On April 25, students flocked to the Main Green for an afternoon of food trucks, flashing stage lights and live music. Hosted by the Brown Concert Agency, the annual Spring Weekend festival — a one-day event since 2024 — showcased a variety of acts ranging from synth-pop to retro-soul.
While underwhelming at times, performances by Isabella Lovestory, BunnaB, Magdalena Bay and Thee Sacred Souls were ultimately enough to keep students engaged.
Isabella Lovestory brought the energy — Brown didn’t
While the crowd slowly grew throughout the course of the day, one thing was clear during the festival’s first act: Isabella Lovestory was bringing the energy — Brown students were not.
Lovestory started her set with “Vanity Intro,” the opening track from her 2025 record, “Vanity.” For students unfamiliar with the Honduran pop and reggaeton artist, the song provided a fitting introduction, with Lovestory singing, “Mirror, mirror on the wall (Uh-huh) / Who’s the fairest of them all? / Isa-Isabella Lovestory, baby.”
With hot pink tights and a pulsating bass, Lovestory’s set was an energetic start to the day — yet only a fraction of the campus was there to witness it. In past years, openers have watched as students fervently pushed their way through a crowd to reach the stage’s barricade. This year, fans could casually walk across the green to claim a front-row spot.
But Lovestory gave it her all. While a bit out of breath during her intermittent twerking breaks, the artist was visibly excited to be on campus — a refreshing sight given some of last year’s lackluster performances.
“Oh my god, I love you Brown University,” Lovestory shouted. “It feels amazing to be in front of such geniuses — you all are so smart it’s crazy.”
While at first comical, the stark contrast between Lovestory’s energy and the crowd’s apathy soon made her crowd engagement feel more awkward than energizing. Moments that could have elicited cheers were typically only met with a few uninspired shouts. When Lovestory said she “heard that Brown has very, very, very important pussies,” for one, the enthusiasm on the Green barely exceeded that of a middle school dance.
Had there been a more active crowd, Lovestory’s set would’ve been a strong opener — her spirited rapping in “Vuelta,” the invigorating beat of “Mariposa” and her “shoutout to doing homework” were all quite entertaining. Still, when asked to “make some noise for Isabella Lovestory” at the end of the artist’s set, Brown stayed quiet.
BunnaB’s performance was more karaoke than concert
Students continued to trickle onto the Main Green for the second act. After a brief compilation of songs by the DJ, BunnaB finally rolled onto the stage in a wheelchair to a not-so-warm welcome. One couldn’t help but feel bad for the singer, who was dealt a bad hand with an injury and an uninterested crowd.
As students strained to see BunnaB, who switched to a knee-scooter midway through, the set felt more like karaoke than a festival performance. To add insult to literal injury, the artist was wearing a t-shirt and light jacket — the students on the green were more dressed to perform than she was.
For most of the performance, BunnaB rolled around the stage singing along to her biggest TikTok hits, including “Bunna Summa” and “Innit.” But little could be done to engage the audience who only knew snippets of the music from short-form content.
Perhaps the most audience interaction arose when BunnaB and her DJ split the audience for a call-and-response competition, asking the left side of the barricade to yell “ah-da-da-da” and the right side to respond with “ice cream girl” — both repeated motifs in BunnaB’s music. After two unsuccessful attempts to rally the crowd, both performers onstage insisted their side’s pitiful response was louder and moved on.
Magdalena Bay was satisfyingly psychedelic
Just before 5 p.m., as the steady stream of Spring Weekend attendees began to plateau, alternative pop duo Magdalena Bay took to the Main Green stage. The duo, which consists of Mica Tenenbaum and Matthew Lewin, filled the stage with energy that cascaded throughout the Main Green, with vocals that felt almost psychedelic.
Dedicated fans, sporting light-blue face makeup referencing Tenenbaum’s trademark performance look, dotted the crowd and flooded the barricade. The duo made the most of their wardrobe, with Tenenbaum frequently leaving stage in one dazzling outfit only to return moments later in another.
The set featured a series of trippy, sci-fi graphics — including many eyeballs — streamed across the stage’s large screens. While the graphics offered a fun alternative for those who couldn’t view the stage, a mix of visuals and closeups of the performers would have made for a fuller experience.
While their performances of “Death & Romance” and “Image” were imbued with a hypnotic energy, crowds were left wanting more — especially because they didn’t play one of their most popular songs, “Killshot.”
Thee Sacred Souls closed out the day with some smooth R&B
At around 6 p.m. under overcast skies, R&B band Thee Sacred Souls stepped onstage to headline this year’s Spring Weekend. Together, lead vocalist Josh Lane, drummer Alejandro Garcia and bassist Salvador Samano took to the stage under colorful lights and fog.
Energy was at a high after Magdalena Bay’s performance as students streamed onto the Main Green for the day's finale. The set itself consisted of a mix of older and newer songs, which kept the audience both amped during fan favorites and engaged during recent releases.
Lane carried the momentum into renditions of “Live For You,” “Any Old Fool” and the band’s most popular song “Will I See You Again?” Although the smooth music was less suited for a hype outdoor concert, Lane found his way down to the center aisle, giving high fives to students and climbing up onto the barriers in an attempt to keep the crowd pumped up.
Before jumping into their 2020 song “Give Us Justice,” Lane took a moment to recognize ongoing conflicts across the globe. He talked about feeling both sadness and joy, and how Brown students are finding their own paths in this world.
Perhaps the most energetic part of their set found Lane shouting out each grade level, asking for the first-years, sophomores, juniors and seniors to cheer for their class years before asking for each side of the crowd to cheer louder than the other.
This call and response was echoed in Thee Sacred Souls’ final song, when Lane pointed to the crowd to sing the opening line of the band’s popular hit “Can I Call You Rose?” While the headline performance wasn’t chock-full of upbeat bangers, the smooth soul and R&B performances of Thee Sacred Souls still left students swaying from side to side and waving their arms to the beat.
Alice Xie is a section editor for Science and Research from Los Angeles, California. She studies Applied Mathematics and Biology, and enjoys reading gut wrenching literature in her free time.
Ann Gray Golpira is a Section Editor covering Arts & Culture. She is from Norfolk, Virginia and plans on concentrating in both International and Public Affairs and Anthropology. Outside of The Herald, you can find her writing, recording and producing her original music.
Talia LeVine is a section editor covering arts and culture. They study Political Science and Visual Art with a focus on photography. In their free time, they can be found drinking copious amounts of coffee.
Ian Ritter is a university news and science & research editor, covering graduate schools and students. He is a junior concentrating in chemistry. When he isn’t at The Herald or exploding lab experiments, you can find him playing the clarinet or watching the Mets.
