18 days after announcing The Chainsmokers as the 2026 Slope Day headliner, The Slope Day Programming Board announced that student DJ group SIDEPROJECT will open the event, with Daya set as the supporting act, according to a Monday Instagram post.
The reason for the delayed announcement is unknown and the SDPB did not immediately respond to comment regarding the delay.
Ethan Nagasako ’26, Ian Chang ’27, Dominic Nguyen ’27 and Brian Gu ’27, members of SIDEPROJECT, competed against four other student DJs — DJ Kav, ACID, Arsch x Danik and Sam Chitgopekar — on April 9 for a spot in the Slope Day lineup at Tower Room in the Willard Straight Hall Browsing Library.
The student DJ group was selected based on votes from attendees at the competition.
According to a YouTube video of SIDEPROJECT’s submission to the SDPB, the group has performed at several raves, Cornell Welcome Week and several Greek Life sororities and fraternities across Cornell. The individual members of SIDEPROJECT have also played at Lot 10, a concert hosted by the Cornell Concert Committee in November and several clubs across the country.
“Starting with playing in basements and bedrooms, we have now grown a large community and share the music we love with hundreds of people at each of our events,” the description of SIDEPROJECT’s video states. “Now we want to take that stage to Slope Day and further grow this community of peace, love, unity and respect. To us, it's more than just a SIDEPROJECT.”
Nagasako, Chang, Nguyen and Gu, whose stage names are DJEN, IYC, DVM and gubie, are members of Ephemeral Collective, a collective of local DJs.
Slope Day 2026 is slated for May 6 and is open to the Cornell student body, faculty and staff.
For the first time, a limited number of guest tickets will be offered to current undergraduate seniors, allowing non-Cornell affiliated guests to attend the century-old Cornell tradition. Tickets for outside guests are priced at $150 and are available for seniors to purchase for guests above the age of 21.
Undergraduate student wristbands are free and can be reserved on Campus Groups. Wristband pickup will run May 3-6 with multiple locations around campus.
Zeinab Faraj is a member of the Class of 2028 in the College of Arts and Sciences and a senior editor on the 144th Editorial Board. She was a features editor and assistant sports editor on the 143rd Editorial Board and can be reached at zfaraj@cornellsun.com.
