Hosted by the Vanderbilt Programming Board (VPB), Rites of Spring is an annual tradition that many Vanderbilt students look forward to towards the end of the academic year. Held right on Alumni Lawn, the event transforms campus into a miniature music festival, with artists both big and small coming together to perform in Music City. This year’s lineup featured five artists across a diverse array of genres, ensuring that there was something for every type of music fan to enjoy.
Creek Beagle
Hailing from just down the street at Belmont University, local band Creek Beagle snagged one of two opening spots for Rites of Spring after being named runner up at Battle of the Bands. The band consists of three musicians, all of whom are also current students at Belmont. With a few singles officially released on most streaming platforms, the band leans heavily into punk-rock influences in their music.
Being the first act to take the Rites stage could have been daunting; there was no previous act to help gauge how energetic the crowd was and no way of knowing how large the crowd would be until you step on stage. However, Creek Beagle seemed unfazed by the pressure, coming out at 5:15 p.m. CDT to deliver their set.
Part of what made Creek Beagle’s set so entertaining for me was seeing the passion and authenticity the band has for their music. The punk scene in particular is notoriously difficult to fake your way into. Fans of this genre crave realness and can easily separate the “cool” from the manufactured. However, whether it was the edge of their instrumentals or the long hair and head banging of their lead singer, Creek Beagle proved in their performance that they belong in this sphere.
Spring Training
Spring Training earned the other opening spot for Rites after placing first in VPB’s Battle of the Bands competition in March. The group is comprised of four members including two current Vanderbilt students, one future Vanderbilt student and a Nashville local.
The group kicked off their set at 6 p.m. CDT. Despite the sudden temperature drop and slightly rainy weather, they remained undeterred, putting their all into their performance as many listeners discovered their music for the first time. Knowing nothing about this group before the show, I saw the drum set and electric guitars set up on stage and assumed the quartet would be similar to a classic rock band. However, my expectations were quickly shattered as their set began.
Although the guitar solos and drums could fit into your run-of-the-mill rock band, the lead singer had a distinctly country twang to his voice. The results were a sort of grungy, alternative-rock and country music fusion that worked surprisingly well together. It was the perfect way to open up a concert right here in Nashville, the heart of the country music industry.
Ravyn Lenae
R&B artist Ravyn Lenae has quickly made a name for herself in the past year following a stint opening up for Sabrina Carpenter on her “Short n’ Sweet” tour and the viral success of “Love Me Not,” a song she originally released back in 2024. As the clock ticked closer to her set at 7 p.m. CDT, the crowd of concertgoers began to grow visibly larger.
Finally, Lenae kicked off her set with the track “Sticky” a perfect introduction to the signature tone of her vocals and her polished R&B sound. The song was certainly unique enough in style to immediately draw in the audience, some of whom may have been previously unfamiliar with her work.
Lenae truly let her vocal talent shine in her performance with several attendees, including myself, being shocked at how similar she sounded singing live compared to her studio tracks. She breezed through quite an expansive setlist, performing a selection of songs from her most recent and breakthrough album “Bird’s Eye” while sprinkling in tracks from earlier in her career, which she dedicated to her longtime fans.
Two moments in particular stood out from the rest of Lenae’s set. The first was when she treated the crowd to an unreleased song. After the initial cheers of excitement, the crowd fell quiet, making the whole show feel more intimate and allowing the singer’s vocals to truly captivate the audience. The second, of course, was as she closed out the set with her hit song “Love Me Not.” Hearing the entire crowd come together to scream-sing every word to her track was a heartwarming moment, as Lenae pointed the mic towards the crowd to let us briefly take over. For me, it was one of those small reminders of how, although people may have vastly different preferences, music can also be a universal and unifying experience.
Natasha Bedingfield
On the topic of uniting a diverse array of listeners, few other artists can rival Natasha Bedingfield. Sometimes a song is so big that it transcends generations — or even the artists themselves. Such is the case with Natasha Bedingfield, who released some of her biggest hits before many current Vanderbilt students were born. However, this generational difference proved a non-issue, as the crowd for Bedingfield’s 8:30 p.m. set only continued to expand as the evening progressed.
Bedingfield had a high-energy kick off to her performance as she brought a band complete with a drummer and electric guitarist to accompany her. Much of the crowd was shocked as she unveiled a rock-esque style to her voice. Known more for her cheery and uplifting vibe, her performance was delightfully unexpected, and I truly never knew what her next move would be. In fact, after just a few songs in her original outfit — a full-length dress and matching gloves covered with sunflowers — Bedingfield briefly walked off stage and returned to reveal a complete costume change! Underneath hid a leather-like jumpsuit that complimented the unpredictable, yet extremely impressive, rock-and-roll like vocals that she brought.
Yet, several more twists were still in store for Vanderbilt students in the crowd. The standout came as Bedingfield began performing a more bluesy song. Her band unleashed an extensive and difficult electric guitar solo before the guitarist himself then stepped up to the mic, unveiling his skilled yet raspy vocals. A couple of other moments that still do not quite feel real included Bedingfield reenacting the viral “scuba dance” between songs, as well as her reference to the “six seven” meme. Although I may have cringed a little, Bedingfield did prove that she can resonate across generations of her fans and not take herself too seriously.
Of course, the set also contained the familiar comfort of Bedingfield’s classic tracks. She performed “Pocket Full of Sunshine” early on in the set, which helped bring the crowd’s spirits up. Though she had been teasing it all night, the singer finally closed her set with the generational anthem “Unwritten,” which truly felt like the highlight of the entire night. The entire audience could be heard shouting, “Feel the rain on your skin,” as it fittingly sprinkled, turning the concert into a brief care-free and joyful moment for everyone.
A Boogie wit da Hoodie
Bronx-born rapper A Boogie wit da Hoodie served as the final act for this year’s Rites of Spring concert. With rock, R&B and pop fans satiated by the previous acts, A Boogie brought the high energy and style that hip-hop fans were after. Although my friends and I are not avid rap listeners, we were impressed by the number of songs in A Boogie’s set that ended up being familiar to us.
With the 2026 being the new 2016 trend currently viral on social media, A Boogie’s performance was remarkably fitting. The rapper performed several of his biggest hits, many of which were from his 2016 and 2017 albums. Blending the perfect combination of hype and nostalgia, the set transported me back to my middle school years in the late 2010s, when rap/hip-hop as a genre was gaining notably more mainstream attention. Clearly, many Vanderbilt students in the audience felt similarly, as several people in the crowd began jumping and singing along throughout the performance.
However, not every aspect of A Boogie’s performance was a crowd pleaser. The rapper’s backup dancers generated a mixed reaction from concertgoers. Some argued that the dancers and videos displayed on the screens during the performance were too overtly sexual for a university-sponsored event. However, others reasoned that the dancer’s performance was not inherently sexual in nature and that the display was shown to an audience full of adults who should be free to determine what they are or are not comfortable with seeing.
What did resonate with everyone was when A Boogie closed out his set with his biggest song, “Drowning,” which was all but inescapable in 2017. The swell of the crowd could easily be heard as students spat out lyrics that — although maybe buried deep in the mind — were still committed to memory.
After last year’s concert was cancelled, the pressure was on for the first Rites of Spring in nearly two years to be a success. Thanks to the coordinated efforts of the Vanderbilt Programming Board and entertaining performances by these five artists, the event boasted a large turnout and provided Vanderbilt students with a much-needed respite from academic stress.
Chuck Kaiser • Apr 27, 2026 at 10:29 am CDT
My senior year, Doc Watson and Vassar Clements performed on the lawn.