Cornellians will be able to choose between not one but two Slope Days — the official University music festival and the grassroots Community Slope Day, organized by local activists in response to the University rescinding Kehlani’s headliner invitation.
The Community Slope Day music festival will take place from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Wednesday, entirely overlapping with Cornell’s Slope Day. It will take place at Stone Bend Farm in Newfield, New York, an approximately 20-minute drive away from campus.
Following the April 10 announcement of Kehlani as the original Slope Day headliner, some students and parents criticized the artist’s anti-Israel rhetoric and social media presence. Cornellians for Israel also launched a petition against the selection of Kehlani as the Slope Day headliner that accumulated over 5,000 signatures.
Cornell revoked Kehlani’s invitation to headline Slope Day over what President Michael Kotlikoff labeled “antisemitic, anti-Israel sentiments.”
But the cancellation sparked criticism from student groups about freedom of speech and institutional neutrality. The Community Slope Day Instagram account urged students to “boycott Slope Day,” writing that Kehlani’s “opposition to the genocide in Palestine isn’t hateful” and that the decision was made “without representative input of the student body.”
Community Slope Day organizer Elliot Walsh ’24 M.S. ’24 said that leaders of the event expect a turnout of approximately 500 people.
The festival is free and open to all Ithacans, and free Lyft rides will be provided, organizers said. The University’s Slope Day limits admission to Cornellians, offering free admission to Cornell undergraduates, while faculty, staff, graduate students and alumni can buy tickets for $55 to $75.
“Community Slope Day is grounded in a much more expansive vision of what community is,” Walsh said. “It's not just the Cornell community. … We see the residents of Ithaca and of surrounding towns, we see Ithaca College students as being community members on equal footing, and we want to take this opportunity to open up the event to whoever will come.”
Through Community Slope Day, Walsh said he hoped to create a space for all members of the Ithaca community to celebrate the end of the school year without participating in Cornell’s festival, which he saw as “repressive.”
He added that the community event aims to reclaim “grassroots student control” over the festival, which has previously been celebrated without approval or sanctioning from the University over its 125-year history.
“People want a party and people deserve a party, but not if that party is organized by fascists, not if it comes at the cost of suppressing Palestinian speech and not if it comes at the expense of trampling on student autonomy,” he said.
Community Slope Day will feature local, underground and independent artists like the punk rock band Secret Service Men, the country-western group Cast Iron Cowboys, the rapper Overpade and Ithaca College rock band Lost Mary’s.
Though the announcement of Cornell’s new Slope Day headliner Gunna was met with relatively positive reactions by Cornell students, it did not affect plans for Community Slope Day, according to Walsh.
“Ultimately, I don't think that [Cornell hiring Gunna as headliner] changes the underlying principles of what we are doing, which is creating a celebration that's more inclusive than what Cornell feels they can offer, that’s more equitable, that’s raising money for a good cause,” Walsh explained. “In that sense, new artist or no new artist, we’re continuing to do what we've been doing.”
On April 23 — the day the University announced its decision to rescind Kehlani as headliner — Community Slope Day created a GoFundMe to fund its Slope Day alternative event.
As of Tuesday, Community Slope Day’s GoFundMe has raised less than $6,000 toward its $25,000 goal, although Walsh said non-GoFundMe donors have brought total contributions closer to $20,000.
According to the GoFundMe page, any leftover money raised will go to the Palestinian Social Fund, which funds cooperative farms in Gaza and the West Bank, and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, which provides Palestinian refugees with healthcare, education and shelter.
The tight schedule complicated the event planning process, Walsh said. Preparation for Community Slope Day began less than two weeks ago, and the venue was only secured on Sunday.
“I wish we had had more time to do things,” Walsh said. “It's very much an uphill battle to approach artists and say, ‘We have a couple thousand dollars and two weeks. Are you willing to travel and come do this with us?’”
Hamza Ayad ’26 said he is choosing to attend Community Slope Day instead of Cornell’s Slope Day.
“I chose Community Slope Day because of what happened with Kehlani,” he said, “but more specifically, I chose Community Slope Day because of how much Cornell has disappointed me in the last year.”
When describing the motivation for coordinating Community Slope Day, Walsh also brought up a “pattern of disregarding student voices” by the University administration beyond the Khelani decision, pointing to the rejection of several items of a Student Assembly resolution based on protecting immigrant students and a mental health day following a week of campus tragedies.
Cornellians for Israel Vice President Amanda Silberstein ’25 did not respond to multiple requests for comment about the event.
A University spokesperson declined to comment on alternatives to Slope Day or the statements made by its organizers.
A successful Community Slope Day, in Walsh’s view, will be one that helps people “see a more expansive vision of community than what Cornell has to offer.”
“Donating a bit of money to the Palestinian causes that we're fundraising for, being able to just talk with people and have fun in a non-institutionalized way,” Walsh said. “I think that would be a win.”
