The crowd was silent as Oregon State University Program Council Lead Event Specialist and 4th Year Chemical Engineering Major, Andrea Valle, pulled the string to reveal the headliner poster for the council’s biggest upcoming event of the year, Dam Jam.
The OSUPC hosted the Dam Jam Artist Reveal event on May 4, from 1:30 p.m. till 4 p.m. During the event, both the openers and the headliner were revealed by the OSUPC.
Both opening acts were chosen following the Battle of the Bands event hosted on April 10, 2026, by KBVR radio and KBVR TV.
At 2:20 p.m., Valle revealed the first Dam Jam opener, Similar Product. At 2:40 p.m. the second opener, Honeydrome, was revealed.
At 3 p.m., the national artist headliner was revealed to all the attendees.
“The 2026 Dam Jam artist is Neon Trees,” Valle said.
Two KBVR radio DJs, Levi Garza, a first-year botany major, and Van Staats, a first-year entomology major, managed the music during the Artist Reveal celebration.
The Dam Jam event will be hosted on May 15, 2026, as a partnership between Orange Media Network and OSUPC in the Student Experience Center Plaza and Memorial Union Quad from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Matthew Zeamer, another OSUPC Lead Event Specialist and 4th-year finance major, will be organizing the event this year.
Zeamer hopes that choosing the openers for Dam Jam will continue to come from the Battle of the Bands. In previous years, openers were chosen via Battle of the DJs in 2019, by recommendation from Locals Live in 2025 and —many years ago— an older rendition of Battle of the Bands.
Zeamer notes that in the past, winners of the Battle of the Bands contest would open for DamJam. Additionally, he noted that the event was comparably larger than in the past few years
Besides the performances from both openers and Neon Trees, the Dam Jam celebration will consist of local vendors, food trucks, and a free pilates class at 3 p.m. in the Memorial Union Quad before the music.
Regarding the turnout to the event, Zeamer is hoping to see around 4 to 5 thousand people in attendance.
“It’ll be packed, it’ll be fun, I’m excited,” Zeamer said.
Previous years’ DamJam headliners have consisted of Dayglow in 2025, T-Pain in 2016 and Macklemore in 2012 to name a few.
