After months of effort and dedication put forth by the Union Activities Board and the Air Force Reserve, Ludacris performed to a sold-out audience Friday night.
The free event, held in Reynolds Coliseum, was hosted by the UAB and the AFR, along with several co-sponsors, and helped raise funds for Stop Hunger Now, a non-profit organization dedicated to ending starvation and hunger around the globe. UAB volunteers set up a stand outside the coliseum in an effort to educate others about the cause and to collect donations.
Before the concert began, the entrance line circled the entire garden area behind Talley Student Center to the entrance to the Campus Bookstore, all the way from the entrance of Reynolds, with people starting to line up as early as 6 p.m.
Haroon Tariq, a senior in biochemistry, yelled the Wolfpack chant along with his fellow concert-goers outside the coliseum.
“I think it’s awesome how Ludacris is here at N.C. State. I know we’ve had celebrities perform on campus before, but this is something completely different. Ludacris is by far the most popular celebrity we’ve brought here,” Tariq said while waiting in line.
According to Bobby Fitzjohn, director of the UAB, “the show was completely sold out with all 7,000 tickets being sold. Also, what’s more great about that is that over half the tickets were sold within the first day of sales.”
Scott Nedvesky, a sophomore in software engineering, stood in line the day the tickets came on sale to make sure he wouldn’t miss out on this great opportunity.
“I’ve listened to Ludacris songs for years now and I’ve seen a ton of his music videos, but I’m positive that this concert is going to be like nothing I’ve seen or heard of his before,” Nedvesky said after getting his ticket at Talley Student Center.
After the concert Friday, Nedvesky confirmed his prediction about the event.
“Wow. I will never forget this concert. It’s not every day you get to see such a world famous celebrity right in front of you, but that’s exactly how it was for each and every one of us at the concert,” Nedvesky said. “This was by far the coolest thing the UAB has put on that I’ve been to.”
All this was due to the hard work put forth by the students and faculty in the AFR and UAB. Though the program went smoothly and according to plan, it took months of preparation. Fitzjohn said the concept of a Ludacris concert on campus was presented to him and the UAB executives by the Air Force Reserve.
“The AFR had planned a nation-wide promotional campaign and had booked Ludacris for all 10 of their shows. They asked us if we would like to participate in their campaign sometime in July and — obviously — we accepted,” Fitzjohn said. “The Air Force Reserve booked the event but we were responsible for the rest of the work.”
Fitzjohn also said the UAB ran into some problems when they tried to book a venue toward the end of the summer.
“As soon as we confirmed Ludacris with the AFR, we started negotiating with the managers at Reynolds to try to book it. That was pretty tough because the schedule for the volleyball team wasn’t released yet so they weren’t sure if there was going to be a conflict. Thankfully, though, we were able to get Reynolds for that night,” Fitzjohn said. “This saved us a lot of money, considering we used a venue on campus, and a lot more time we would’ve lost trying to negotiate with off-campus venues.”
Fitzjohn said the UAB had to arrange $30,000, which was going to be the production cost.
“Although this seems like a lot, it’s actually a very small price to pay for such a big superstar to perform on campus,” Fitzjohn said. Since the AFR paid for Ludacris’ booking costs, the UAB was only responsible for “the venue, production and ticketing.”
They also contacted several large organizations across campus in an attempt to get co-sponsors to lessen the financial burden.
“With the cost of booking Lifehouse for Friday Fest, we needed all the monetary help we could get so we could continue to have events throughout the school year,” Fitzjohn said.
Considering the popularity of the artist and the event, Fitzjohn took this concert as an opportunity to promote a humanitarian cause. Because the experience was going to be completely free to all the concert-goers, the director estimated that at least 5,000 of the concert goers would be willing to donate $5, for a grand total of at least $25,000 raised for the Stop Hunger Now campaign.
Shafiq Zaib, a junior in biological sciences, said he was impressed by the way the UAB saw the concert as a charity opportunity.
“It’s good to know that people are donating for a good cause even though the concert was free,” Zaib said. “There are billions of people starving to death around this world and it feels good knowing that such a big organization at N.C. State is doing something to help the situation.”
