A full week of events centered around rebirthing the Howard University experience dubbed “Renaissance,” Howard University’s 2023 Springfest is slated for April 10 through April 15. 

As they gear up to showcase months of work to the student body, Joey Louisias III, Springfest Chair, and Stephen Spence, 49th Undergraduate Student Assembly (UGSA) Executive Coordinator, granted Cover 2 Cover a first look into the week ahead. 

Look no further– below you will find everything there is to know about this year’s Springfest.

Do I need a ticket? How do I get them?

Tickets will be distributed based on Cramton’s Auditorium’s and Burr Gynasuium’s capacity. Spence was happy to report that, “Friday will be free to all students. No tickets are needed, all you have to do is show your student I.D.”

“For most events, the tickets will be released the morning of and you will line up in front of Cramton to get them. I think that’s the best way to do it to ensure everyone’s safety and then also just making sure different people can get tickets.”

Free tickets and no line? Now that’s what we’re talking about!

Who is Springfest partnering with this year?

“Monday and Tuesday our big sponsors are Youtube Black and their Future Insiders Summit that they’re bringing to Howard University and those two days are sponsored by Youtube as well as the Tom Joiner Foundation,” said Louisias. The foundation will award scholarships to the winners of the talent showcase. 

“Other partnerships include Proctor Gamble for Wednesday. They’ll be bringing back the survival college kit we did last year which is like Tide pods, Tampax, all of that kind of stuff, you know? It’s like a little care package, it's handed out based on supplies. As you come in you’ll get one,”  said Spence.

Hesitant to give all partners away, Spence assured that other partnerships are still in the works, most notably, they’re “trying to finalize with a makeup company.”

Cover 2 Cover staff has a few guesses of our own 👀

“We’re partnering with Mielle for our Black women empowerment summit. We’re giving out products, testing, and also they’ll be doing some of the hair behind the scenes on Saturday at the fashion show,” added the UGSA executive.

What inspired the theme Renaissance?

For Louisias, the Renaissance theme is especially significant for Howard’s current upperclassmen. 

“I’m class of ‘24, so we came to Howard when Howard didn’t really have much of a culture,” says the junior finance major. 

“We had no one to teach us what to do or who to follow right? So when I was thinking about theme, I’m like what is the best way to describe what’s going on at Howard right now? For me, that was Renaissance. Renaissance to me, means a reimagined, a change, a shift in culture and I think that’s what's going on at Howard right now. Class of ‘23 and ‘24, we’re reshaping what it means to be a Howard culture and a Howard student and that's why I think the theme is consistent because that’s what we’re doing. We’re bringing a whole different new level of standard to Howard and it's like we want it to be continued so that's why we’re doing it. We’re setting the standard,” said Louisias.

How will this “Renaissance” be different from what people might be expecting?

For Spence and Louisias, the limit does not exist. 

“We didn’t set a bar. We’ve allowed people to give their own interpretation. We’ve looked at Fizz. We saw the hilarious little memes. When we say theme, we tried this year to not have something that’s like ‘Oh, you have to dress a certain way’ you know? It was more of a word, an Essence that Renaissance is coming. So this is going to be completely different right? That’s kind of why we've been very quiet. Because we want people to bring their own imaginations and then when you come, you have your own expectations. We never set anything for you. We didn’t want to do that because we want everything to be a shock to people and we want everyone to experience something without wanting something. I think that what's going to set us apart from homecoming and other events in the past is that we’re not setting an expectation. We want you to come and not know what can happen. You don’t know who could pop out at one of our events. That’s the goal we want to set,” revealed Spence, who anticipates that the week's activities will leave the entire Howard community in a state of shock.

Eager but also hesitant, Louisias III and Spence give C2C a first look into the minds behind Springfest. Photo courtesy of Keith Golden Jr.

The Black Women’s Empowerment Expo is somewhat new. What made UGSA decide to make black women the focal point of a Springfest event? What can we expect from this? How are participants being chosen?

“I kind of wanted to pay homage to the female-identifying body of students here at Howard,” said Louisias, the mastermind behind the new event. “They outnumber us significantly. So I wanted something that was geared toward you guys. Give you guys a day to enjoy for yourselves where you guys, you know, shine your light.”

