12Fest Lineup
Wiz Khalifa
Carnage
GRiZ
Vic Mensa
Stalley
The Runners
Captain Kidd
Jola The Trunk Boi
Yacht Club
Entel
DJ Loco
Wiz Khalifa returns to the Athens area to headline the 12th edition of Number Fest joined by trap artists Carnage and GRiZ as well as Chicago rapper Vic Mensa.
Other artists announced include Stalley, The Runners, Captain Kidd, Jola The Trunk Boi, Yacht Club, Entel and DJ Loco. 12Fest tickets are on sale now for $30 and will be held on April 12.
Khalifa last visited Ohio University in the spring of 2012 when he played for the Convocation Show with opener Sean Kingston but this time around Dominic Petrozzi, founder of the Number Fest, said this time around it will be more of a party.
“It was a completely different environment coming from a Convo show … where there was heavily scrutinized security scenarios,” Petrozzi said. “The new black hippie movement that he has … just played into the outdoor good vibes — it’s not too ratchet and it’s not too slow. Wiz will have a set that will be very in tune with what the kids will be doing out there.”
He added that he was pursuing Kid Cudi to play at 12Festl but Coachella, a big name California music festival, falls on the same weekend and Cudi was “pulled out from under us,” Petrozzi said.
One artist they did get from the Coachella lineup is Carnage who is considered one of the top trap artists in the country now. The style which has grown in popularity since 2012 incorporates electronic dance music beats with hip-hop lyrics.
“For the DJ kids the dance kids the EDM heads, Carnage and GRiZ will definitely reign loud,” Petrozzi said.
Chicago artist Chance The Rapper topped many critics albums of the year list for 2013 and fans of the musician will recognize the name Vic Mensa. Mensa has been coming up in the Chicago rap scene for some time and is poised to really explode on the scene this year making many critic’s “artists to watch in 2014” lists.
“Vic being a hip-hop crossover bread a lot like Chance, it’ll be really interesting to see his escalation over the next six months with all these spring and summer festivals coming up,” Petrozzi said.
Of course the lineup also includes a lot of Ohio talent from DJ groups such as Captain Kidd out of Cleveland as well as Athens talent from DJ Loco and Entel.
Petrozzi said this is the festival's biggest budget yet and brings a lot of established national talent as well as up and coming acts and said he looks forward to student’s reactions.
@Wilbur_Hoffman
wh092010@ohiou.edu
