There will be a “fire burnin’ on the dance floor” at the Reitz Union Rion Ballroom March 23, but don’t call Gainesville Fire Rescue.
Sean Kingston, a Miami-born, Jamaican American singer and rapper, will perform as part of the fifth-annual Big Orange Festival, according to a Facebook event created by the Reitz Union Programming Board on Thursday. The festival is also hosting three Saturday Night Live comedians: Mikey Day, Alex Moffat and Streeter Seidell.
Kingston is being paid $40,000 to perform, said Solange Douglas, assistant director of programs at the Reitz Union. Day and Moffat will be paid $10,500 each, and Seidell will be paid $3,500.
Students with a UFID can attend the event. Students must bring their UFID 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday to the North Lawn to receive an early ticket, the Facebook event said. Students can get a ticket for either Kingston’s or the comedy performance but not both.
If enough ticket-holding students don’t show, those in a standby line will get tickets, the Facebook event said.
The first 400 students who attend will get a free shirt. There will also be free food, acrobats and a showing of “The Greatest Showman,” according to the Facebook event said.
RPB representatives didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.
Kelly Daly, a UF public relations junior, had a Sean Kingston-themed 21st birthday party in November. She said she has been a fan of Kingston’s since she was in middle school and his music has a good beat.
“It reminds me of being young and summertime,” she said.
Contact Meryl Kornfield at mkornfield@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter at @merylkornfield.
Sean Kingston