This Yardfest, Think Beyond the Headliner

Natasha Bedingfield is headlining Yardfest this year. And no — it’s not Yardfest 2006.

I was excited that I would be able to sing my heart out to mid 2000s classics “Unwritten” and “Pocketful of Sunshine,” iconic hits from my childhood. And yet, some disappointment lingered — alongside other students, I wondered how Harvard often failed to recruit more well-known headliners of our generation.

Now, a week later, I couldn’t be more thrilled. Yardfest often comes under fire for sporting prominent — but not superstar — artists. Once we recognize that it is incumbent on us students — not Harvard itself — to make the most out of Yardfest, the enjoyment we gain from the experience will increase accordingly.

Yardfest, the annual outdoor spring concert organized by the Harvard College Events Board, is one of the premier events of the year. Consisting of Houses’ neighborhood pregames, serve-yourself barbecue-style fare, and performances by student bands — who are chosen through a College-wide competition a few weeks prior — there is plenty of fun to be had.

But for many students, the headline artist is what makes Yardfest special: A famous performer is able to step into our world for a day, bringing their talent with them.

However, some students are routinely disappointed by Harvard’s inability to bring in high-profile artists to headline Yardfest. With other Ivy Leagues often bringing in more popular artists, they argue, there should be no problem for Harvard to find a well-known headliner.

Coupled with restrictions on the 2024 Harvard-Yale tailgate and a general sense of a lack of fun on campus, Yardfest’s tepid acts lead some to believe that Harvard is explicitly anti-fun and doesn’t have students’ best interests in mind.

Such a mindset is flawed. First, the problem with recruitment of top artists is economic in nature. Harvard can reach out to as many top artists as it wants — if it doesn’t have the money, they can’t come.

Performer payouts are financed through the College’s Students Activities Fee, and administrators claim many undergraduates opt out of paying, at least in part due to Harvard’s sky-high sticker price. With such a financial barrier in place, Yardfest’s talent pool is already limited.

Then, there’s the risk high-profile artists don’t want to come to Harvard at all — a crackdown on Harvard’s admissions processes, threats to Harvard’s federal funding, and intense scrutiny on Harvard’s diversity efforts may make the University a less appealing target.

There’s also a predictability problem. An artist’s popularity is ever-changing, and it can be difficult to predict who exactly will be in vogue by the time Yardfest rolls around. For example, Tinashe, last year’s headliner — much to the disappointment of some students — released her new hit “Nasty” a mere five days after her performance.

Natasha Bedingfield’s popularity, on the other hand, seemed to have peaked decades ago, but it has had a resurgence in recent years due to her songs being featured in the 2023 film “Anyone But You.”

This doesn’t mean that Harvard should completely ignore an artist’s popularity when seeking out a headliner — they should still take into account students’ preferences and attract well known artists. We students should be cognizant of the inherent difficulties of selecting an artist that will please the majority of us, especially given the financial constraints.

Nevertheless, there are still ways for Yardfest to be meaningful.

We should make an effort to be involved in as much of Yardfest as possible and support our classmates who perform by attending more than just the headlining performance. Go to your housing neighborhood block party, eat dinner with your classmates in the Yard, and buy in to the hype.

Simply put, we should be present in the moment, allowing ourselves to be taken back to a simpler time in our childhood, when the threat of midterms, papers, and grades were not looming over our heads. Don’t focus on the nitpicky details of a specific artist’s present popularity — just enjoy the experience.

Students, our stories are still unwritten. Let’s use Yardfest to fill in those blank pages with memories that will last us a lifetime.

Dalevyon L.J. Knight ’27, an Associate Editorial Editor, is a double concentrator in Chemistry and History and Science in Adams House.