Members of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill community gathered on Labor Day to celebrate “Flagstock,” a concert organized to honor a group of fraternity brothers who defended the Star-Spangled Banner amid campus unrest.
The fraternities earned an outpouring of support in May after images and videos captured their members encircling a flagpole that bore an American flag. The images were taken during a campus protest during which demonstrators attempted to raise a Palestinian flag in its place, according to freelance journalist Bryan Anderson.
A GoFundMe created to throw the frats “a rager” earned over $515,000 before it was closed by organizers. These funds were reportedly used to organize the concert.
A livestream of the concert shared via Rumble captured patriotic performances from a slew of artists including Aaron Lewis, Vladimir John Ondrasik and Lee Greenwood, who also performed during the Republican National Convention in July.
“It breaks my heart actually to look at you guys, even though you look like you’re having a good time,” Ondrasik, who uses the stage name Five for Fighting, said during the show. “It is critical that we stand up to the faculty that indoctrinates our kids with hatred and radicalism. It is critical that we stand up the administrators and presidents across our nation that enable, encourage and sometimes support the mobs running amuck.”
Country singer John Rich, who originally proposed throwing the concert, condemned those who “painted [young people] with a broad brush.”
“They say ‘well, they’re a bunch of knuckleheads playing video games in their mom’s basement drinking soy lattes,’” Rich said. “You know, here’s what they say: ‘all the young people in this country are a bunch of beta males out there sucking the government t–.’”
“Is that who you are?” Rich asked. “Or is this a group of young Americans that want to chase the American Dream?”
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