The Bloomsburg Fair hosted big name concerts in their Weis Markets Grandstand including; Ludacris, Third Eye Blind and Styx. Many students were shocked to see highly listened to artists on the concert lineup. Owen Amato, a sophomore Bloomsburg student, states “I thought Bloomsburg was just a small town in the middle of nowhere, and seeing these big artists come and play felt like an honor.”
Ludacris played on Wednesday, Sept. 24. The hip-hop star is mainly known for his features. With 266,780,630 listens on Spotify, “Tonight (I’m F***in’ You)” sits at Ludacris’s most popular featured song. Other hits of his include his solo songs “Act A Fool” and “My Chick Bad”. As well as his features on Usher’s “Yeah!” and Fergie’s “Glamorous”. Opening for Ludacris was DJ Infamous. Reviews online say they put on a great show at an affordable price. At the show, Ludacris performed popular songs “Yeah!” and “Baby”.
The Alternative rock band, Third Eye Blind, headlined on Thursday, Sept. 25. Their most listened to song, “Semi-Charmed Life”, has 644,268,088 listens on Spotify; they also performed this at the concert. Their opener was the rock band, New Medicine, who played their top song “Fire Up the Night”. Hits from Third Eye Blind also include, “How’s It Going To Be” and “Jumper”. They played other popular songs such as “Losing a whole year” and as a surprise “God of Wine”. Theo Lemons, a junior Bloomsburg student says, “I thought they were good, and I liked hearing all the songs I had never heard before.”
On Friday, Sept. 26, Styx took stage. Their most popular songs include “Renegade”, which has 245,010,043 listens on Spotify, and “Come Sail Away”; both of which they played at their concert. Matthew Hanshaw, a junior, claims “The fact that Styx cane out here was unexpected to say the least,” he continues by saying “I grew up listening to Styx, and they were better than I imagined they could be live.”
The diversity in performances at the grandstand brought many different fans together, which brought more attention to live music. Students were also enlightened to see a miscellaneous mix of musicians. Tommy Kovachetz, a senior student claims “I really liked how diverse they were this year. They Included artists that weren’t typical to the fair and the area, like Ludacris, and I thought it was a great inclusion.”
