Del Water Gap, an indie pop musician and record producer, will perform at this year’s Spring Fling, All Campus Entertainment (ACE) announced at the end of its annual Battle of the Bands event last Friday.
The Battle of the Bands featured six student groups competing for the chance to perform as openers for Del Water Gap at Spring Fling on April 27.
After the final performance, students voted for their favorite band, with the top three groups earning an opening spot at Spring Fling. The top bands this year were Space Bar — one of the student groups that opened for bbno$ at last year’s Spring Fling — along with Lotus Eaters and T.Y.P.O.
In September, ACE solicited suggestions of artists, bands, and musical genres for the concert. They asked for suggestions to be “feasible given [their] productional and logistical possibilities,” and said that potential artists should have 500,000 to 4 million monthly Spotify listeners. Del Water Gap has 2.5 million monthly listeners as of publication.
After receiving 377 responses on the initial form, ACE narrowed the list down to 10 artists, ACE President Emily Villegas Garcia ’26 wrote in an email to the Record.
In November, ACE sent a follow-up form asking students to rank five preferred performers from the provided list of 10 artists. This form received 414 responses. The Spring Fling concert team then reached out to potential artists later that month, according to Villegas Garcia.
She said that Del Water Gap was the most popular choice this year, though she noted that the artist who receives the most votes is not necessarily the one who ends up performing.
“The main factors considered are student preferences based on the campus-wide forms sent out, artist availability, and funding,” Villegas Garcia wrote.
Del Water Gap is the solo project of Samuel Holden Jaffe. He rose to fame after his 2020 song “Ode to a Conversation Stuck in Your Throat” was used in actresses Margaret Qualley and Kaitlyn Dever’s “socially distant dance party” video in July 2020 and went viral. It later earned gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America after garnering over 500,000 streams.
Jaffe also produced and wrote a song for internet personalities Johnny Orlando and Chloe George, who gained popularity after her cover of “Ghost Town,” by Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, went viral on TikTok. Jaffe has written songs for Maggie Rogers and performed as an opener for her, Niall Horan, Mt. Joy, and girl in red, among others.
Del Water Gap has released five EPs and two albums since 2012. His most recent album, I Miss You Already + I Haven’t Left Yet, was released in 2023.
“I was so excited when I found out that Del Water Gap will be performing at Spring Fling,” Maddy Andersen ’25 said. “I’ve had a great time at past Spring Flings, but this year will be extra special because I know and love the artist. I listened to his first album a lot the summer before coming to Williams, so having him perform at my last Spring Fling feels very full circle.”
Editor’s note: Emily Zas, who is a member of ACE and an editor-at-large Record, was not involved in the writing or editing of this article.
