This year's Jubilee to welcome local businesses, rapper Young Nudy

The UNC community can look forward to a day of fun and a night performance by rapper Young Nudy at the upcoming Jubilee event. 

This Saturday at Hooker Fields, the Carolina Union Activities Board will be hosting its annual Jubilee as an all-day, flea-market style music festival open to the public. 

The festival will begin at 11:30 a.m. and include food trucks, multiple music performers, inflatables and an array of small business booths. Young Nudy will hit the stage around 7:30 p.m. and perform until around 9 p.m. — concluding the event. 

UNC’s Jubilee was created in 1963 as a three-day festival to close out the spring semester for students. It originally started as a small event on the lawn outside Graham Memorial Hall and gained popularity, eventually progressing to larger venues like Kenan Stadium. 

The tradition continues today and is a staple in the campus community. Last year, UNC enjoyed an in-person concert from female rapper Flo Milli in Carmichael Arena. 

“We really wanted to target this event to be an all-encompassing music event because it's the first time in a really long time that UNC is bringing back Jubilee in a festival style instead of usually where it's been at Carmichael Arena,” Gaby Rosado, CUAB’s entertainment chairperson, said. 

Instead of the typical indoor event with one act, Rosado said it is exciting for Jubilee to be back as an outdoor festival so that it can be open to all students, the greater UNC community and others in the Triangle. 

The organizers of the festival are prioritizing diversity and inclusion this year. Some of these efforts include having minority-owned food trucks and small businesses vending and American Sign Language interpreters  available throughout the music performances. 

Attendees can expect a Black-owned, Louisiana cajun-style food truck, along with screen printed shirts from student-owned Franklin Street Market — a collaborating partner of Jubilee.

In addition to FSM, the Residence Hall Association and the Carolina Union's Student Life and Leadership office are collaborating with CUAB this year. These organizations provided services or money to help sponsor the event, Sarah Brom, student activities graduate coordinator with the Union's Student Life and Leadership office, said.

“CUAB is always striving to be more and more inclusive,” she said. “Just because of what we have the ability to do, we're so privileged to be an organization that has access to student funds and can turn the money that the student body provides us into these amazing programs for the student body.” 

Inclusivity extends to the musical performances as well. 

CSB, a student indie rock band, will be opening for Young Nudy. The band won Tar Heels Got Talent and was thus awarded the opportunity to perform at Jubilee. 

Casey Kibe, CSB lead singer and founder, said she is extremely excited to perform at this year's Jubilee.

As a Black woman who performs a genre of music that is predominately white, Kibe said she is grateful for the opportunity to perform at Jubilee to “debunk the monolithic Black punk experience” and show everyone that rock music is Black music. 

Recognizing the intersectionality between race and music and that many Black artists were pioneers in the foundation of rock music, Kibe believes that performing at the Jubilee is important because it shows others who don’t fit the stereotype that there are spaces in rock for them too. 

“When you think of a rock band, no one looks and sees me,” Kibe said. “People are not imagining a picture of me in their heads. And so, I think just having that visibility and exposure and showing people that look like me ‘You can do it, if you're interested in it and you want to do it, it's totally possible to do it.”

CSB hopes to share their passion for music with the rest of the festival by leaving its heel print on UNC and the long legacy of Jubilee. 

This year, the purchase of a ticket, which costs $5 for students and $10 for the general public, gives buyers all-day access to enter and leave the festival as they please. Tickets are sold online and at the doors until 7:30 p.m. Those who arrive early enough can receive a voucher for free food from the food trucks. 

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