The first in-person OzFest in three years unfolds throughout the afternoon of Friday, May 6, and into the night with a variety of free campus activities and a picnic culminating in a evening concert headlined by Ari Lennox.
Sponsored by the Student Association Programming Board (SAPB), activities start at noon with free offerings including a number of inflatable games and challenges, including Axe Throwing, Defender Dome, UFO Laser Tag, the Iron Man Obstacle Course and the rideable Mechanical Shark. In addition, attendees can enjoy music, three caricaturists, one henna tattoo artist, a custom street sign station and the ever-popular build-a-buddy. Between weather and the pandemic, this will be the first time in several years the carnival has been able to be hosted outside, organizers said, with most activities taking place adjacent to Marano Campus Center.
SAPB will table during the daytime activities and give away free OzFest t-shirts (while supplies last) to any student who shows proof of concert ticket purchase.
Auxiliary Services will offer a free campus picnic from 4 to 6 p.m. in the lot between Marano Campus Center and Penfield Library, as well as carnival food from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. in the Marano Campus Center food and activity court.
In the evening, Lennox, B-Lovee and Angelo Mota will appear in concert, starting at 7 p.m. in the Deborah F. Stanley Arena and Convocation Hall. Tickets are available via tickets.oswego.edu and at campus box offices at the $20 day-of-show rate.
Lennox broke out in 2019 with her debut album “Shea Butter Baby.” The D.C.-born singer-songwriter scored a platinum single with the record’s title track, and the video, also featuring Dreamville label head and marquee artist J. Cole, surpassed 50 million views on YouTube alone. The whole album surpassed one million global streams with additional singles "Up Late" and "BMO," and was a top 10 hit on the Billboard R&B chart.
After the sold-out Shea Butter Baby Tour, before joining Lizzo's Cuz I Love You Too Tour, Lennox earned three Soul Train Award nominations, two NAACP Award nominations and a Grammy nomination (the latter for her contribution on Dreamville's album, “Revenge of the Dreamers III”). Lennox’s follow-up single "Pressure," featuring a video that scored more than one million views within 24 hours, was a #1 record at Adult R&B Radio, a Billboard Hot 100 entry and made the top 10 at Urban Radio, accumulating over 74 million streams.
A self-taught artist, Mota is known for attention-grabbing production, gripping visuals and melodic tone. His three albums and three self-directed music videos also come with a message, as Mota weaves his journey with paranoia, depression and anxiety throughout his work. His biggest track to date, “Madonna,'' garnered over three million plays and climbed high across streaming outlets, and he landed on July’s cover of Spotify’s Fresh Finds: Hip Hop playlist and reached the number one spot on Spotify’s Anti-Pop playlist twice with “ICHM” and ”Madonna.”
Maryland-based rapper B-Lovee scored one of the songs of summer 2021 when “IYKYK” achieved five million streams in a little over a month. His follow-up “Neaky” scored more than a million views in its first week. He grew up in a West Indian family in the South Bronx’s Andrew Jackson Houses, where he used music as his escape, and his six-track EP “Cortlandt Baby” references the projects-filled neighborhood. The hard work paid off with RECORDS/Columbia Records recently signing the up-and-coming artist.
During the concert, SAPB will host a 360-degree photo booth for the arena floor so students can get pictures of themselves and their friends with the concert behind them.
For more information, email SAPB at sapb@oswego.edu or Campus Life at campuslife@oswego.edu.