SUNY Oneonta Student Association Dissolves Community OH-Fest Event

OH-Fest, a collaborative Oneonta community effort between SUNY Oneonta and Hartwick College is virtually dissolving.  According to AllOTSEGO, following the cancellation of last year's controversial concert in Neahwa Park with rapper Sean Kingston due to the City of Oneonta revoking the concert permit, SUNY Oneonta’s Student Association has decided to move the OH-Fest concert back onto campus next spring.

SUNY Oneonta Student Association (SA) President Tim Nolan says, “The SA wants to ensure that we put the students’ activity money to good use for the spring concert. We don’t want to take the risk of having a concert planned to have it fall through as it happened last spring. We are open to continuing the tradition. However, we need to do what’s best for the students.”

The reason that the city revoked the concert permit was due to the controversy of 2010 rape allegations surrounding Sean Kingston with a group of college students set to protest his presence at the concert.  City officials made the decision to revoke the permit with concert safety concerns in mind.  That meant the SA had to forfeit its $45,000 fee.

Along with the change of concert venue, the SA has decided that there will no longer be a student-held carnival on Oneonta's Main Street.

Since SUNY Oneonta will no longer be collaborating with Hartwick in any way for the OH-Fest event which has been reduced to an on-campus concert, the concert has been renamed O-Fest XV with the removal of the letter H which stood for Hartwick College.  O-Fest XV is scheduled for April 18, 2020 at SUNY Oneonta’s Alumni Field House.

For more on this story provided in partnership with AllOTSEGO, click here.