Sammy Adams was announced as the Springfest 2014 performer at the Student Activities Board (SAB) “Artist Reveal” event, which took place on the Rebecca Stafford Student Center patio on Wednesday, April 2.
“We chose Sammy Adams, in my opinion, because we felt like it was time to change things up this year. Sammy Adams is the perfect performer for the college setting and he will definitely put on a fun and upbeat show,” said Tom Egan, sophomore and SAB concerts chair. “Plus he has been one of my favorite artists for the past five years now. My personal expectations for Springfest this year are pretty high. We have one of the best Springfest performers Monmouth has ever had and the concert alone will be one for the books,” he continued.
According to the MTV website, Sammy Adams is a cross between shwayze-like beats, the caustic attitude of Ke$ha and a tough version of suburban rap. Adams first gained recognition in 2009 as a senior in college, when he remixed Asher Roth’s hit song “I Love College.” In 2010, the rapper became an internet star when his debut album topped the iTunes hip-hop charts the first week of its release. After a short hiatus, he returned in 2013 with “Homecoming,” an album that officially changed his performing name from Sam Adams, to Sammy Adams, in order to avoid any confusion with the Boston-based brewing company.
Throughout the past week and a half, the SAB have been providing students with clues on a bright yellow banner such as, “Made music in college”, “Majored in poly-sci,” “1st Album in 2010” and “Had #1 on iTunes,” for students to try and guess who the artist was going to be before the reveal event.
During the artist reveal event 50 balloons were handed out to students which contained either a letter of the performer’s name, a “try again”, or a sad face. Once students had popped the balloons simultaneously, the ones that had a letter in their balloons were asked to come to the front of the patio and were handed big yellow letters from the artist’s name. The students were then asked to try and figure out the artist’s name as a group until they were able to spell out the name “Sammy Adams” side by side in a line.
“The students were so excited and eager for us to reveal the artist. The students eagerly popped the balloons and the ones with letters had to figure out what it spelled! It was so exciting to see the students eagerly guessing and then screaming from excitement! I couldn’t be more excited for Springfest especially after the reveal,” said Lucy Russo, senior and SAB vice president of major events. “If the artist reveal was any indication of Springfest, then we’re in for possibly one of the best Springfests throughout my four years at Monmouth,”
Immediatley following the artist reveal, a drawing took place for a meet and greet with Sammy Adams the day of Springfest.
After the event was over, Twitter was bombarded with feedback from students about the artist reveal event. “Can’t wait to see @SammyAdams at Springfest at Monmouth!” tweeted @Kate_Latkovich. Another tweet from @CourtMedina said, “Ahhhh!! I’m definitely going to Springfest this year @SammyAdams I’m so happy.” @Hannahsierraa also tweeted, “Sammy Adams is performing here for Spring Fest, just another reason my school > your school.”
Sammy Adams will be performing live on the main stage at Springfest, which will be taking place on the Shadow Lawn at 2 pm on May 5.
SAB advisor, Megan McGowan said, “I like that the students decided to plan this ‘build up’ event for Springfest. I hope it gets the campus excited to end the year strong and gets everyone excited to come out and support all of the great spring events that are coming up on campus.”
PHOTO TAKEN by Louis Garbarini
