Sami Rapp photo: This year’s Springfest will feature alternative rock bands such as Mayday Parade and New Politics.

If you are a student at Mercyhurst, you most likely look forward to the annual event known as Springfest that takes place near the end of every academic year.
The concert for this year’s Springfest will take place this Friday, May 2, at 8 p.m. in the Athletic Center.

This year, the bands will be alternative rock groups: Transit, We Are the In Crowd, New Politics and Mayday Parade.

The concert will start with the band Transit, who will start playing at 8 p.m. Transit first formed in Boston, Mass. in 2006. They have released four albums and two EPs so far.
They have influences of emo and pop punk in their sound. They performed during Warped Tour 2012 on the Ernie Ball Stage.

After Transit finishes playing, We Are the In Crowd will then perform at 9 p.m. Formed in 2009, We Are the In Crowd is a pop punk band that started in Poughkeepsie, New York. The band started recording their first album in May 2011.

The album, called “Best Intentions,” was released on October 4, 2011. We Are the In Crowd performed as part of Warped Tour 2010 and 2012. Their latest album, “Weird Kids,” was released on Feb. 18, 2014.

At 10 p.m., New Politics will perform. The band hails from Copenhagen, Denmark. New Politics’ sound has been described as a blend of “pop, punk and electronically induced dance rock.” The band signed with RCA records in Nov. 2009.

After this, they went on a brief tour of the UK before going on a nationwide U.S. tour.

They now reside in Williamsburg, which is a neighborhood located in Brooklyn, New York. They have, so far, released two albums. These albums are “New Politics” (released on July 13, 2010) and “A Bad Girl in Harlem” (released on May 21, 2013). Their single “Harlem” was featured in a trailer for the Disney movie “Frozen” and in the 2013 video game “NHL 14.”

They are set to be the opening act for the 2014 tour called “Monumentour,” with Paramore and Fall Out Boy being the headlining acts.

The final band for the night, Mayday Parade, will perform at 11 p.m. Mayday Parade hails from Tallahassee, Fla. “Tales Told by Dead Friends,” their debut EP, sold over 50,000 copies without any label support when it was released in 2006.

Their first album, “A Lesson in Romantics,” was released in July 2007 and they signed on with major label Atlantic Records in 2009.

They have released three other albums since then, with their most recent album, “Monsters in the Closet,” having been released in October 2013. They are set to perform during Warped Tour 2014.