By Hanifah Jones, Staff writer
Students enjoyed food, drinks and entertainment at Trax Nightclub when it hosted the Spring Fest on Saturday, April 23rd.
The Spring Fest lasted from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. and included a night of dinner and live music. The audience was treated to both student and professional acts. The lineup included: Abby Dawes, Maris DeWald, Rhineland, White Rice, Rob Barkley, JBØNAX, Tribe Ca$ino and HushMob.
Spring Fest was produced and maintained by Trax technology manager Jason Bonner, who also DJs and performed as JBØNAX at the event. “He sought out a range of different types of music from acoustic to alternative to hip hop. And there are some students and some outside,” said Beth Winger, the coordinator for the Office of Leadership and Engagement.
The event started out early, giving attendees time to get dinner before the performances began. The audience was treated to a fried chicken dinner with macaroni and cheese that was cooked by Winger herself.
As to why the event at Trax started earlier than most other Trax events Winger said, “[Spring Fest] is starting early from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. hoping that students will come have dinner with us and enjoy the music and still have time to do their pre-planned Spring Weekend activities.” said Winger.
Abby Dawes, a junior at Susquehanna and a manager at Trax, started off the show with her acoustic covers of songs like Drops of Jupiter by Train and many more. Next on the lineup was first-year Maris DeWald who performed, singing original songs that she wrote.
The next set was performed by Rhineland, an alternative band hailing from Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. After Rhineland, a student performed under the stage name White Rice.
Susquehanna alumnus Rob Barkley, who graduated in 2017, was the next performer. “Last night went very well,” said Barkley. “[It] Felt good to see my friends and people that I never met come together to enjoy my music”
Barkley began performing in high school, but credits Susquehanna for inspiring him to pursue rapping. “This is where I first started performing rap with ambition. I performed in high-school, but I didn’t really care about it I was just performing to impress people but when I got to college I started taking it more seriously, using it as an outlet to express my emotions.” said Barkley, “This is where I got the push to pursue my dream”.
Following Barkley’s performance, JBØNAX performed a set. After which Tribe Ca$ino, Susquehanna Senior Xavier Brooks, performed a few songs. The night concluded with a performance by hip-hop group Hush Mob.