Swedish pop sensation Zara Larsson will headline Boston University’s inaugural “RhettRockz” spring concert May 3 at Agganis Arena. 

BU, however, won’t be her only stop — Larsson is also slated to perform at several other New England schools in the next two weeks, including at Tufts University, Brandeis University and Yale University.

Tufts, Brandeis and Yale provided free tickets to undergraduates, with Tufts selling $40 graduate student tickets. BU, on the other hand, has a ticket fee of $15 for undergraduate students, which aligned with the $10 to $17 benchmark used in past festivals.

BU Student Government Vice President Tony Wu said the planning team wanted the festival to be more “student-focused” this year.

“In the past three years of the concerts, we were in partnership with Agganis Arena, so even non-BU students, like the public, could attend these concerts,” Wu said. “This is the first year that we are entirely booking an entire arena just for BU students and guests.”

While this is the first year that BU will host a student-only event, Brandeis and Tufts have hosted annual student festivals for decades.

“For the most part, Springfest has always been free,” said Naomi Ihueze, the Brandeis Campus Activities Board concert chair. “For all our club budgets, what funds it is a portion of students’ tuition, so you technically already paid. We close it off to guests because we don’t have the capacity to have food and spacing for all those people.”

BU’s planning team also wanted to include guest tickets, but at a higher price, and the $40 fee they charged seemed “fair,” said Wu.

RhettRockz is funded by BU’s $77 community service fee that every undergraduate student contributes each semester as part of their tuition, as well as ticket sales.

Wu said that they were able to get Larsson at the same “standard industry rate” as other local universities but could not disclose the exact amount Larsson will receive.

BU’s Campus Activities Board merged with StuGov to form the StuGov Campus Activities Board, which planned this year’s spring concert. This merger helped in coordinating a larger-scale festival, StuGov officials said. 

The event will consist of an opening act from student musician Enrico supported by the band SLIGHTLYHAMMERED, food truck vendors and a “few [other] student groups” that have yet to be announced, Wu said.

BU did not officially announce Larsson as their headliner the day it claimed it would on March 30, instead posting on April 7. Tufts and Brandeis announced Larsson on the respective days they advertised.

Tufts was the earliest university to start planning for the event, starting preparations in the summer, focusing on the “energy we wanted the concert to have,” said Quinn Sobieraj, live entertainment coordinator for Tufts University Social Collective.

“We also were really conscious of trying to pick artists and pick a concert vibe that we thought would please and capture the vibe of the entire student body,” said Luke Steiner, the other TUSC live entertainment coordinator.

BU started planning RhettRockz in Sept. 2025, said CAB co-director Kate Dougherty, and Brandeis posted a Springfest recommendation survey for students the same month.

BU’s planning team was not particular about the artist they wanted, but they wanted someone who could “bring together our whole community,” and Larsson was at the “very top of our list,” Dougherty said. 

The team began by reaching out to a couple of different production companies and settled on Pretty Polly, who then handled all the communication with potential performers.

Brandeis’ festival on April 26 will feature local artist opener Notebook P, student openers DJ JAGA, Hazel Drew, 1 Night Only and Marakosa, who auditioned last November, and host vendors with glitter tattoos, food trucks, photo booths and spray paint T-shirts to “fit Zara’s theme.”

Tufts’ April 25 Spring Fling festival will feature alternative rock band Grouplove and student DJ openers, brothers mc cece and jacobccmixes, in addition to Larsson. The university will also have a photo wall, lawn games, crafts and giveaways.

BU is the only of the four New England schools that does not have any outside openers, only hosting student bands and the headliner.

Tufts had to raise their offer to secure Larsson because another school wanted her for the same date and time, Sobieraj said. 

“We feel really good about the decision, and I think it’s really exciting that she’s going to be at so many New England campuses, because it really shows a sense of community even beyond the individual schools,” Sobieraj said.

Dougherty said it is impressive that BU was able to get such a “massive artist” to perform at RhettRockz.

“I think it just goes to show how important the work we’re doing is,” she said. “The fact that we’ve been able to pull it off is really amazing.”