Flo Rida to perform benefit concert before Pig Roast

The club may not be able to handle Flo Rida, but Richmond will find out next month whether the Robins Center can.

The concert, which was jointly sponsored by the Campus Activities Board and Camp Kesem, has been in the planning stages for a few months, but was only recently confirmed. Unlike last year's performance, it will be held the night before Pig Roast, CAB president Rachel McMullen said.

Last year, CAB booked Afroman, another hip-hop artist, to perform on the afternoon of Pig Roast, but he arrived more than an hour late and many students left before the performance.

A student involved with Camp Kesem had the contact at 94.5 WVRQ, and was friends with one of the DJs, said senior Kara Finzel, fundraising co-coordinator for Camp Kesem.

"This guy really wanted to help out Camp Kesem and had all these contacts at the radio station and he really wanted to put a concert together," Finzel said. "We had to get some funding from campus organizations though."

Seniors Kristin Qutub, Kelly Larsen and Eric Piasecki went to several campus organizations and ended up getting funding from CAB, WCGA and RCSGA. They were able to secure about $20,000 from campus organizations, she said.

"I'm very excited," sophomore Kate Gerstenberger said. "I think he's a good choice and I think he'll be much better than Afroman."

Flo Rida, whose real name is Tramar Dillard, reached the height of his popularity with the hit single "Right Round," which reached No. 1 on the Hot 100 chart for six weeks.

He won the 2010 People's Choice Award for favorite hip-hop song and was nominated for Artist of the Year.

Tickets will go on sale at $10 for students and $20 for community members.

"We're hoping there will be big campus involvement and the community as well," Finzel said. "Regardless of profit, we're just hoping to put on a great event. We're hoping that since we're doing it on Friday night it will be a success, because with Afroman being on Saturday, there were too many other events and people tend to fade out by the end of the day.

"We're hoping that on a Friday night when you can't register parties anyway, it'll be another fun addition to Pig Roast weekend"