The O-town Scene - Oneonta, NY
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/30393
OH, yeah! Oneonta’s annual spring party, OH-Fest, will feature hip-hop star Pitbull and the ‘ultimate’ Michael Jackson cover band this Saturday. It’s finally springtime in Oneonta _ Contributed International hip-hop star Pitbull will headline OH-Fest on Saturday at Neahwa Park in Oneonta. fresh air, birds chirping, budding flow- ers, college girls wearing mini-skirts. It’s something to celebrate. And this Saturday’s OH-Fest is just the thing. Every year, SUNY Oneonta, Hartwick College and the city of Oneonta collabo- rate to throw a celebration of the end of winter, and the end of the school year for the colleges, with OH-Fest. The daylong event will start at 1 p.m. with the Main Street carnival and per- formances by student bands from SUNY Oneonta and Hartwick College, including Stealing the Sky, Samurai Pizza Cats, Kris Cambria and the Homecoming Kings and P. Muna. While the music plays, arts and crafts, carnival games and rides and com- munity and organization booths will line Main Street. The main concert, which features a big-name act each year, will take place at Neahwa Park. This year, international rap star Pitbull is headlining. Who’s Bad, a Mi- chael Jackson tribute band, and Sword of Truth, a SUNY Oneonta metal band, will open the show. This will be the sixth installment of OH- Contributed Who’s Bad, ‘The Ultimate Michael Jackson Tribute Band,’ will perform Saturday at Neahwa Park. 22 O-Town Scene April 28, 2011 Fest. Previous performers for the spring festival have included Robert Randolph and the Family Band, Everclear, Head Au- tomatica, Jack’s Mannequin and The Ataris. OH-Fest is an extension of SUNY One- onta’s annual spring weekend, according to Director of Campus Activities at SUNY Oneonta Bill Harcleroad, who was hired the same school year OH-Fest started. That year, Harcleroad said he encountered enthusiastic students who wanted to expand SUNY Oneonta’s annual spring weekend to the entire Oneonta community _ he cites Mike Bellini, John Amrhein and Zack Wischnia as the “drivers” of the process. So, SUNY Oneonta’s College Union Activities Council planned the first meet- ings with Hartwick College and the city of Oneonta. Harcleroad remembers the ini- tial struggles of getting the students’ and his vision off the ground: “That first year it seemed like we met with every possible city commission to get their blessing. We joked that we should add Bingo since we didn’t meet with the Bingo commission.” Each year, CUAC and Hartwick’s Activi- ties Board work with the city of Oneonta to organize the annual event. Harcleroad notes that while the colleges set the theme and choose the main stage performers, “the city is great about sug- gesting ways to enhance the day and covers the cost for much of the local logistics,” including public works, police and fire departments, as well as many other, hard- working institutions of Oneonta. To help get a sense of who the Oneonta community wanted to see perform, a planning committee of SUNY Oneonta and Hartwick students communicated with the town and local sponsors, as well as surveyed the community to get an idea of how to make a successful festival. Danielle Freeland, a committee member from Hartwick, revealed that the results of surveys indicated that “hip hop was the way to go this year.” Once that was nar- rowed down, the brainstorming sessions concluded that the community would greatly appreciate a performance from Pitbull to celebrate. Continued on Page 23