PARTYNEXTDOOR, a world-famous R&B artist, and rapper Erica Banks performed in the Grove on Saturday for the University of Mississippi’s annual spring concert.
Executive Director of the Students Activities Association and senior Caroline Parnell said that SAA, the sponsor of the concert, changes the genre every year to cater to as many students as possible.
Last year’s spring concert was headlined by country music artist Riley Green, so this year the organization chose R&B and rap artists.
“What made this year’s spring concert unique was that it brought in not only Ole Miss students, but the Lafayette and Oxford community along with students from other schools as well,” Parnell said.
Emmaline Schild, director of homecoming for SAA and senior at Ole Miss, said that the ultimate goal of SAA is “to promote unity and make others proud of the Ole Miss community.”
“We want to make sure all of the students feel like they have a place here, so we feel like switching the genre for the spring concert each year will cater to more students,” Schild said. “Our job is to bring unity and spirit to the campus and this is just one of the ways that we try to do that.”
Kaylyn Steen, a junior at UM, said that this was her first time attending the spring concert. When PND was announced to perform in the Grove this year, she was so excited she “was literally counting down.”
“It was just kind of surreal to have such a big artist literally in the Grove,” Steen said.
While the spring concert has hosted rap and R&B artists before, Nelly in 2014 and Gucci Mane in 2017 before the concert was canceled due to weather, the genres remain underrepresented at free concerts in Oxford.
Steen shared her perspective.
“I personally have been frustrated with the lack of diversity in entertainment, not just at the university, but in Oxford, period,” Steen said. “This concert meant a lot to me as a Black student to see a Black artist as the headliner.”
Manuel Campbell, senior at Ole Miss, thought that it was an inclusive act to bring in artists that “have fan bases of populations of underrepresented groups on campus.”
“The nature of the choices for the artists elicited a more diverse crowd and allowed for us to see more of the diversity of the campus,” Campbell said. “I knew a good number of Black students who attended. Additionally, I saw a number of my friends that were from other backgrounds, including Vietnamese and Korean, as well as some international/exchange students at the university.”
Campbell said that the turnout of the concert was about the size that he expected to show up.
“There were a good number of people who said they knew who PND or Erica Banks were and also a good number who said they didn’t,” he said. “There were also a few that knew songs by the artists but just couldn’t put a face to the name. Based on this, I reasoned that it’d be a pretty decent size from actual fans, people who heard of them and people who were just curious.”
Campbell also noted his hope for more events that highlight diversity and inclusivity.
“The importance of this event to me lies in tapping into the interests of the diverse student body here at the university and actually doing things they enjoy,” Campbell said. “More than any other inclusive event, this one truly made me feel like I was a part of the Ole Miss family and had a community here. I hope that such events continue to occur and become commonplace.”
