Hundreds of students gathered on HUB Lawn for the Student Programming Association’s annual LightsUp concert on Friday night for a night full of dancing and celebrating the start of a new semester.

Starting the evening strong, student performers Swervo Staacks, Jaaye, and MB3 Brown kicked off the festivities with a bang. Meanwhile, attendees took advantage of the inflatables, mechanical bull, photo booth, airbrush T-shirts, and free SPA swag.

Ahead of the night’s headliner, with strobe lights taking over the sky and light-up foam sticks waiving high, Sage the Gemini opened the concert, performing “Pull Up,” “Big Thing,” Tick Boom,” and his rendition of “G.D.F.R” by Flo Rida. The Californian rapper completed his set with his most well-known song, “Gas Pedal.”

During a brief intermission, the DJ played more popular songs, hyping up the sea of students and preparing them for the upcoming headliner.

Swae Lee took the stage around 9:30 p.m., opening his set with his 2020 hit song “No Time,” prompting the crowd to go wild.

“Shout out to my day ones at Penn State,” Lee shouted to the crowd.

He then starts singing, “Penn State come get her, she’s dancing like a stripper,” leading him to perform another one of his hit songs with rap duo Rae Sremmurd, “Come Get Her.”

“Where my seniors at?” Lee said after wrapping up his first few songs. “You guys got this. Get those good grades.”

Lee continued his performance with “No Flex Zone,” another familiar song that continued to excite the crowd.

“If you came with your gang, I want you to swang,” Lee said to the amped-up crowd.

Lee carried on the concert with his song, “Swang,” before saying “Everyone say ‘f*** my ex.” Following this, the crowd puts their hands in the air, forming an “X” with their arms as he starts performing “My Ex.”

Throughout the performance, some students formed mosh pits, keeping the energy and vibes high.
“I wish I went to school here,” Lee remarked before singing “Reality Check.”

“Shoutout to all my kids majoring in plant science,” he said. “Shoutout to my stoners.”

Naturally, his next song was “Sativa,” followed by a few covers of famous songs from other artists.

“Who’s seen the Spider-Man movie?” Lee asked the audience.

Next up was “Annihilate” and “Sunflower“ from the Oscar-winning animated picture “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.”

All of a sudden the intro to “Black Beatles,” the popular Rae Sremmurd song associated with the “Mannequin Challenge” trend, started blasting across the lawn, causing the crowd to pose and stay completely still until the beat dropped.

Lee closed out his performance with “Powerglide“ around 10:30 p.m., sending off the crowd to the new semester ahead of them.