Spence highlighted how dynamic Thursday’s event will be. “It’s so much that goes into it that's not even a panel it's a whole day of events. We have pop-ups from a lot of great companies that are focused on Black women so like makeup, and haircare companies, and some great panels, huge panels, one of the panels they have is someone people have been waiting to see, and she’s super excited to come to Howard.”

We know you can’t reveal what performers are coming to campus but, what are three words that come to mind when you think of Friday’s headliner?

“Which headliner?” says Spence, casually hinting that Friday’s concert will feature more than one headliner.

The two student leaders agreed that one headliner, in particular, embodies being “energetic”, “ratchet”, and “a loverboy”. 

Sounds like we’re in for quite the treat!

With the student activity fee increase, you all have opened yourselves to more scrutiny. What are you hoping students will gain from this year’s Springfest? What will that tell us about the future of UGSA as you all ‘rebirth’ Howard?

“You don’t understand how hard it is to work with the budget that we had,” says Louisias.

“I think this also will show what you can get with your money,” says Spence. “This year is very different from the past years. We garnered a lot of sponsorships. And so that’s why we’re able to do it this big right? To put this production on the field alone is a couple hundred thousand dollars. Like, alone. We ain’t even talking artists yet.”

Spence emphasized how co-dependent the student assembly has become on outside sources. 

“We don’t want to become so self-reliant on those things especially when we head towards a recession, you know all that where companies are starting not to spend. And so, we decided to advocate to increase the student activity fee: one, because it hasn’t been increased in a decade and we all know with COVID inflation is happening. Things cost four times what they previously did. Our budget is about $100,000. That’s what we get for the whole year. And, if you know all how big we did in the fall semester. All those were done through sponsorships as well. So, we realized it wasn’t sustainable to keep relying on people to pull their personal connections to do those things.”

In Spence’s mind, the budget should reflect Howard’s prestigious reputation.  

“We always set the tone that we’re the Mecca but we have the lowest student activity fee of schools in our caliber. You have Spelman that pays about $250 which is about almost $100 more than us. And we complain that they had people like Drake but like you get what you pay for. So, we wanted to make sure we’re advocating for what you want but that comes with a certain expectation. You’ve got to work with us so that we can work with you,” he says.

Spence and  Louisias III pose on the football field, where the Springfest Concert will take place for the first time in Howard history. Photo courtesy of Keith Golden Jr.

What can students expect from this year’s fashion show?

“I know the theme is the Golden Age. We’re playing off of Harlem Renaissance and the 1920s cotton club so you can expect that type of theme during the fashion show,” said Louisias. 

“Day and night kind of vibe” added Spence. “I think our creative director took the word literally instead of figuratively. Similar to what happened last year, it was ‘carnival’. He took carnival and did a crazy madhouse theme and did this crazy, evil clown house.”

Each aspect of the six-day festival is unpredictable. 

“Play on words and we’re doing Harlem Renaissance because they consider it glamorous, but also tying a new sexy vibe,” says Spence. “Cutouts, sleek dresses, those kinds of things. It’s going to be nice. The set is going to be beautiful. It’d definitely going to be one of our most elaborate sets yet and really intriguing. It’s taking like two days to build,” revealed Spence.

Students eagerly anticipate how the fashion show team will immerse the audience in a moment in history that closely mirrors the present era, marked by significant progress for the Black community in the fashion landscape and beyond.

As we approach this big week, how would you tell the student body to prepare?

“Get your fits ready, ” said Louisias. “You don't know who's going to be there, whos going to be around. You don’t know who's going to be taking pictures of you.”

UGSA is trying its best to maintain a level of mystique ahead of the university’s most innovative Springfest yet.

“You never know where it can go,” added Spence

“Stay hydrated on Friday. It's going to be hot. I know yall might do some stuff but stay hydrated. We want to make sure it's a fun, safe event for everybody. It’s going to be on the field so yeah. Starts at 3 so make sure you all are there on time. Student I.D.s No bags to any events.”

Cover 2 Cover plans to keep the student body updated on all things Springfest-related. For event time announcements, Spence and Louisias advised regularly checking the UGSA Instagram for more information on each event and how to secure a ticket.

Cover 2 Cover previously broke the news of the event lineup in February. Read that story here.