Big & Rich, Aaron Lewis & More Perform Free Concert At UNC After Fraternity Students Went Viral Protecting The American Flag

Flagstock 2024 is in the books. If you remember back in May at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, anti-Israel protestors took down the American flag on the campus quad and replaced it with a Palestinian flag, a move that (understandably) upset quite a few people. Police eventually escorted UNC chancellor Lee Roberts out to personally replace the stars and stripes, leading to a heated confrontation with the pro-Palestinian protestors. But after the flag was replaced, an unlikely group of heroes emerged to protect it from the angry mob: Frat bros. A photo quickly went viral of the group of fraternity brothers protecting the American flag, singing the national anthem as it was being hoisted back above campus and smiling at protestors who were hurling things at them as they surrounded the flagpole. https://twitter.com/estradguillermo/status/1785431824660873451 https://twitter.com/mualphaxi/status/1785481782525153345 After their actions to protect the flag went viral, a GoFundMe was established to throw a rager for the frat bros. And John Rich offered to serve as the entertainment for the event with a free concert: https://twitter.com/johnrich/status/1785802205246714000 Well Rich kept his promise, and this past weekend headed down to UNC for "Flagstock 2024," along with some of his friends in the country music business. Rich was joined by Lee Greenwood, Aaron Lewis, and John Ondrasik of Five for Fighting along with a surprise appearance from Roman Rene Ramirez of Sublime, and encouraged the students to remain patriotic: "My question for you is this: Do you still love America?" But the concert wasn't without controversy, with one UNC student telling Fox News that some organizations were encouraging their members not to attend: "There's a lot of people who are in huge favor 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."