Following performances from Slayyter and That Mexican OT, The Dare electrified the audience with his EDM/punk/indie rock set at the 51st annual Movin’ On Festival at Penn State.
The Dare is a NYC-based DJ, musician, and producer, best known for his single “Girls,” released in August 2022, and for producing the song “Guess” by Charli XCX on the deluxe version of her 2024 album ‘Brat.’
The Dare started off his set with flashing lights and pumping bass, and came out with energy to spare in a full suit, sunglasses and swagger. He opened the set with “Open Up” and “Good Time,” inviting the crowd to jam out with him.
Before he started playing his next song, “Sex,” he said to the crowd, “You know, my mom is from Pennsylvania. So without Pennsylvania, there’d be no me. So I owe you guys.”
I, like many other students, didn’t know much about The Dare before going to Movin’ On, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed his performance onstage at the festival. He commanded the stage and gave the crowd a taste of his vibes and music, leaving the students wanting more.
Christine Silvester, a third-year Penn State student, came to Movin’ On to see Zara Larsson and hang out with all of her friends, but really liked The Dare’s performance.
“I was really unfamiliar with his music, but he had such good bopping-around songs, and I was just dancing and loving his suit,” Silvester said.
Despite many crowd members not knowing the words to his songs, they enjoyed it nonetheless and were jumping and dancing in the rain throughout his whole set. As the set went on and the skies darkened, The Dare lit up the IM Fields with his set and his shining stage lights.
The Dare looked like he was having the time of his life onstage, rocking out, swinging the microphone around and even walking around the stage with the cymbal stand in the air. His incredible stage presence turned a field in rural Pennsylvania into an EDM festival set.
After talking to Sarah Connors, a third-year student and Her Campus writer at Penn State, I was able to get a better idea of the kind of artist The Dare is. Connors discovered him first from his song “Girls” and kept listening because “he’s a good mix between a house type of BPM and electronic punk.”
“It 1000% lived up to my expectations. His persona on stage emulates exactly the kind of image he plays to on his socials,” Connors said. “I really just felt like he was having the time of his life, and that’s exactly what I would expect from him performing his music.”
A third-year student at Penn State, Colin Sharp, shared that he found out about The Dare through Instagram and knew a couple of songs coming into the festival. As a big EDM fan, Sharp thought “this dude is legit, I gotta go see him — live and in-person.”
After the performance, Sharp explained that he had wanted to experience this performance without a phone and just dance, which he did, and it was “amazing and [I] would not trade it for anything in the world.”
The Dare ended his set by playing the highly anticipated, “Girls,” which got the whole crowd hyped up and ready for the headlining act.