Summer Jam: Behind the Scenes

[Ebro Darden]
Yo, what's going on? My name's Ebro Darden. Um — work in programming here at Hot 97. Also do The Morning Show. Also, uh, coordinate Summer Jam. Get there early. Show doesn’t start 'til 6:00, but we have the festival in the parking lot. Want to make sure everybody's where they need to be. Start, uh, figuring out if artists are awake, making sure sets are ready, DJs are ready. You know, T's are crossed and I's are dotted, as they say.

I would say my main focus on Summer Jam day is making sure that that main stage — that stadium stage — runs on time. Uh, you know, making sure artists are in the building, with enough time to prepare to go on stage. Uh, and then making sure that they are on stage ready to perform, 'cause Summer Jam doesn’t stop. Once the show starts, we go boom, boom, boom. It's not like those concerts you go to where there's downtime. You know, you walk around and wait for this and that. Nah. It's non-stop action front and back.