This article is a review and includes subjective opinions, thoughts and critiques.

This year’s Frost Fest Music Festival, held on April 12 in Frost Amphitheater, was one of the most anticipated in recent history, with headliner Doechii fresh off of winning the Grammy for Best Rap Album and Billboard’s 2025 Woman of the Year award. The show was filled with crowd energy and anticipation; openers Ray Vaughn, Zacari and Zack Fox kept the momentum strong, but it was Doechii who stole the show with her on-stage charisma and renditions of both old and new tracks.

Since 2012, Frost Fest has been a spring quarter staple, as the Stanford-only concert is known for featuring artists right before they become household names, with past performers including Kaytranada, Fetty Wap, Zedd, Kali Uchis, Glass Animals and Phoebe Bridgers. In February, when Stanford Concert Network announced that Doechii would be headlining Frost, the hype was immediate: site traffic to the pre-sale site resulted in the website crashing (when I logged onto the site a minute after tickets had dropped, I was #3,851 in line), and by March, tickets had sold out for the event.

Doors opened around 5 p.m. on Saturday, and the sunny weather could not have been more ideal for the event. Rapper Ray Vaughn was the first performer to grace the stage and performed a short set as more attendees streamed into the venue. With his humorous lyrics and high energy in songs like “Mannequin” and “Tradeline,” Vaughn had entertaining rapport with the audience, taking pictures with Stanford students and clearly having fun during the early hours of the show. He was followed up by artist Zacari, whose slower, more soulful vocals queued the evening into a more relaxing environment.

“This is the first ever sold out Frost Fest,” Zacari told the crowd in between songs. The singer, who is perhaps best known for his feature on “LOVE” with Kendrick Lamar, was laid back and authentic during his set. He performed “Redemption,” from the Black Panther soundtrack, and “Bless Her Heart,” a song that features last year’s Frost Fest headliner Blxst. A surprise favorite of mine was “Don’t Trip,” a warm, reverberating track that made the perfect backdrop as the crowd continued to fill. 

The last performer before Doechii was Zack Fox, who, along with being a DJ, is well known as a comedian, rapper and his role as an actor playing Tariq in “Abbott Elementary.” Many audience members cascaded down from the grass to the pit for Fox’s set, which signaled the beginning of the high-energy, dancing portion of the show. 

Fox played a range of hits, blended skillfully together with pulsing beats. Memorable tracks included Janet Jackson’s “Someone to Call My Lover” and SZA’s “Saturn,” but Fox played everything from Jennifer Hudson to NLE Choppa during his approximately one-hour long set.

While Fox’s set was extremely well done and had the crowd moving, I felt that it could have been shorter — maybe this is because I had been at a darty earlier in the day and thus already had my share of DJing for the day, or maybe I was just really excited for Doechii to come out. I would have loved it if Fox had performed some of his own music, or played some of his own songs during his performance. Regardless, Fox had great stage presence, and with his set, the thrill of Frost Fest had really begun.

Finally, around 8:50 p.m., Doechii made her way to the stage. Joined by her collaborator, DJ Miss Milan, the Grammy award winner and self-proclaimed ‘Swamp Princess’ tore onto the platform with an abundance of energy, which was met with a roar from the crowd. 

The set started with a freestyle that rolled into hits from her most recent album, “Alligator Bites Never Heal.” Between each song in the 45-minute set, Doechii and Miss Milan, Doechii’s official DJ and emcee, would interact with each other and the crowd, asking questions, shouting love to the graduating class of 2025 and making frequent reference to “The Swamp.” 

A touching moment came during the artist’s rendition of “Black Girl Memoir,” a song off of one of her earlier EPs, “Oh the Places You’ll Go.” Explaining that she wrote it during a time when she didn’t see herself represented in the media, she dedicated the song to all of the Black women in the audience, stating, “I see you, I feel you and I am you.”

Draped in a gray blouse covered in assorted buttons, a pleated gray mini skirt and thigh high boots along with an alligator-skin headband, Doechii commanded the stage and did a remarkable job of dancing and working the crowd relentlessly throughout her performance. 

Other highlights for me were “DEATH ROLL,” “NISSAN ALTIMA” and her hit “DENIAL IS A RIVER,” when she and Miss Milan engaged in the now-iconic back-and-forth dialogue that the song opens with. The two also engaged the audience in the “breathing exercise” portion of the song, directing the crowd on how to play along. 

There didn’t feel to be a dull moment throughout the set, and as I looked around Frost Amphitheater, nearly everyone in the audience was on their feet and moving. I have attended the past two Frost Fests and seen audiences get excited for performers like Denzel Curry, UMI and Blxst, but their excitement and appreciation has never been so palpable as it was for Doechii.

At one point, Zack Fox joined Miss Milan atop the DJ stand and was given a round of shoutouts and applause for his earlier performance. Overall, across new and old hits, the set flowed together and kept the audience engaged and on their feet.

After 40 minutes flew by, Doechii concluded her set, but was brought back for an encore following the crowd’s chanting of her name. She erupted back on stage, telling the crowd that because she had her feedback turned off, she had no idea how loud the audience had been throughout her set. Her encore song was her 2024 single in collaboration with JT, “Alter Ego.” Finally, she bowed her last goodbyes to the audience before the lights came on. 

With that, the nearly three and half hour-long concert felt almost like it had been cut short. Doechii’s set was incredibly uplifting and fun, and I wish it had been just a few songs longer. Notably absent were songs like “ANXIETY” and “SLIDE,” which feature more of the artist’s vocals, and it would have been fun to see her shake up the pace of the concert. However, it cannot be understated how talented of a performer Doechii is. So many of her songs sound even better live than they do on the album, and seeing her at Frost Fest following the massive success she has had in the past year felt like a blessing. 

To conclude, Frost Fest 2025 was not only one to be anticipated, but one to be remembered. With perhaps the most anticipated headliner the festival has booked in recent years, the event had a lot of hype to live up to. While the opening acts were all talented performers, it did feel like the crowd was waiting for Doechii, and it was Doechii who truly lived up to that hype and delivered tenfold when she broke onto the stage for her set. If only it were longer!