On April 30, the University’s Pleasantville campus hosted their annual SpringFest event, featuring a headlining performance from New Jersey born “trap & B” artist, Fetty Wap, with support from Canadian producer, MurdaBeatz.
Tickets were $25 for both Pleasantville (PLV) and New York City (NYC) undergraduate students and $40 for faculty, staff, graduate students and Pleasantville undergraduate guests.
Pleasantville Student Government Association’s (PLV SGA) announced the performers on Instagram on March 11, and by April 20, the show was sold out.
This marks the second sold out show in consecutive years. In 2025, PLV hosted New York based rappers A Boogie with Da Hoodie and Cash Cobain.
This year, NYC Students had mixed reviews about the ticket buying process.
Chloe Kaleah Stewart, a Film and Screen Studies major described the process as average. “It placed us in a queue and we would just have to wait our turn to purchase our tickets,” Stewart said. “My wait time was about 30 minutes, but I’ve waited longer so I wasn’t upset about it.”
Moreover, Arts and Entertainment Management major, Kaila Taveras got access to tickets when they were released at 12 p.m. “There was a NYC and Pleasantville option, and all you had to do was purchase the ticket and it gave you the option to send the ticket to yourself through messages,” Taveras said.
However, Criminal Justice major Shanata Pantaleon said the ticket buying process was hectic. “I got my tickets from the second round of sales, so I was not allowed to bring a guest.”
Due to capacity regulations, guest tickets were limited to PLV undergrads only and NYC students were not allowed in the pit. Stewart said this was “completely unfair… I feel like there was definitely enough space to allow [NYC students] to both be in the pit and have guests, and extend the bleachers for people that wanted to sit or didn’t want to be in the pit.”
PLV SGA announced a new floor setup was introduced due to safety guidelines and challenges from previous events. In “the best interest for students,” the floor’s capacity was limited to 800 attendees with exclusive access for PLV undergraduate students and registered guests. The back bleachers were extended to fit up to 500 attendees.
Students described the bleacher seating as generally mixed between PLV and NYC students, who were restricted to the bleacher section. Some say it was too far from the stage. Stewart said “I would have to zoom in on my iPhone to even get a clear video or actual silhouette of [Fetty Wap’s] face through a video.”
Olyvia Rose, a Communications and Media Studies major, described the seating organization as “ridiculously annoying.” “They didn’t give NYC students the option to get tickets for the pit,” Rose said. “This was disappointing because it seemed like the NYC students had the most energy.”
Students like Pantaleon tried to get a clearer view. She stood on an upstairs level above the bleachers, “the stage was super far from any kind of seating and it would have been better if the stage was in the middle.”
According to Stewart, due to frustration regarding the view and not hearing fan favorite songs until the end of the show, many NYC students expressed wanting refunds. The main issue for some students was the energy difference in the pit versus the bleachers.
Moreover, Stewart noticed a demographic difference between the crowds and said the pit lacked diversity from her perspective. While the crowd was mixed, “it really was a lot of white people [in the pit], and the majority of people of color (POC) were at the bleachers in the back.” She said she could see a stark difference between the two designated areas.
“The entire pit section was completely dead from what we could see from the bleachers,” Rose said, “NYC students actually wanted to be in the pit and give energy but they had very strict wristband policies.” She described the majority of the crowd as “simply bored.” Yet, she feels lucky to be in a group had high energy throughout the night.
Despite the strict wristband policies, there were reports of PLV students giving NYC students their wristbands after leaving the pit.
Rose was one of the lucky students that got a wristband, “I simply asked a group of people with wristbands that I saw leaving the gym and asked them if they were done with the show.” After getting a wristband, the rest of her friend group followed suit, and ended the night in the pit during her most anticipated songs.
Stewart said she would like to thank the PLV students who gave some of their wristbands to the NYC students. “Ya’ll are really good people for that.”
Taveras also shared a big highlight of the night.
She was approached in the entrance line by Fetty Wap’s team because she knew his new song, “White Roses.”
She was later asked if knew the TikTok dance to “Time (feat. Monty),” and was invited on stage to do the dance while Fetty Wap performed, and for the rest of the performance.
After the show, Taveras went backstage to meet Fetty Wap himself. She got a photo and a personalized autograph on a poster of him.
“He was very sweet and his sisters, who gave me the bouquet of flowers and his sisters, who made this experience come true, were also extremely nice and overall had such great energy.”
“It still feels surreal and I genuinely can’t believe I was able to have that experience,” Taveras said.
Overall, NYC students had mixed feelings about their experience at the event.
“I probably won’t be going back to another Pacefest event if they’re separating us like that again. I don’t care who the artist is, I didn’t enjoy that,” Stewart said.
