On April 18, 2026, Macalester College Program Board held their annual Springfest celebration. Due to an inclement weather forecast, the event was held in the Leonard Center (LC), though was actually rather sunny. The event featured games, crafts, food trucks and, of course, lots of live music.

Arguably, the best part of Springfest was the game “Bring Home the Bacon,” in which seven mechanical pigs raced and stopped at random. Some students even placed bets on which pig could reach the finish line first. The LC should consider keeping “Bring Home the Bacon” available full time.

The evening began with a performance by Sergeant Dan. The band was formed by five students from different colleges who met while studying abroad in Scotland. Thanks to band member Martin Bernsten ’26 and the Program Board, Sergeant Dan was finally able to reunite at Macalester for the first time since spring 2025.

Sergeant Dan played a wide variety of original songs and covers. Their renditions of “Dancing in the Moonlight” by King Harvest and “This Love” by Maroon Five energized the slowly-building crowd. They also nailed “King of Swing” by Dire Straits, and even put their spin on The Beatles’ “Don’t Let Me Down.”

After a brief intermission, DJ Pyrx (Gabe Guerrero ’28) took to the stage and kept the audience dancing with smooth mashups of reggaeton, pop and beloved 2010’s hits. By the end of his set, the LC felt less like a gymnasium and more like a club.

The next set was performed by TisaKorean, a rapper from Houston, notably not Korea. TisaKorean excited the crowd by bringing Mac students onto the stage and having them sing with him. The music was energetic and loud, making it easy to dance to. Some of the dancing students may have even been hitting the Dip and/or the Whoa, moves that were popularized by TisaKorean in his 2018 breakthrough song, “Dip.” The set felt fun and light, and I’m sure many in the audience could relate to the lyrics of his song “White Boy Wasted.”

The night’s headliner was ZEDDY WILL, who took a break from opening for DaBaby’s “Be More Grateful” tour to grace Macalester with his presence. The star boasts 1.8 million followers on Instagram and nearly 5 million monthly Spotify listeners, and this set featured his classics: his take on the Cha-Cha Slide (“Cha Cha”), his song about strutting (“Strut”) and what we can only assume stands for a cross between pussy and Gucci (“Pucci”), unless he’s referencing penis-Gucci.

ZEDDY WILL also incorporated audience participation, inviting any interested female students to come onstage and “shake [their] ass.” Six to eight obliged. He spent much of the performance in the crowd, and when his aforementioned hit “Strut” came on, he led the crowd to strut their way to the bouncy house at the other end of the fieldhouse.

The pilgrimage was ill-fated: after getting into the bouncy house, and inviting the crowd to join him (with disappointment at the lack of interest from the fairer sex: “Why so many men in the bouncy house? We need some ladies!”), it seemed Public Safety told him it was time to return to the flat, boring land of the bounceless.

Back by the stage, ZEDDY WILL closed the set with some crowdpleasers, lip-syncing along to various Drake and Nicki Minaj favorites. We were particularly charmed by the hype team livestreaming the performance — you can even find a clip of ZEDDY’s bouncy house bonanza at @ysowalker on Instagram.

ZEDDY WILL-induced embarrassment aside, this year’s Springfest proved a much needed break from the finals season grind. What the festival lacked in vitamin D, it made up for with sick beats and good vibes.

• [email protected]

• [email protected]

• [email protected]