This year marks the second annual Iggy Fest, and down to the last wire, there were dramatic changes to the lineup. On Friday, Sept. 27, it was announced by Jeffry Mateo, Assistant Director of Engagement for Activities at Le Moyne College, that B.O.B., the original headliner, would not be able to appear, and in his place, DJ Smavs would be added to the roster and Scorey as the headliner, revealed later in a followup email around 7:40 p.m. that same day. With all the changes made at the last minute, how did the performers stack up to expectations?

The performance opened up around 7 p.m., with DJ Smavs as the designated “hypeman” to prepare us for the following performers. The energy was palpable as the students began pouring in, ranging from freshmen to seniors. While Smav had moments of genuine artistry with the music picks, such as recent songs from Kanye West like “Carnival,” the other songs and transitions fell short, and as one student noted, “It sounded like my DJ from my fifth-grade dance.”

As the time got closer to Lil Mabu, the audience was bursting at the seam with anticipation, and as the time progressed and DJ Smav got more comfortable with the audience, his song choices were mending well with what the students actually wanted to hear.

When Lil Mabu’s DJ stepped on the stage and began to warm us up, songs like “Fe!n” and “I just wanna rock” began to radiate through the speakers as sirens blared; finally, after about an hour plus waiting, Lil Mabu took place to the stage. For many people, they only knew some snippets of Mabus songs from Tiktok so when he took to the stage with immense energy, he played to those strengths, showcasing his major songs like “Big Dog Sh*t” and “Mathematical Disrespect.”

Eventually, it came down to the moment when his popular songs could not be sung again, and he had to go with his less popular options. Like a true entertainer, he continued to pump the audience up through his other songs, mixing in other popular songs like “Party in the U.S.A.” by Miley Cyrus to keep the energy stable.

After around an hour, Lil Mabu stepped down, and the main artist, Scorey, stepped up. As the transition began to occur, the audience shifted from over 400 people to just around 200 people. When Scorey entered the stage, no one really knew who the artist was.

At that specific moment, there were about five people on the stage, all walking around with their phones; it wasn’t until multiple songs in that people began to realize who the artist was. To say that they seemed new to the music industry was an understatement; their whole act, which some people may have enjoyed, many people, myself included, believed they cared more about being on stage than actually performing a good show.

After one song, the name of which no one really knew, and no set list was provided, the audio began to feedback excessively as Scorey and his main hype man held the microphone too close to his face. From there a technical issue took up around 10 minutes, with more people progressively leaving.

When Scorey got back to performing, the energy was no longer there, and many people wanted it to be over, but Scorey kept on going. Throughout the performance, Scorey’s main hype man kept yelling at the audience to “Turn the fuck up Le Moyne,” many times interrupting the actual act’s performance. After a difficult 30-40 minutes, the audience dwindled to only 29 people as students felt “secondhand embarrassment,” one unknown student stated that “someone should cut him off to end the embarrassment.” By the time 9:43 p.m. rolled around, Scoreys performance was put to an end, roughly 17 minutes shorter than intended.

For me, given the last-minute circumstances and changes, what was pulled off was something that I could have been proud of, but Scorey should have been the opener to Lil Mabu, and Lil Mabu should have been the one with more stage time. For many students, I passed through the hallway of the recreation center and walked back to the dorms; many students lamented how it was a huge letdown and not worth the hype. While this may have been a blow for many, hopefully, there is only one way to go for next year, and that’s up