2 Chainz, Desiigner, Lil Yachty to Headline 2017 SpringFest

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Lil Yachty, Desiigner and 2 Chainz have been announced as the joint headliners for SpringFest, University of Michigan’s annual lifestyle festival taking place on Friday, April 14. Put on each year by MUSIC Matters, a student-run non-profit started only six years ago, Springfest is an all-day festival featuring local entrepreneurs, artists, student organizations and more, and is capped off by a charity concert to end the night. In the past, MUSIC matters has brought artist including J. Cole, Ben Folds, Common and Migos to Ann Arbor, and donated more than 60 thousand dollars to different local causes such as a scholarship program for incoming University of Michigan students, and a substantial donation to Mott’s Children’s Hospital. The proceeds from this year’s festival will go towards funding a summer camp for underserved Detroit youth, focusing on possible paths to college.

All three of this years headliners are signed to imprints of Universal Music Group (UMG), the nation’s largest record label, which has decided to partner with MUSIC Matters in order to plan what will be the largest SpringFest to date, according to a statement released by MUSIC Matters. The statement suggests that this is only the beginning of what UMG will hopefully grow into a program on campuses across the country.  

This will be 2 Chainz’s second visit to SpringFest; he performed at Hill Auditorium in 2014. Coming off of a Grammy win for his feature on Chance the Rapper’s “No Problem,” 2 Chainz has cemented himself at the top of the rap industry, where he has been since his first solo album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 in 2012.

Lil Yachty and Desiigner’s rises to fame have both been far more sudden. Yachty’s feature on D.R.A.M.’s quadruple-platinum single “Broccoli,” along with the release of his debut album “Lil Boat,” landed him a spot in XXL’s Freshman Class, a collaboration with Carly Rae Jepsen for Target and a spot in Kanye West’s Yeezy Season Three runway show. Desiigner, another member of the Freshman Class, found himself in the limelight after his SoundCloud single “Panda” was sampled on Kanye West’s “Pt. 2.” He was signed to Def Jam records shortly after.

This concert will be the first performance at the Crisler Center in more than 15 years, and with a capacity more than four times that of Hill Auditorium, it should be a massive event. Tickets, which start at $19.99 for students with valid UM ID’s, and $29.99 for the general public, are on sale now at umichmusicmatters.com/tix and at the Michigan Union Ticket Office. Group tickets are also available at a discounted price.