Glass Animals to headline 2018 Springfest concert

USC Concerts Committee announced Wednesday that indie rock band Glass Animals will headline Springfest 2018 this Saturday. Rappers Playboi Carti and Sheck Wes will be the openers for the show.

Glass Animals is best known for their song “Gooey,” which has garnered more than 116 million plays on Spotify.  The group’s four members met in secondary school in Oxford, England, and formed the band in 2010 during college. They released their first album, ZABA, in 2014, and their most recent album, How to Be a Human Being, in 2016.

“After hearing student feedback, we brought a band as headliner to make sure all USC students felt heard,” Concerts Committee co-director Tufan Nadjafi said in an email to the Daily Trojan.

2017’s Springfest resulted in a shutdown before the headlining rapper duo Rae Sremmurd performed due to overcrowding and security concerns. The University has set new safety measures in place for this year’s event.

“We have additional officers specifically assigned to Springfest who will just work the event,” Assistant DPS Chief David Carlisle said. “LAPD is assigning 10 officers to work at the event and around USC.”

Students are also now required to pre-register for the event and will not be allowed to bring outside guests.

Carlisle also said DPS will close the campus perimeter at 8 p.m. instead of 9 p.m. to ensure they can regulate the crowd coming into the show, and that they will have twice as many officers at the event as last year, in addition to the normal number of officers patrolling campus.

Concerts Committee also announced Tuesday that Playboi Carti and Sheck Wes would be opening Saturday’s concert.

Playboi Carti’s two most played songs include “Magnolia” and “wokeuplikethis*.” The rapper was also featured on Lana Del Rey’s song “Summer Bummer” alongside A$AP Rocky.

“Playboi Carti came off of a strong 2017 and is set to continue his success with a new album dropping in the very near future,” Nadjafi said. 

Nineteen-year-old rapper Sheck Wes started on SoundCloud, but was recently signed in a joint record deal with Kanye West and Travis Scott’s records under the label Interscope. Wes grew up moving between Milwaukee and New York City, and describes himself as a “mudboy,” a reference to his humble start in music. MUDBOY is also the title of Wes’ upcoming musical project.

“We strongly believe Sheck Wes, who recently signed to Travis Scott’s imprint under Interscope, has the potential to be a huge artist,” Nadjafi said.

Springfest 2018 will take place Saturday at 5 p.m. on McCarthy Quad and is free for all USC students.

Tomás Mier contributed to this report.