CHANCE THE RAPPER HEADLINES VIRTUAL OZY FEST FOR MAY 15–16 IN PARTNERSHIP WITH HBCUs, CLUBHOUSE

Head­liners at the May fest­iv­al include Chance the Rap­per, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Con­doleezza Rice, Mark Cuban, Mal­colm Glad­well, Sevyn Streeter and Marc Rebillet

OZY Media today announced that OZY Fest, its one-of-a-kind fest­iv­al of great enter­tain­ment, inter­act­ive exper­i­ences and big con­ver­sa­tions, will return on May 15–16 as a vir­tu­al event, after the 2020 fest­iv­al was post­poned due to the coronavir­us pan­dem­ic. Head­liners include musi­cians Chance the Rap­per, Sevyn Streeter, Big Free­d­ia, Marc Rebil­let and Kat Cun­ning; comedi­ans Tig Not­aro, Maz Jobrani and Aida Rodrig­uez; chefs Mar­cus Samuels­son, Tom Colic­chio and Ming Tsai; thought lead­ers Dr. Anthony Fauci, Mark Cuban, Con­doleezza Rice, Mal­colm Glad­well, Jim Cramer, Revd. Al Sharpton, Deepak Chop­ra, Rep. Max­ine Waters, Sunny Hostin, Alicia Gar­za, Mar­cus Scrib­n­er, Sophia Chang, DeRay Mck­esson, Car­men Yulín Cruz, Adam Grant, Katty Kay, Matt James, Valer­ie Jar­rett, Dr. Michael Lomax, Mari­ana van Zeller, Dr. Dani­elle Moss, Dr. Eddie Glaude Jr., Angela Benton and Car­los Wat­son; and sports fig­ures Michael Vick, Steph­en A Smith and CC Sabathia. The fest­iv­al will be livestreamed to the Car­los Wat­son Show You­Tube Chan­nel, presen­ted by OZY Media.

OZY Fest brings togeth­er the game-changers and change-makers who are ahead of their time and worthy of yours for a vir­tu­al cel­eb­ra­tion of bold change and big ideas. The fest­iv­al has pre­vi­ously been held in New York City’s Cent­ral Park with guests includ­ing John Legend, Tre­vor Noah, Issa Rae, Padma Lak­shmi and Joe Biden, and has been described as “TED meets Coachella” and “New York’s answer to SXSW” for its unmatched blend of thought lead­er­ship and entertainment.

The vir­tu­al fest­iv­al will be streamed live, with two sim­ul­tan­eous vir­tu­al stages between 5pm and 9pm ET offer­ing a com­bin­a­tion of live music and com­edy per­form­ance, thought lead­er­ship, and inter­act­ive pro­gram­ming. VIP tick­ets are avail­able for pur­chase allow­ing access to exclus­ive inter­act­ive vir­tu­al offer­ings. OZY Fest’s part­ner­ship with new live social media plat­form Club­house will break new ground, employ­ing the app’s private chat func­tion­al­ity to host VIP meet-and-greets in an intim­ate audio-only setting.

“We are so excited to be bring­ing OZY Fest back,” says OZY COO and co-founder Samir Rao. “Vir­tu­al events and fest­ivals have been hit and miss over the try­ing past year, but OZY Fest is going to take things to the next level, with the most inter­act­ive vir­tu­al exper­i­ence of all time. OZY Fest won’t dis­ap­point if you’re as tired of Zoom as we are.”

The theme of OZY Fest 2021 is “Reset Amer­ica,” with organ­izers say­ing that it hopes to host con­ver­sa­tions to reima­gine how demo­cracy, racial justice, edu­ca­tion and more should work in the 21st cen­tury. OZY Media is part­ner­ing with the United Negro Col­lege Fund (UNCF) to provide free access to all cur­rent stu­dents at His­tor­ic­ally Black Col­leges and Uni­ver­sit­ies (HBCUs), and to donate pro­ceeds from VIP tick­et sales to UNCF. UNCF CEO, Dr. Michael Lomax, is fea­tured among OZY Fest headliners.

“It’s a priv­ilege to be part­ner­ing with UNCF to make an impact with OZY Fest this year,” says Car­los Wat­son, OZY CEO and co-founder, and host of The Car­los Wat­son Show. “I have said before that the 2020s will be the new 1960s, and OZY will play its role in facil­it­at­ing some of the most import­ant con­ver­sa­tions about where we turn next as a society.”

OZY Fest is brought to you by Chev­ro­let and Amer­ic­an Fam­ily Insur­ance. It is pro­duced by OZY Media in part­ner­ship with You­Tube, Twit­ter, Club­house and iHeartRadio.

For a full list of head­liners and inform­a­tion about how to register for tick­ets or pur­chase VIP passes, head to www.ozyfest.com.

The fol­low­ing two tabs change con­tent below.

Rishma

Edit­or / PR Con­sult­ant at No Bounds
Rishma Dhali­w­al has extens­ive exper­i­ence study­ing and work­ing in the music and media industry. Hav­ing writ­ten a thes­is on how Hip Hop acts as a social move­ment, she has spent years research­ing and con­nect­ing with artists who use the art form as a tool for bring­ing a voice to the voiceless.

About Rishma

Rishma Dhaliwal has extensive experience studying and working in the music and media industry. Having written a thesis on how Hip Hop acts as a social movement, she has spent years researching and connecting with artists who use the art form as a tool for bringing a voice to the voiceless.