On Monday, March 18, at 8 p.m., the Social Planning and Events Committee (SPEC) released the lineup for the 2019 Spring Fling Concert: Miguel and J.I.D.
The main concert will take place in Penn Park at 3000 Walnut Street on Saturday, April 13 from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Earlier in the day, there will be performances by Penn student groups.
The announcement of the performers came Monday, Mar. 18, at 8 p.m. The first 50 students in line got a chance to pull slips of paper out of a bowl. The people who chose the correct two artists won two free tickets to the concert.
Miguel is an American R&B singer whose hits include “Adorn” and “Sure Thing." Pitchfork said that his album War and Leisure “has a kinetic sexual and political energy.” He has been active in the music industry since 2000; War and Leisure came out in December 2017.
J.I.D, born Destin Choice Route, is a rapper from Atlanta known for his song "151 Rum." His second studio album, DiCaprio 2, was released in November 2018.
Helen Zhang, (C’21), Jasmine Henry (C, W ‘20), and Michael Gigante (E ‘19), SPEC Concerts co–directors, explained that the selection process starts out with contacting agencies and looking for acts within their price range. Jasmine said that the idea for pulling names out of the bowl came from a "very stressful 20 minutes" of brainstorming rollout ideas. When SPEC representatives projected a photo of Miguel and J.I.D on the wall, students who had pulled those names came forward to receive their free tickets.
Last year’s lineup, Street announced, featured CupcakKe, Sage the Gemini, JoJo, and The All–American Rejects. The concert, held on Saturday, April 14, was positively reviewed in Street last year, despite the increase to four headliners from the usual one.
In addition, 2018 was the first year in 44 years of Spring Fling that the day’s programming was held in Penn Park instead of the Quad. Alumni reflected on Fling’s Quad heyday in a Street feature last year, recounting raucous drinking in the Quad, performances from A Tribe Called Quest, and laundry carts filled with smuggled alcohol. Many alumni expressed concerns about the move to Penn Park impacting the social experience.
Tickets for the 2019 concert will go on sale Tuesday, March 19, at 11 a.m., both on Locust Walk and online.
Street will update this article as we obtain more information.
