Sept. 27, 2025 marked the first time the Big House hosted a large outdoor concert with a Grammy award-winning artist. Zach Bryan’s concert, which was the most attended concert in United States history, proved the Big House isn’t just a sports arena but also a cultural space. For most students, however, the concert was more symbolic than accessible. Ticket costs ranged from $150 to more than $14,000, and availability was limited.
Zach Bryan’s concert raised a broader question: Why does live music at the University of Michigan feel so out of reach?
Ann Arbor consistently ranks within the top five college towns in the United States, but student-accessible live music is relatively rare. Most performances happen at bars, fraternity houses or ticketed spaces. Concerts that take place at fraternity houses are restricted to students who are members of Greek life or students who are willing to pay for tickets. Meanwhile, concerts that take place at clubs or bars are restricted to students who are older than 21 years old. For a student body facing rising tuition, rent and everyday costs, live music serves as a way to escape the stress of daily life and connect with their fellow students. Yet, with all the restrictions surrounding access to live music in Ann Arbor, it ultimately fails to accomplish the goal of consistently bringing the student body together. This is where the University has a unique opportunity: Instead of treating stadium concerts as rare, high-priced events, the University must establish a publicly accessible concert at the Big House at no cost to students.
Other universities already understand this. At Cornell University, Slope Day is a defining campus tradition where a free outdoor concert marks the end of the academic year and provides students a chance to unwind from academic stress. At Yale University, Spring Fling attracts artists such asKen Carson, Pusha T, and Playboi Carti. Schools like the University of Virginia, Pennsylvania State University and the University of California, Los Angeles regularly host large, subsidized concerts that are open to students and treated as campus-wide events rather than niche entertainment.
These concerts aren’t just about attracting celebrities to campus. The main goal is to bring people together and create tradition. Students anticipate these events, plan around them and remember them long after graduation. The University, despite its size, resources and national profile, lacks any musical tradition.
Students juggle demanding coursework, competitive programs, extracurricular commitments and uncertainty about the job market on a daily basis. However, providing accessible live music to students could serve as a means of combatting the pervasive issue that is stress and burnout for college students.
Music plays a significant role in stress reduction. A 2019 meta-analysis found that, across a large number of studies, music interventions reliably reduced stress, both physical and mental. In addition to the University’s mental health resources, access to live music would greatly benefit students’ well-being. Live music offers something unique that streaming cannot. It creates shared emotional experiences, social connections and allows students to escape from the constant stress of the academic world.
Critics may argue that it’s an irresponsible use of University funds to provide free or subsidized concerts to students. However, the University already invests heavily in athletics, infrastructure and branding. A student-focused music tradition wouldn’t divert any resources from those priorities, but it would greatly benefit the student body that supports them.
There is also the option of shared funding models. The University of California, Berkeley’s student-run SUPERB has already displayed the effectiveness of this model, bringing artists such as Thundercat and Cold War Kids to campus throughsponsorships with Target, Spotify and Pepsi. Student fees already support campus programming at the University of Michigan. Alumni donations and corporate sponsorships could offset costs without requiring the University to charge for tickets to the event.
Another concern is exclusivity: Would such concerts benefit only certain musical tastes? The solution is not perfection, but consistency. Over time, lineups would contain artists of different genres that reflect the diversity of the student body. What matters most isn’t who performs, but that the event belongs to students.
The University prides itself on tradition, most of which revolves around athletics. While many students enjoy the thrill of a football game in the fall or the fast-paced basketball games in the spring, not every student bonds over sports. Music, on the other hand, is universal.
Last semester’s concert proved the Big House can host large-scale concerts. One of the University’s main jobs is to ensure student well-being. If the administration is serious about doing so, it should move beyond one-off, expensive concerts and toward something that benefits the entire student body.
The Big House already brings students together on Saturdays. There’s no reason it can’t do the same on a spring night, under the lights, with music echoing through a stadium full of students who finally get to enjoy it together.
Alex Gani is an Opinion Analyst from San Francisco, California. He can be reached at agani@umich.edu.