Most UF students made the short trek to SwampFest from their dorms, apartments or fraternity house parties.
Michele Ambrosio flew 11 hours from Monaco.
“I saw UF Student Government post, and I immediately booked my flight, and now I'm here front row,” he said, squeezed against the barricade at Flavet Field, eagerly awaiting UK-based DJ Riordan to take the stage.
Ambrosio, an 18-year-old UF Online accounting sophomore, was one of over 10,000 UF students — enough to temporarily break the event’s attendance tracker — to pack the field Tuesday night for SG Production’s first SwampFest. The Grammy Award-winning DJ duo The Chainsmokers headlined the show as a kickoff to its national “Higher Education” college tour.
Tucked between Coachella’s first and second weekend — the first of which opener Riordan performed at — SwampFest emulated the major festival, said Mandisha De, one of several students to dub the event “Gatorchella.” Dust and dirt kicked up by attendees running to the barricade floated through the field in the 85-degree heat.
When doors opened at 6 p.m., one line of students snaked all the way back to the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity house, and a second line wrapped halfway around Flavet Field.
The first group of students in line arrived at 8:30 a.m.
Tabitha Gottipati, a 20-year-old UF mechanical engineering junior, didn’t mind waiting around all day. She and her friends got a lot of homework done.
They’ve attended all of SGP’s concerts that have been held during their time at UF. For Gottipati, it’s been important to make the most of her college experience — and see an artist so nostalgic to her and her peers.
“I think everyone has a soft spot for The Chainsmokers in their heart,” she said. “We kind of grew up with them, so it was really important to us to relive those memories.”
Gottipati’s friend Sanketh Challagulla hopped in line with her after commuting back from an 8 a.m. engineering exam in Jacksonville. Etienne Besett skipped three of his classes — though he takes academics very seriously, he said — because “house music is pretty cool.” After all, his mom is a world-travelling DJ herself.
As the sun began to set, Riordan played his hourlong set featuring tracks like “TWOSTEP” and “909.” It wasn’t his first appearance in the Swamp: He played at Pi Kappa Phi two years ago.
Students donning scarfs, shades and other festivalware continued to trickle in as it came time for the headlining act.
Final exam stress melted and 2016 nostalgia emerged as The Chainsmokers took the stage at 8:15 p.m., facing a sea of cell phones at the ready. The duo wanted to party, so around 30 students joined DJs Alex Pall and Drew Taggart on stage for the entirety of their hour-and-a-half set.
The Chainsmokers mixed in new material with hits like “Paris” and “Don’t Let Me Down,” also remixing classics like “Teenage Dirtbag” and “Seven Nation Army.” Students screamed, jumped, climbed atop one another’s shoulders and effortlessly sang the second verse of “Closer” back to the DJs, much to their amazement.
The duo posted to its Instagram that it hoped a college tour was a good idea, as Pall and Taggart flew from a show in Australia. By the end of the night, they confirmed it was. Other planned tour stops include the University of San Francisco and Oklahoma University.
Chancellor Wilson, among the students surrounding The Chainsmokers on stage, had to take a few deep breaths as he looked out into the audience of his peers.
Wilson, a 22-year-old UF psychology and economics senior, had envisioned a festival like SwampFest since he joined SGP around three and a half years ago. Now the organization’s chairman, he sees the festival as something students can look back on that made them feel like a part of something.
After months tediously planning one of SGP’s most logistically challenging projects to date — with the help of various teams and partners — Wilson’s intent for SwampFest boiled down to community.
“I could speak to a billion things that went into this concert, but nothing, nothing touches the human side,” he said. “When you stand there and you just look at the crowd, and people are just smiling ear to ear, it is the most fulfilling feeling in the entire world.”
Contact Isabel Kraby at ikraby@alligator.org. Follow her on X @isabelgkraby.
Isabel is the The Alligator's Spring 2026 music reporter. She is a junior studying journalism at UF and is from Ormond Beach, FL. In her spare time, she loves going to concerts, crafting and practicing guitar.
