Ludacris, Gym Class Heroes to headline Fling

It's the biggest concert of the biggest party of the year at Penn - and Ludacris and Gym Class Heroes will headline it.

The Social Planning and Events Committee announced yesterday that the rapper and indie hip-hop band will take the stage at this year's Spring Fling concert at 8 p.m. on Friday, April 11.

The show, which featured Ben Folds and Third Eye Blind last year, will take place at Franklin Field. The last concert to be held in that venue took place in 2004.

In addition, the concert will be presented jointly by SPEC Concerts and SPECTRUM - SPEC to Represent Undergraduate Minorities - for the first time. In the past, the two subcommittees have held separate concerts, but they decided to pool their resources this year.

"We see that students have been crying out for more diverse, yet mainstream musical genres," said SPEC Concerts co-director and College sophomore Preston Hershorn. "We think we definitely got it this year. Ludacris has had more hits than almost any other rapper out there, and Gym Class Heroes are a great mix of hip-hop beats and indie vibes."

The driving force behind the collaboration between the two SPEC groups was the desire to move the venue to Franklin Field in order to increase the audience capacity. Last year only 3,000 tickets were available for the performance in Wynn Commons, as opposed to 8,000 this year.

SPECTRUM, whose spring concert last year was held downtown, also hoped to bring their concert back to campus to attract more students.

Both Hershorn and SPECTRUM co-director and Engineering senior Edwin Akrong cited the SPEC student survey from last semester as the basis for their artist choices.

One additional artist or band will also be part of the "triple bill" lineup and will be announced within the next two weeks.

"It probably won't be as big as Ludacris, to be honest, but it'll hopefully be a sizeable rock band," Hershorn said.

Each band will play for one hour during the concert, as opposed to an opener and headliner in past years. Ludacris, whose 2006 album Release Therapy won two Grammys, will close the show after Gym Class Heroes, who also recently won two MTV VMA awards.

Per SPEC policy, the directors declined to comment on the cost to bring Ludacris and Gym Class Heroes to Penn, only saying that it was "about the same" as in past years.

But according to records from the Undergraduate Assembly budget allocation, SPEC Spring Fling and SPECTRUM requested a joint total of $165,000 toward their spring concerts, not factoring in venue and advertising costs or concert revenue.

Tickets go on sale Wednesday at 10 a.m. Eight hundred wristbands granting access to the mosh pit will be distributed to Penn students through a lottery from March 21 to April 4 and through promotions.

For students reluctant to shell out money, 200 FlingSafe volunteers - a group of students who help promote safe behavior during Spring Fling - will receive free tickets. Applications will be posted on www.specevents.net in the coming weeks.

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