By Kyle Henderson/Photos by Maddi Brown

On Sunday, September 26, Syracuse students finally returned to Skytop Field for the highly-anticipated Juice Jam, which returned to its standard in-person format for the first time since 2019.

Opening the festival was Audrey Nuna, a rapper and R&B singer hailing from New Jersey. She came onto the stage bursting with energy, starting out with “Cool Kids” and maintaining that excitement throughout several of her other upbeat, rap-heavy songs. She flexed her impressive flow on “Comic Sans” jumping around on stage and returning the energy of the growing audience. 

She also made sure to slow it down, talking about the importance of spending time alone before diving into “Space,” a ballad that successfully showed off more of her vocal range and versatility as an artist. The entire performance was a great opener for the day, with Nuna getting the small but eager audience excited for later acts to come

Bea Miller was up next after Nuna, offering up a more solid pop sound for the second act. While she was definitely a slower change of pace from Nuna’s set, she was still just as fun to watch, interacting with the audience between her more relaxed opening songs. The audience happily sang along to Miller’s viral TikTok hit “Feel Something,” and they later jammed out with her when she performed her more dance-heavy tracks “I Wanna Know” and “hate u cuz i don’t.” While Miller is only 22, her career is already fairly lenghty, dating back to when she was 13 years old and competing in the American version of The X Factor. She has been performing ever since then, and this experience was shown through her confident and self-assured stage presence.

It wasn’t long after Miller’s set ended when the chants for B.o.B began. By now, the crowd had grown significantly, as any latecomers finally arrived and were running over to find a good spot in the crowd.

B.o.B came out to much fanfare as the third act on the lineup, but it was a rather surprising choice when he was first announced. While the other acts were younger and still on the rise, B.o.B is a seasoned artist, already having a vast discography of hits spanning the past decade. 

Nonetheless, B.o.B. delivered the most energetic performance of the day, taking the crowd through a variety of his classics, including “Magic” “Airplanes” and “So Good.” His energy couldn’t be contained to just running across the stage; he ran into the aisle as well, and even made a few attempts to crowdsurf. While they weren’t successful, they certainly worked at getting everyone hyped. It was clear that B.o.B was loving the energy, as he returned it in his performance. 

Finally, headliner Jack Harlow arrived to close out the day, stepping on stage to “Tyler Herro,” and the roaring of the crowd. The Kentucky rapper has seen his popularity skyrocket over the last year, wading more into the mainstream with hits like “WHATS POPPIN” and traversing the country since July on The Crème de la Crème Tour. 

Harlow brought his signature coolness and composure to Juice Jam, breezing through his growing catalogues of songs and lapping up the attention (especially from his female fans). He kept the banter light and playful, but also knew how to get the crowd excited. He asked the crowd if there was any love for Lil Nas X before jumping into their hit “INDUSTRY BABY,” and surprised everyone with a brief cover of Owl City’s “Fireflies.” It was the perfect way to close out the show, and capped off what was a very successful return for Juice Jam.

All of the media outlets had a chance to interview Nuna after her set wrapped up. When she was asked about how she thought the show went, she offered an enthusiastic response

“I personally had a f*cking blast,” said Nuna. We couldn’t agree more.