tickets will be available to buy until Friday, Oct. 13.
