Students dancing at Spring WILD 2023 (Maddix Cradlebaugh | Student Life)

Rapper Joey Bada$$ will be the headlining act at Spring WILD, which will take place on Mudd Field on Friday, April 26, per Washington University’s Social Programming Board (SPB), April 22.

The concert will mark the second time that WILD (Walk In, Lay Down) has been held on Mudd Field, rather than in Brookings Quad. Other notable changes to the show include allowing graduate students to attend, having seating compliant with the American Disabilities Association (ADA), offering Kosher food, and having two opening acts in addition to a student opener. 

Bada$$ — best known for hit songs including “Love is Only a Feeling” and “TEMPTATION” — is a Brooklyn native who began gaining popularity and critical acclaim after releasing his debut solo mixtape, entitled “1999,” in 2012.  

The first opener before Bada$$ takes the stage will be pop singer Iyaz, who is well known for his 2009 hit song “Replay,” and will be followed by pop rock girl band THEM. The student opening act will be the band Non Euclidean Geometry, composed of seniors Spencer Kates, Henry Windish, Gabe Hamburg, and Maeve McFadden and sophomore Chase Walker.

Sophomore Ruby Cover, SPB’s Concerts Director, explained that SPB works with a middle agent to try and secure a performer for WILD based on who receives the greatest number of votes from students.

However, because the vote occurs in November, Cover said that scheduling prevented the artist with the most votes from being this year’s headliner. 

Cover also said that the student response was fairly spread out this year, with the top-voted artist only having 16% of the student vote — last year’s headliner Flo Milli received roughly 70% of the vote. 

In terms of changes for this year’s WILD, Cover said that 500 tickets will be sold to graduate students for $5 each on a first-come, first-serve basis. She explained that, though SPB cannot accommodate all graduate students, the decision to allow some was a result of previous demand. 

“Dozens of graduate students were coming up to the tables last year and were really discouraged when we told them it was only for undergraduates,” she said. “It was something we could only do because we moved our location to Mudd Field, which has the capacity to hold more students.” 

Reflecting on last year’s WILD, senior and Vice President of Programming Abby Sode said that holding the concert on Mudd Field was a success overall. 

“For all intents and purposes Mudd Field is a better option,” Sode said. “Logistically it makes a lot more sense —– it’s a lot to try to haul things from Mallinckrodt and the DUC area all the way to Brookings.”

Other changes to the event stemmed from a desire to make the event more inclusive, according to Cover. 

“We definitely spent a lot of time thinking about how we can make sure that every student feels comfortable going into this WILD,” Cover said. “We focused on getting ADA seating for students with physical disabilities and making sure that there are Passover [food] options.”

In order to attend the concert, students are required to have a wristband, available for free both at the Danforth University Center from 11a.m–.2p.m or at the door to the concert, though Cover expects lines to be long on the day-of.  

As opposed to the full week of tabling that SPB did last year, wristbands will only be available on the Wednesday and Thursday before WILD, since data from last year showed that students preferred to get them later in the week.