The Undergraduate Student Government’s annual Brookfest concert rocked Stony Brook University with performances by Cash Cash and Future. The concert was held in the Island Federal Credit Union Arena on Wednesday, April 13 and was a success among students.
This year’s concert was highly anticipated and, according to the Facebook event page, sold out. Students tried to buy tickets off of each other in the weeks leading up to the concert to get a chance to go.
“This is great,” Dan Comber, a freshman mechanical engineering major, said. “I’ve never seen so many people out from Stony Brook.”
Student artist Justin Starling, or JUS, opened the show and got the crowd ready for Cash Cash.
“I think the performance went well,” Starling said. “I saw some students in the crowd who had a really good time and kept my energy high while I was on stage.”
JUS preformed some of his original songs, a number of remixes and an unreleased song titled “I Like the Sound of It.”
The student artist was accompanied by DJ Slim and the band Nice Shot, Kid.
“I usually perform solo, so this show’s preparation was different since I had to meet with the band and DJ for rehearsal,” Starling said.
JUS received positive reactions from the crowd and got them ready for the highly anticipated acts that followed him.
“I went last year but this is the first year we sold out all the tickets,” Angelica Husni, the USG sophomore class senator, said. “This is the first year that you heard people complaining that they didn’t get a ticket, so it’s nice to see the community come together like this.”
Cash Cash performed a mix of their hit songs, including “Take Me Home.” They sprayed the crowd with water during their performances and got the audience riled up with their electronic dance music.
“This concert went very smooth,” Brody Hooper, the USG vice president of communications and public relations for USG, said. “The sound was great and reached parts of the arena that people were complaining didn’t have sound last time. It was instantly gratifying to see all of our hard work come alive.”
“There were a few hiccups mostly between USG and security,” Hooper added, referring to the issues with letting student media into the pit. “The only unplanned events were some demands by Future that were not in his original contract. We worked around them and made them happy.”
The concert also featured its own geofilters that were available on Snapchat for students to use if they took a picture at the event.
“Cash Cash asked me about them, as they even used them on their story,” Hooper said.
Students really enjoyed the concert, including Jayquel Williams, a junior health science major, who said he tries to go to all of the concerts held by USG.
“Every single year, every single semester, I love it,” Williams said. “I came out to Childish [Gambino] and it was so lit, so I just come every time.”
After a brief intermission, Future took the stage to close out the night. The Atlanta-based hip-hop artist preformed many of his hits, including “Jumpman,” “Move that Dope,” “Diamonds Dancing” and “Purple Reign.”
“My ears are still ringing from the deafening cheers from last night,” Cole Lee, the president of USG, said.
Future performed his songs with the crowd of Stony Brook students dancing and singing along. At one point, he even got off the stage and went up to the front of the floor section during one of his performances.
Students had a great response to the concert overall.
“I love Future, I’m going to name my kid Future,” Kojo Tabiri, a junior psychology major, said.
The night came to a close as a success.
“Seeing people line up since 2 p.m., watching the sold-out arena fill in and then looking around at the expressions of joy and excitement on everyone’s faces — that is what Brookfest is all about,” Lee said.
“It’s a night that students look forward to,” Lee added, “where we set aside whatever we’re going through for just a few hours to come together and forge memories that will last us a lifetime.”
Correction: April 17, 2016
A previous version of this story erroneously reported the name of one of the songs that Future performed at Brookfest. The title of the song is “Jumpman,” not “If Young Metro Don’t Trust You.”