The Associated Students of the University of California, Irvine (ASUCI) hosted Summerlands, an annual spring concert festival in Aldrich Park, on May 16. More than 5,000 students registered via CampusGroups before the event.
The lineup for Summerlands 2025 included student performers ZCHU and Danny Filth, accompanied by midliner tobi lou and headliner Dayglow.
During the festival, attendees had the opportunity to pick up a branded ASUCI Summerlands T-shirt, access a temporary tattoo station and use two photo booths. Alongside two food trucks, free refreshment stands offered attendees Celsius, Pepsi products or bottled water.
The 2025 concert marks the second year Summerlands has occurred since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and weather conditions. The festival returned in 2023 with the headliner Wallows but was canceled in 2024 due to protests on campus.
Mia Martell, a fourth-year civil engineering student, was the first in line when doors opened at 4 p.m. She held her position from noon with the motivation to secure one of the festival T-shirts. However, she was also excited for the anticipated performances.
“I feel like they always get artists that have maybe a few hit songs that everyone will know but are still already good artists. You don’t have to know all of their songs to enjoy the concert, which I really like,” Martell told New University.
Patrick Maranon, a fourth-year biological sciences student and ASUCI Student Talent Commissioner, said that planning for Summerlands usually starts in the fall with plenty of thought about the performers, the festival’s logistics and communication with professional staff.
“We’re excited because we really like having music like this that’s just chill. People like to sit on the grass, [they] put blankets down and can just enjoy the music and vibe to it. We’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback from the artists, so we’re really excited to hear that. At least some people around the campus are gonna enjoy the artists here,” Maranon told New University.
ZCHU, the student DJ duo of Colin Chu and Zachary White, opened the festival shortly after 4 p.m. They incorporated well-known hits into their set, including a remix of ABBA’s “Gimme Gimme” and Sheck Wes’s “Mo Bamba.”
Max Putrus, a second-year biological sciences student and fraternity brother of ZCHU, spoke to the excitement of having student performers.
“We see them from our own special private events going into a kind of public whole-university event and it’s kinda cool seeing it,” Prutus told New University.
During ZCHU’s set, a small crowd of students formed near the stage, but many took this time to visit the different booths offered at the festival.
Shortly after ZCHU’s set, student performer and fourth-year informatics student Danny Lin, known as Danny Filth, took the stage. He started DJing a few months ago for parties and decided to apply to perform at Summerlands, inspired by his friend who was a student performer at UCI’s fall concert Aldrich Park After Dark.
“If I get it, that would be cool, but I’m not gonna put the expectations on it. I ended up getting it, and I’m like, okay, this is like a crazy opportunity,” Lin told New University.
Before Danny Filth’s final song, he took the mic and introduced the song “Better off Alone” by Alice Deejay as one of the best EDM songs of all time.
As he ended his set, he thanked the crowd for their support and theorized, “Maybe you guys will see me at EDC [Electric Daisy Carnival] one day.”
The midliner, tobi lou, started his performance around 6:35 p.m. As he performed songs from his discography like “Just Keep Goin’,” “Darlin’” and “Buff Baby,” more attendees left their spots on the lawn and flocked towards the stage.
“I want to connect with as many people as I can. I like to look people in the eye and let them know I appreciate them,” tobi lou told New University after his performance.
During his slot, he thanked the crowd for their energy in his first live performance of the year.
“I see people vibing in the back. You never know when people don’t really know you or how many people are gonna know you. I [just] appreciate everybody and any type of engagement I see. I found that a lot today here at Irvine, so I’m always gonna remember that,” lou said.
The headliner, Dayglow, took the stage shortly before 8 p.m., and a few more students trickled in. They began their set with some of their most known hits like “Hot Rod” and “Can I Call You Tonight?” from their 2019 album “Fuzzybrain.”
By this time, most of the concertgoers gravitated towards the stage and left their Summerlands T-shirts on the lawn. Some students swayed and bopped their heads to the music. Others linked arms and spun around in the back half of the field or were hoisted onto the shoulders of a friend to catch a better view.
Dayglow capped the night off with a cover of Tears for Fears’ “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” which transitioned seamlessly into their own song “Run the World!!!”
As students started to leave, Ian Vasquez, a first-year biology student, commented on his experience at Summerlands.
“I’ll be real, I really enjoyed both of them. I don’t really know tobi lou that well, but I listened to a lot of Dayglow previously and honestly, he brought a really good vibe, a lot of energy. They knew how to keep the crowd hype, played that closer and then one of his actual songs, and it was a good time,” Vasquez told New University.
Sofia Feeney is a 2024-2025 Assistant Features Editor. She can be reached at sjfeeney@uci.edu.
Edited by Kaelyn Kwon and Jaheem Conley