Lights, Camera, Songfest 2026!

By: Juan Drown and Aidden Johnson   Lights out on Songfest 2026.

The University of Toledo’s second-oldest tradition returned last Saturday for its 89th year with the theme being “Lights, Camera, Rockets”. Participants selected songs used in movies in accordance to the theme. 

Songfest initially started as an intra-fraternal competition in 1937; over the decades, it has widened to additional divisions, for the sororities and other student organizations.

Songfest is a shared commitment between two honor societies, Blue Key and the Mortar Board. The members are divided into committees to do various tasks. 

This year senior Ashton Widenhoeffer is a member of Mortar Board and served as the Director's Emcee. Jaden Bollinger is a member of Blue Key and served as Logistics Emcee. 

The two worked tirelessly since last April, on bringing back this important campus tradition. They expressed that it wouldn’t be possible without the hard work of all the organizations involved. 

“Every organization is brought closer together by this event. I think it really brings out that [sic] UT pride, a lot of these teams practice 10+ hours every week, most teams practice every day up until the last week of Songfest.” Bollinger states.

So what is all this effort for? Charity. 

Every year a charity is chosen to be the recipient of the donation funds, this year it was the Ovarian Cancer Connection(OCC). Every fraternity, sorority, and student organization that participated had their own Fundly link to donate money to OCC, collectively they raised a total of $31,036.35. 

At the conclusion of Songfest, the team that raised the most money was awarded the Cheryl Thomas People’s Choice award. This year the recipient was Kappa Delta Rho with the amount of $5,047. 

“Just an awesome night of bringing campus together, one of the things that I’ve been very passionate about in my time at UT and also in my role of student trustee is just bringing back campus culture and making campus a place where people want to be,” Widenhoeffer says. 

“It really does bring together all of the best things which make UT, UT,” says Bollinger.