Freakers Ball 2010 kicked off on a slow note, getting passive reactions from the crowd as several opening acts desperately tried to delay the fact that the main event, Ludacris, was very late.
Ludacris flew into Boca Raton on a private jet that arrived two hours late of his 9 p.m. scheduled appearance. But when he did show up, the crowd went wild.
“Despite being late, Ludacris really knew his audience and got people off their feet,” said Student Body President Ayden Maher.
In between the opening acts and during the long period of waiting for Ludacris to arrive, DJ Scoobz entertained the crowd and got people dancing in the isles more than the groups on stage.
Among the opening acts was Hoot Recordings artist Danny B. During his set, he brought FAU student Marcus Banks on stage. Banks, a senior commercial music major, is known around campus as a spontaneous freestyle rapper and received a warm welcome from the crowd as he rapped with FAU singer Johanna Jordan.
“I opened at last year’s Freakers Ball, but I felt like the crowd was feeling it more this time,” said Banks.
Aside from DJ Scoobz, the next big crowd pleaser was Kawan Debose. However, the only attention he seemed to get from the crowd was when he played cover songs.
Following Debose, it was apparent that the audience was not interested in anyone else’s music as they began to boo and chant Ludacris’ name each time a new act appeared on stage.
Finally, after two hours of waiting, Ludacris walked on stage. After making fun of himself for being late, he claimed he wouldn’t stop playing music until they forced him out. Ludacris then proceeded to play from a little after 10:30 p.m. till about 11:30 p.m. He played all his big hits from his ten-year career, including some deep album tracks from his early records.
He was a huge crowd pleaser and even began taking requests from the fans. Throughout his set, he challenged the audience to weed out the “true Luda fans,” but seemed surprisingly impressed with how the audience knew all the words to all his songs.
In the middle of his set, Ludacris left the stage to the two-man rap group BXC, to which the audience fell silent and sat down. After two songs, Ludacris was back, and the audience immediately jumped to their feet. It was clear that everyone was there to see Ludacris, and nobody else.
“It was a great show compared to other events we’ve had in the past,” said Maher. “I think everyone, including the opening acts, did an outstanding job.”
