John Rich spoke about meeting some students at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, after his concert on Monday.
A North Carolina country singer, John Rich, described his Labor Day concert in Chapel Hill as “a huge success.” The concert was held to honour the University of North Carolina students who defended the American flag on campus during the spring unrest.
Rich and his band, Big & Rich, hosted the “Flagstock” concert in the university town as a way of thanking a group of patriotic students who ensured the flag never hit the group during the anti-Israel protestors’ attempt to replace it with the Palestinian flag on two occasions on April 30.
Rich told the media, “The event was a huge success! As of now, we’re beyond 700k views, and people all around America are commenting on social media as to how much they loved Flagstock.” “The artists all brought their A-game, and it was a show fit for a stadium!”
After the concert, Rich “met many of the students, and they were blown away with the whole thing,” he stated. “They couldn’t believe we actually followed through on this event, and executed it at such a high level. Some students were even teary-eyed as they spoke with us. The whole thing was very positive, powerful and moving in many ways.”
In an interview with Fox News Digital on Monday, many Chapel Hill Students reflected on their course’s unprompted act of patriotism on April 30 that inspired the Flagstock.
Jason Calderon, a UNC’s Zeta Beta Tau Chapter member who held up the flag on April 30, told the media, “It was a little crazy, for sure. I mean, we were getting stuff thrown at us. Rocks were flying over our heads … balloons full of chicken broth were thrown at us, and other stuff was just flying around us.” “People are screaming at us. It was a chaotic moment.”
A student photographer captured moments of students defending the US flag, which went viral on social media. John Noonan created a GoFundMe for the students who defended the flag, though he was unaffiliated with Chapel Hill. The GoFundMe aimed to buy the students “a few kegs” for their display of patriotism. The fundraiser ended with more than $500,000 in donations.
In the beginning, Calderon stated he didn’t know what to do with the massive fundraiser.
The sophomore stated, “In the beginning, it’s almost like what we did … didn’t feel like that monumental of a thing to do. … We were originally there in support of Israel, and then it became this big American, patriotic kind of event, and we were just initially fearful of that it would be taken out of the context that it was originally there for, and it would be used to fit an agenda of some sort.” “And that was the biggest thing that we were trying to avoid.”
John Rich also offered to help by hosting a concert honouring the students. Initially, Rich intended to host a small show in front of the fraternity house but later changed the plans.
The concert started small and became more extensive when Chapel Hill students attended. According to Matthew Broderick, a senior and a journalism major, “the vibes on campus have been very split” in the lead-up to Flagstock.
He stated, “There’s a lot of people who are in huge favour of this. They love this. And then there’s a lot of people who think this is a really bad idea.” “I mean, I think some fraternities and sororities have been telling the people, ‘Hey, don’t come to this. We think it’s a bad look.’ And then some have been like, ‘Hey, please go to this is. It’s a really good look. It’s good for our fraternity and our sorority.’… But I don’t think there’s a consensus about this.”
Many people came to support the show. According to Dan Cragg, an attorney working for Pints for Patriots, ‘What those kids did was honourable and patriotic.” “And we want to support that. … And certainly, we want to create an incentive system where sticking their neck out like that – defending the flag – there’s a bonus. There’s a reward for that.”
The concert included performances from Big & Rich, Lee Greenwood, John Ondraisk and Aaron Lewis, a.k.a Five for Fighting. There was a surprise performance from Roman Rene Ramirez of Sublime.
