The last weekend of April in Norman features two massive, free music events: Fill the Stadium, a religious concert featuring Chance the Rapper, and the final day of Norman Music Festival, a three-day event featuring local and national bands and musicians.
Fill the Stadium, a student-led religious organization, is partnering with Pulse, a religious nonprofit, to put on a free concert at the Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on April 29. It will occur on the final day of Norman Music Festival, which is celebrating its 15th anniversary.
Norman Music Festival announced Nov. 1 that its annual event would take place April 27-29. The Fill the Stadium concert was confirmed Feb. 21 in an Instagram post, and its headliner was announced April 4, however a Fill the Stadium spokesperson wrote that this event has been worked on since the beginning of the 2022-23 academic year.
“Community members have been praying for an event like this for 20 years,” a Fill the Stadium spokesperson wrote.
When OU Daily reached out for comment about if Fill the Stadium knew about Norman Music Festival while planning the event, a Fill the Stadium spokesperson responded “N/A.”
Shari Jackson, executive director of Norman Music Festival, wrote in an email to OU Daily that Norman Music Festival has always fallen on the last weekend of April.
“It’s a great weekend,” Jackson wrote. “We have fabulous partners in Downtown Norman’s Walker Arts District, with our sponsors, venues, neighbors, and departments in the City of Norman all count on that as NMF weekend. It's now a springtime tradition. Our plan has been set for months, we don’t see any need to shift anything.”
Main Street filled with people during Norman Music Fest on April 29, 2022.
Norman Music Festival is expected to bring in over 100,000 people throughout the weekend, according to its website. Fill the Stadium sold out its approximately 60,000 tickets.
Although the events are happening on the same weekend, Jackson wrote that she doesn’t think Fill the Stadium will impact the expected crowd at Norman Music Festival.
“I think we are fine and ready for the crowds to come enjoy the music,” Jackson wrote. “We’ll just make sure we give everybody the heads up that it’s a busy day in Norman and you might want to give yourself a little extra time to get downtown.”
OU Daily reached out to Fill the Stadium founder Joshua Robinson, entrepreneurship and venture management senior, who referred OU Daily to See.Spark.Go, a public relations firm based in Georgia.
Students singing worship music on the Van Vleet Oval with Fill the Stadium on April 14.
A Fill the Stadium spokesperson responded at 1:27 p.m. April 18 in an email to OU Daily. They wrote that the goal of the event is to fill the OU football stadium with students for a concert and gospel proclamation.
“Student leaders are orchestrating this evangelistic event, seeking revival for the OU and greater OKC communities,” a Fill the Stadium spokesperson wrote. “The FTS leadership team has grown to 150+ students who are seeking to bring their generation together for peace, joy, and community.”
Students like Kelsey Raney, nursing junior and Fill the Stadium volunteer, said they are excited about Chance the Rapper’s performance. The rapper has proclaimed to be a Christian on his Instagram.
Raney said she hopes Chance the Rapper will attract more people to participate in the rest of the concert’s events.
“I know a lot of people are excited because he is coming, and so that makes me excited that they’re coming because of him because once they’re there, I think they’ll be able to see the presence of the Lord,” Raney said. “That’s what changed my life, so I hope it changes people’s lives too.”
Tanner Miller, owner of Bluebonnet Bar, one of the Norman Music Festival’s venues, said he worries about the crowds coming in on the day of the overlapping events.
“If there’s 86,000 people, that hurts the infrastructure of traffic. That hurts the infrastructure of accessibility. That’s more stress than is normally around for the city, and the festival brings in 100,000 people,” Miller said. “I think it’ll still be huge and big, but I can’t imagine the logistics for the city.”
Miller also said he is frustrated by the conflicting schedules of Fill the Stadium and Norman Music Festival.
“They’re doing (Fill the Stadium) on Norman Music Festival weekend, and that is an atrocity,” Miller said. “They’re putting on a free show at the stadium, and the festival is free for us, but that is just so much money that you just lose. I would like to know: What’s the win for the University of Oklahoma on that? What is that benefitting? I’m not gonna knock someone’s religion, but this seems like very poor timing.”
Jabee, a rapper from Oklahoma City performing at Norman Music Festival on April 29, said he is also frustrated by the overlap of Fill the Stadium and Norman Music Festival.
“It’s a slap in the face to the Oklahoma music community, who waits all year to perform at Norman Music Festival and have a hard enough time to raise funds and get sponsors, grow a music scene, make people aware of your music,” Jabee said.
While Jabee is a Christian, he said he feels Fill the Stadium is being marketed unfairly.
“It’s a Christian, faith-based event being built as a Chance the Rapper concert,” Jabee said. “It’s being promoted as a Chance the Rapper concert. For somebody who has been involved with a lot of Christian events in the past, it’s just typical white, Christian, evangelical behavior.”
Jabee said he’s upset the event might draw people away from local artists who often don’t have a large crowd to see them.
“For some of us, it’s the one time when people who never come see you come and actually see you,” Jabee said. “It’s a disrespect and disregard to all the hard work.”
Norman Music Festival is located across Main Street, and more information about the weekend’s events can be found its website. While tickets are currently sold out, people still interested in attending the Fill the Stadium concert can join the waitlist on its website.
Editor's Note: This story was edited at 1:44 p.m. April 18 to include statements from a Fill the Stadium spokesperson. It was also updated at 12:57 April 21 to include a clarification provided by a Fill the Stadium spokesperson that although the stadium has approximately 86,000 seats, the event will have 60,000 available seats.
This story was edited by Jillian Taylor, Jazz Wolfe and Alexia Aston. Francisco Gutierrez and Teegan Smith copy edited this story.
