Photo Credit: Richard Castañeda / Daily Sundial Staff PhotographerThe Big Show 8 featuring UNI, Black Violin, DJ Eric D-Lux, Tyrese, Lil' Fate and headliner Ludacris drew thousands Saturday at CSUN on October 11, 2008. The Atlanta rapper pleased the crowed with almost and hour of hits from his expansive repertoire that spans six hit albums. The concert was slated to begin at 12 noon but started at around 1PM to many anxious fans.
UNI, with their backing band, got the crowd pumped with songs like "Fat Girl" and the MTV backed "Beautiful Day". Next up was Black Violin which features two emcees that also play the violin along mixed tracks by a DJ. The host for the event DJ Eric D-Lux kept the crowd pumped for Ludacris with t-shirt and CD giveaways and an impromptu dance competition.
Ludacris took the stage with Lil' Fate who is a long time friend of Ludacris and is a member of DTP (Disturbing Tha Peace) which Ludacris has been supported throughout his entire artistic career. The rapper performed a slew of hits including "Moneymaker", "Move Bitch", and "Roll Out". Ludacris was joined onstage by R&B singer Tyrese which got the insane crowd even more riled up. In between songs Ludacris kept the dialogue interesting with quirky remarks leading up to the next song he performed. The rapper also integrated comments about CSUN into many of his hits which kept the crowd excited throughout the entire performance. The rapper ended the concert when he felt that his voice was giving out and launched a towel he used throughout the concert into the crowd which incited a small riot of fans eager to attain the souvenir.
"It was the best concert I've been to this year, it was crunk!" said Sandra Reyes, a Los Angeles Valley College student. "Ludacris was awesome, I had a great time!", said Loretta Miranda, a CSUN student. These sentiments seemed to echo throughout the crowd as the massive event concluded.
According to Audrey Younna, A.S. Space Executive Director, Big Show 8 began its process in January. "We sat down and started the planning process right after the last big show and saw what went wrong and what went right. We started surveying students for data," said Younna.
So who organizes garnering big name acts to the Big Show year after year? In the past the Big Show concert series has seen diverse acts such as Jimmy Eat World, Ne-Yo, Common, amongst others. "Myself and my advisor. We work with a middle agent who is the middle man that makes sure that the type of artist student want to see is met," said Younna.
Massive promotion made the event a complete success, drawing thousands more than previous years. "We started advertising at freshman orientation. We advertised at the presidents' picnic, matador nights and we had a zone system where we zoned out all the colleges. We also used myspace, facebook, other concerts, we bought an ad on myspace and we we promoted on power 106," continued Younna.
So what's next for Big Show? The unprecedented turnout this year is a mighty feat to surpass for next years show but Younna ensures us that the process will begin shortly once more. "We've evaluated this big show, what we need to do financially, the space for it and once winter break comes along that's when the big show planning process begins and we start the survey process to see what genres students want - students have been wanting rock so we're thinking of doing a mix of hip hop and rock, having a hip hop act and a rock act, but it all depends on the survey process and the budget we receive from the A.S."
According to Associated Students Space the total number of CSUN students who got tickets to the show was 5,394. Of those 5,394, 796 were student guests/faculty/staff and 29 off campus tickets were sold. 6,219 tickets were distributed. The actual attendance was estimated at 4,500.
Below is a link with pictures from the event, an interview with Valley College Student, Sandra Reyes, and a few videos of the concert:
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