It was recently announced that this year’s Wildstock performers will be contemporary R&B and hip-hop artist Marc E. Bassy with indie pop and R&B singer Viaa opening.  

Bassy is known for songs such as “You & Me” and “Morning,” and he has worked with other popular musicians such as G-Eazy.

Viaa is an emerging artist whose most popular song ‘Run Around’ has just under 1.2 million plays on Spotify.

Linfield students seem to be generally optimistic about Bassy performing at Wildstock.

“I’m very happy that LCAT made an important effort to bring prominent artists to campus. I’m very excited to go to the performance,” said Pedro Graterol, ‘21.

Although people are happy with this year’s performer, some students admit that they haven’t heard much of Marc E. Bassy’s music. 

Sabrina Nemec, ‘22, said that she’s only heard a couple of Bassy’s songs, but that doesn’t mean Wildstock will be unenjoyable.

“I hear he’s expected to be better than the one last year,” Nemec said.

Last year, country music duo Dan + Shay performed at Wildstock.

Dan + Shay have almost 595,000 subscribers on YouTube, while Marc E. Bassy has just 143,000. 

Despite the larger follower base for last year’s performers, people are hopeful about Wildstock 2019.

These attitudes towards the performers could be based on the musicians’ genres. 

Dan + Shay are country musicians, and country music has been a controversial topic lately. 

It’s not uncommon for people to say that they like all music except country.

On the other hand, Bassy uses music genres that are more popular among students today.

For example, hip-hop and R&B artists such as Khalid and Cardi B were nominated for Billboard Music Awards’ Top New Artist in 20.

Although Marc E. Bassy himself has not been nominated for any awards, his song “You & Me” has been listened to over 278 million times on Spotify. 

Linfield has a decent track record booking artists for Wildstock just before they hit it big. The most notable example is Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, who came to Wildstock in 2012. Saint Motel ‘16 and Dan + Shay last year have also increased in popularity since their Linfield performances.

Students clearly have good reason to feel optimistic.

Bassy and Viaa will take the Wildstock stage May 10 on the IM Field.

This year Linfield students will be allowed to bring  a guest to Wildstock. Guest tickets can be purchased for $25 at linfieldtickets.com until April 26.