Pretty Lights, Chiddy Bang perform at Little 500’s brightest night

Members of a sold- out crowd of 5,000 wore neon green trucker hats and “GLOWME” T-shirts as they prepared to enter IU’s second outdoor light and music festival, GLOWfest, headlined by electronic artist Pretty Lights.

This is 1,500 more attendees than last year, which could be attributed to the 50 interns hired to promote the event.

IU alumnus Jack Shannon and senior Deuce Thevenow founded GLOWfest.

“It’s amazing what happens when we work together and bust our ass,” said Shannon, who tried to organize the event while at IU, but said he was glad he could give the experience to other students as an alumnus.

“We are hoping to expand with a GLOWfest tour at six to eight major universities in the fall,” Shannon said.

But for now, GLOWfest just has one other scheduled date in April at University of Colorado Boulder featuring headliners Savoy and Crystal Castles.

This year’s IU opening lineup included local band The Main Squeeze; IU seniors Brice Fox and Daniel Weber, most known for “This is Indiana” and their most recent “iLL 5” music videos; rapper George Watsky; electronic trio Mansions on the Moon; and Philadelphia hip-hop duo Chiddy Bang.

Freshman Krista Corrigan came to GLOWfest to see Fox and Weber perform their novelty YouTube hits.

Corrigan said she played “This is Indiana” on repeat while on spring break.

“We wanted to show our spirit as Hoosiers who go to IU,” Corrigan said.

Fox and Weber’s “This is Indiana” has more than 500,000 hits on YouTube, but aside from their online viewership and occasional Bluebird shows, GLOWfest was their biggest crowd yet.

Weber said unfortunately after graduation, their run may come to an end, but they hope Indiana invites them back.

“We’d be more than happy to come back and perform,” Weber said. “We made these for the future generations of Hoosiers.”

Dressed in a gold leotard and Flavor Flav gold clock, freshman Shelby Gogreve compared GLOWfest to parties in her hometown of Los Angeles.

“I would consider this a rave, but on a smaller scale,” she said. “It’s fun. It’s IU. It’s the best college ever.”

Gogreve said she came to see Chiddy Bang, which includes rapper Chidera “Chiddy” Anamege and drummer Noah “Xaphoon Jones” Beresin.

“He’s new, fresh and something different,” Gogreve said about rapper Chiddy.

The duo sampled songs by Belle & Sebastian, Passion Pit and Sufjan Stevens.

“I use whatever samples sound good with Chiddy rapping on it,” Beresin said.

Sophomore Desiree Irvin was impressed by Chiddy’s interactions with the crowd, his flow and his freestyle, describing it as unexpected and clever, as he rapped from crowd-given topics including Hoosiers and dinosaurs.

“I’ve never been to a concert like this before,” Irvin said. “Everyone is going crazy.”

Beresin said he was excited to perform at a larger school like IU since smaller schools are less likely to be crazy.

Crowd pleaser Chiddy Bang finished its set by performing “Opposite of Adults,” which samples MGMT’s “Kids.”

Chiddy perfectly unleashed the lyrics “Now I’m ripping up shows and them fans going wild with us. Tell Mommy I’m sorry, this life is a party.”

Pretty Lights ended the show taking the stage as the sky darkened and pink glow sticks were thrown into the neon-shirted and hand-raised crowd.

Sophomore Dan Mulloy said he was mesmerized by the light show put on by headliner Pretty Lights.

“It’s the first time I’m seeing him in concert,” Mulloy said. “It’s better than I ever expected.”