At the end of the second week of classes, with students settling in and coursework picking up, Programming Board hosted Fallapalooza: a music concert held at Gold Coast Lawn on Friday, Sept. 22. This year’s concert featured J. Maya as the opener and Claire Rosinkranz as the headliner.
J. Maya is a singer from San Francisco, California, with a varied background — not only is she a Harvard alumna, but she is also a former world pun champion and an upcoming contestant on the reality TV show “Survivor.”
Claire Rosinkranz, the headliner of this year’s Fallapalooza, is an up-and-coming indie singer from California. Although she has only released two EPs, Rosinkranz has experienced mainstream success through her hit single “Backyard Boy” — a bright pop track with airy vocals and catchy instrumentals. The song was especially populars on TikTok, where the song has been featured in 1.5 million posts.
Behind the scenes, PB members worked tirelessly to bring Fallapalooza to life. Months of intense planning included discussions about which artists to invite, when to schedule the event, how to accommodate for possible risks, and everything in between, according to PB programming executive Trinity Osborn ’25.
Osborn explained that the laborious process of organizing Fallapalooza was mostly led by the members of the Class of 2025, most of whom were on campus for sophomore summer.
Osborn said that PB looked for “artists who were making their start and would become huge in the next few years” and were within PB’s allocated budget. Rosinkranz was an early favorite due to her virality on TikTok and recent rise in mainstream popularity.
“We had to come up with a short list over the summer of who we wanted to vote [for] ... For a long time, we knew we wanted Claire Rosinkranz,” Osborn said.
Despite how easily the group landed on their headliner, it was far more of a struggle to find a suitable opening artist.
“For an opening artist, we kept going from artist to artist and asking about their availability to their booking agents,” Osborn explained. “They kept being unavailable so we asked our booking agent for a list of available artists. We [the executive board] listened to them and said, ‘Okay, these are the ones we really like.’”
Following the compilation of the list of available artists, the executive board voted on the opening artist, and J. Maya won that vote after the executive board agreed that her music would be most complementary with Rosinkranz’s style.
Additionally, Osborn mentioned that one of PB’s earlier goals was to establish a female-led lineup this year, something they could achieve through the selection of J. Maya and Rosinkranz.
“We wanted the line-up to reflect female representation,” Osborn said. “Usually, line-ups are all men, or all men and one female on the drums, so we wanted to be very very female this year.”
By 9 p.m. on Saturday, a sea of Dartmouth students gathered at Gold Coast Lawn, waiting for J. Maya and Rosinkranz. When the artists stepped on the stage, the crowd erupted in cheers. With music echoing down Tuck Mall, people danced, sang and let loose.
Ramina Askarova ’26 explained that she and her friends were excited about the event because it was a much-needed study break for them.
“It was so nice to dilute hectic, studious weeks with a moment to enjoy some live music,” Askarova said. “It was a good opportunity to de-stress.”
Martyn Moran ’25 watched the concert while relaxing on a picnic blanket in the courtyard of Hitchcock Hall. He had never listened to Rosinkranz before but said he was more than impressed by her performance.
“Fallapalooza is a unique experience to see someone who I’ve never heard of before,” Moran said.“I [had] heard about Claire Rosinkranz, but I [had] never listened to her before. Although her music isn’t the usual thing I would listen to, I think she [was] a great performer. The crowd loved her too — the vibes were great.”
Askarova, in contrast to Moran, was a previous listener of Rosinkranz. She was excited to see her live, and she was not disappointed.
“[Rosinkranz] sounded so good in her live performance!” Askarova said. “It’s kind of surreal to listen to Claire in person, especially since I’ve listened to her a lot before.”
Osborn was initially worried about the turnout at Fallapalooza. Despite all the marketing done by PB, she felt like there was a lack of awareness about the event. Further uncertainty was also brought upon by forecasted rain on the night of the event.
“We were kind of worried earlier in the night,” Osborn said. “But as we got closer to the show, more people started to show up. Especially when J. Maya started — that’s when people really started coming.”
By the end of the night, it was evident that the event was a huge success according to Osborn — she said that it was the largest Fallapalooza she had ever been to.
Seeing Fallapalooza’s success, the year ahead seems bright for PB and their future events. Moran seemed hopeful about future concerts on campus, including Green Key in the spring.
“I think the Programming Board is doing a great job with the selection of artists they have been inviting to perform at Dartmouth,” Moran said. “I hope to see artists similar to Claire Rosinkranz in future lineups.”
