Nationally known rhymes and beats will be the centerpiece of the 11th edition of Number Fest.
Rapper Kendrick Lamar and DJ Steve Aoki will be headlining 11Fest, according to a Twitter announcement of the first part of the lineup from fest organizers Tuesday.
“Announcing part one of the 11Fest lineup, with Kendrick Lamar and Steve Aoki as this year’s headliners,” the organization tweeted.
Lamar earned the title “Lyricist of the Year” at the 2012 BET Awards and has recently been featured on an edition of Saturday Night Live. Aoki has been nominated for “Best Dance/Electronica Album” at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards for his album Wonderland.
Caitlin Stone, a junior studying video production and vice president of Ohio University’s Hip Hop Congress, said she is excited about the announcement, referring to Lamar’s recent collaboration with Dr. Dre in his breakthrough album good kid, m.A.A.d. city in 2012.
“Lamar is huge,” she said. “He is pretty much running hip-hop right now. I thought that after the success he has had, it is incredible that 11Fest got him.”
Bad Rabbits, Watch the Duck, Fly Union and Huey Mack will also join Lamar and Aoki on stage in April.
With Lamar and Aoki headlining the festival, Dominic Petrozzi, the fest’s founder, said he hopes more fest goers will be interested in coming to enjoy the music and party atmosphere.
Petrozzi added that fest goers shouldn’t be worried about any hasty changes similar to 10Fest’s, when Juicy J, the headliner, backed out at the last minute.
The second half of the lineup will be announced at a later date and will include five to six additional acts. Petrozzi said the additions should be announced within the next two weeks.
Because of the event’s popularity, ticket sales for the next installment of Number Fest have moved quickly. Petrozzi said he expects the fest to sell a total of 2,000 tickets within the next two days. The fest will have tickets on sale in Athens businesses by the end of the week after its online early-bird sale sold out.
David Carlson, director of operations for Prime Social Group, said that in his five years working with Number Fest, the reaction from students has never been this overwhelming. A total of 1,000 tickets were sold in three hours Saturday, when the early-bird sale was first available to the public.
“This is going to be a Number Fest that you haven’t seen before,” Carlson said. “We knew it would be big, but not this big.”
ds834910@ohiou.edu
