Alt-rock band bôa to headline Moody X-Fest
The third Moody X-Fest will host English alt-rock band bôa as the headline act. The festival on April 25 will be bôa’s first stop in the U.S. in 2025, before they continue their Whiplash tour in Dallas.
According to Andy Osborn, bôa was chosen by Rice students in a poll conducted in fall 2024.
“We had 1,560 responses to the survey in the fall,” said Osborn, the program manager of educational initiatives in the provost’s office. “Given all these factors, we are thrilled that the highly ranked bôa has been booked.”
Osborn said that the Student Center and Development and Alumni Relations Division coordinated with several artists to negotiate costs and scheduling, along with partnering with an unnamed talent agency to choose bôa.
X-Fest will be held in Founder’s Court, rain or shine. This year marks the third celebration of the Moody Foundation’s $100 million donation to Rice, with GROUPLOVE and Jeremy Zucker headlining in previous years.
In addition to bôa, the festival will host five student acts. For the first time, there will be an official application for interested student organizations to apply to perform at the festival.
The official Moody X-Fest t-shirt will also be designed by a Rice student, Osborn said. The designer of the chosen shirt will win a $250 cash prize.
“The t-shirt design competition is another new opportunity for increased student input/involvement,” Osborn said. “It’s been exciting to see the X-Fest t-shirts worn by students across campus the last couple of years, and we want to celebrate student creativity by featuring student artwork on the official 2025 Moody X-Fest t-shirt.”
bôa is most notable for their song “Duvet,” which is the opening theme for the anime series “Serial Experiments Lain.”
Caitlyn Ladd said she discovered the band through the anime, near the apex of “Duvet’s” reemergence and virality on social media near the end of 2021.
“One of my friends was really into ‘Serial Experiments Lain,’ around the same time that “Duvet” bôa song was, like, blowing up on TikTok,” said Ladd, a Wiess College sophomore. “After watching, I just started listening to all of their music. [Seeing the announcement], I texted my friend and I said, ‘Holy shit, it’s bôa!’”
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