Taylor Hawkins | Script Staff Writer
Hampton University’s annual homecoming concert has returned after three years on Oct. 20 in the Convocation Center. This event welcomed both students and non-students. This was a major event for Hampton University, as well as the Hampton Roads area.
For this year’s concert, artists Yung Bleu, Capella Gray, Iniko, and opener Sid Wells performed their biggest hits to amp up the crowd. Throughout Homecoming week students were lined up at the ticket booth in the student center waiting to get tickets.
The Onyx 12 class was the last class at Hampton University to experience an in-person concert and are excited to celebrate one last homecoming before graduation.
“It feels good to have the concert back and it gives me a chance to go out and enjoy my last homecoming and be with my peers because we don’t get to do that often,” said Jontaya Moore, senior journalism major, psychology minor.
Due to COVID-19 capacity regulations and vaccination requirements, the homecoming concert for 2020 and 2021 was unable to happen according to Calvin Harris, assistant director of student activities.
“I think the concert coming back is a return to normalcy. I think homecoming is a positive week and it’s full of good energy and good vibes so having the concert coming back is just adding back into that,” said Noah Hogan, senior journalism major with an area of emphasis in cinema studies.
This year’s concert was hard to plan but with the help of the administration, the student leadership program, the student government association, and the student survey that was sent out, the office of student activities were able to accomplish what every student has been waiting for according to Harris.
“A lot of artists were not traveling at the time, so this year it was most important that the concert returned and it was a great success in being able to pull this off. A lot of artists’ prices were very high and many of them had already committed to other events this year that might have been postponed from last year so they were already under some type of retainer or contract so we were very limited from when our university decided to move forward with what was out there,” said Harris.
It was challenging working with the artists’ schedules since it is festival season and also trying to guarantee certain artists that uphold the Hampton University brand was a challenge according to Harris.
Harris believes that this concert was much needed for the student body because it is a chance for students, especially freshmen who are getting off of curfew to let loose for the first time.
“The concert is always that kickoff moment of homecoming. Here at Hampton University we kind of start off homecoming week very formally, so it’s a great way to enter the homecoming weekend,” Harris said.
Administration and students have had some of their best homecoming experiences at the concert and plan to create many more.
“The concert that sticks out the most is when we had Lil Uzi Vert because he was a well-known artist that people wanted to see. The energy around the concert was really, really high and we had people coming from other schools to come to our homecoming which we don’t see all the time,” said Hogan.
With success in planning this year’s HUHC168 Elevation concert, the student activity office is looking forward to what is in store for Springfest 2023.
The Hampton Script 