On Saturday, thousands of Brunonians surged onto the Main Green for the annual Spring Weekend music festival. Now 75 years since the campus tradition’s conception, this year’s one-day festival featured performances by Zack Fox, Ravyn Lenae, JT and headliner Offset. But with its intermittent rain, long lines and sweaty mosh pit, was Spring Weekend 2025 really worth it?
Zack Fox: Comedic, yet lengthy
While the show officially kicked off with tunes from the Undertow Brass Band on the Main Green, rapper and DJ Zack Fox was the first act to take the Spring Weekend stage. Fox is primarily known as a comedian and actor — particularly for his role in “Abbott Elementary.”
Fox opened his set by promising the crowd that his music would keep spirits high. His energy was contagious, invigorating an audience that was weary after a long wait to enter the concert. Accompanied by shouts of “don’t stop,” a variety of strobe lights and fog effects cloaked the stage as Fox strove to get students “amped.”
Remixes of Whitney Houston’s “I Have Nothing,” Amerie’s “1 Thing” and Mary J. Blige’s “Just Fine” kept the crowd dancing. Echoes, reverbs and filters created variations of beloved songs met with cheers and chants from an audience of energized students.
But Fox’s set only provided the energy he promised during the first and last few minutes of his hourlong performance. Song lyrics were often skipped over, leaving the crowd singing to nothing, and prolonged periods of only drum and bass sounds had many students wanting more.
While Fox’s set included fun remixes like Quad City DJ’s “Space Jam,” the use of lengthy interludes — consisting of nothing but a beat and flashing lights — made the music feel more appropriate for a nighttime show rather than an opening performance at around 2 p.m.
During his last few remixes, Fox intermittently paused the music to shout to the crowd, yelling things like “Stay in your classes!” and “Go home and say thank you to your auntie!” But more consistent interaction with concertgoers throughout the set would have kept the audience engaged — especially with all of Fox’s lulls.
The end of the performance saw Fox jumping up and down and speaking directly to the audience, a notable shift from his previous setup behind the DJ booth. These interactions had students cheering and laughing — a shift in energy that was noticeably missing during the middle of Fox’s set — and readied the audience for the next performer: Ravyn Lenae.
Ravyn Lenae: Ethereal and emotional
Amid a sea of orange and yellow lights, Chicago-based singer-songwriter Ravyn Lenae took to the stage. With smooth, resonant vocals and a memorable stage presence, the R&B artist left audience members grooving all over the Main Green.
At just 26 years old, Lenae has already released several solo EPs as well as her 2022 debut album, “Hypnos.” During her Spring Weekend set, she played a mixture of older hits alongside melodies from her 2024 album, “Bird’s Eye.”
Concertgoers waved their hands in time with Lenae’s captivating melodies, enthusiastically cheering during the singer’s vocal breaks. With dreamy videos of oceans, sunsets and galaxies playing on the screen above her, Lenae effortlessly alternated between alto and soprano octaves to illustrate the extent of her impressive vocal range.
Towards the middle of her set, Lenae took a moment to talk the audience through her writing process. She recalled writing “Bird’s Eye” during a time where she was “questioning her worth in this world, friendships and relationships.”
Lenae later went on to discuss her song “One Wish,” telling concertgoers the story of when her father failed to show up to her 10th birthday party. She told audience members that she remembered the moment “viscerally,” but that writing the song has since sparked a number of “difficult but really good conversations” with her father.
Her vulnerability and music made for an enthralling combination, with students jumping up and down during Lenae’s performance of “Genius,” another hit song off of “Bird’s Eye.”
Lenae finished her set with a rendition of “Love Me Not,” from the same album. The viral song — having amassed over 122 million streams on Spotify as of late April — received an enthusiastic response from the crowd. Lenae’s passionate finale truly illustrated her remarkable stage presence. Her performance was just what Spring Weekend needed to keep spirits high and left concertgoers cheering and dancing until the very last beat.
JT: More dancing than rapping
By this point in the evening, it seemed like a fight was just about to break out in the crowd. Concertgoers located in the center pit were pushing each other in an effort to be closer to JT and, later, Offset. But when JT’s personal DJ came out to hype her up, the energy bubble seemed about ready to burst. This was theoretically the perfect environment for a DJ: thousands of students eager to mosh and dance. Instead, his 45-minute set just left concertgoers thinking, “Okay … but where’s JT?”
Her arrival onstage — flanked by two backup dancers, all three of them adorned in pastel corsets with flowing skirts and sleeves — was marked by a cloud of stage smoke. The tired, cold and damp crowd possesed nothing but excitement for the former City Girls rapper.
But overall, JT’s performance was a mixed bag. She and her dancers spent the majority of the set either on the ground or upside down. Truthfully, there was very little rapping to be found. That’s not a knock on the dancing — all three women excelled on that front.
Most of JT’s popular songs, including “OKAY” and her collaboration with former Spring Weekend performer Doechii on “Alter Ego,” were just played over the speakers, with the audience doing the heavy lifting. And while there were some attempts at crowd work, including an abandoned twerk contest and some flubbed audience rapping, it was hard to overlook the lack of vocal presence from someone whose songs are so audibly powerful and lyrically creative.
What really redeemed JT’s performance was her stage presence. Whether she was dancing or laughing off a missed cue, it was hard to look away. Even when she made fun of students for not knowing the lyrics to “Ran Out,” another one of her more popular songs, she was arguably the most personable of the day’s performers. In the middle of a six-hour daytime concert, with your feet squelching in the mud and being surrounded by the smell of sweat combined with weed and the occasional fart, that’s got to be worth something.
Offset: Going out with a bang
In the history of concerts — especially rap concerts — how many of them have started the show on time? The number might be in the single digits, but it includes former Migos member Offset’s performance on Saturday. After JT, there was just the right amount of time for the crowd to settle in. Energy was still high, and Offset seemed to capitalize on that momentum by performing his newer solo songs first before moving to his well-known Migos hits. Admittedly, similar to JT, Offset didn’t rap very consistently and at times, relied on a backing track — made painfully obvious when he spoke with his DJ on stage, during the performance. Even so, Offset’s talent was evident when he did truly perform on his own. All of his songs were clean, even when the crowd wasn’t fully engaged in his solo tracks and features.
In the middle of his set, Offset gave a tribute to Takeoff — a member of Migos who passed away in 2022 — by performing Migos hits “Fight Night,” “Walk It Talk It” and “Narcos.” Yet all these songs were brief, largely carried by audience participation and energy, which Offset and his DJ somewhat acknowledged by saying “no more of that Migos shit” before transitioning back to Offset’s solo music.
Throughout most of his set, though, it honestly seemed like Offset didn’t want to be there. That is, until the set began to come to a close. When he performed “Ric Flair Drip” and “Bad and Boujee,” the atmosphere completely changed. He rapped the songs while propped up by his security guard, entering and floating above the crowd — even filming on student’s phones as they rapped with him.
It felt like the whole set was designed for “Bad and Boujee” — and it worked. For all the confusing, lackluster parts of the set, that single song made up for it. And even though it wasn’t the end of the concert — the final act saw the DJ playing “Slide” while Offset ran offstage — it’ll be the part people remember most.
Gabriella is a senior from Los Angeles, concentrating in English, Modern Culture and Media, and Literary Arts. If she’s not at the movies, you can find her coaching the Dodgers from her dorm, plotting her future Big Brother win or perfecting her chocolate chip cookie recipe.
