18 Bands in Sewaren Tomorrow Will Celebrate Hometown Star Eric LeGrand

Eric LeGrand may be a severely injured Rutgers University football player, but he's also a man with a lot of friends, including some in very high places.

One of them is Elliot Solop, a 24-year-old law student and sports agent who has been a key figure in setting up Saturday's 52 Fest, a musical extravaganza of 18 bands to be held on the Sewaren waterfront. 

The concert, a fundraiser to raise money for LeGrand's rehabilitation, started with the idea of "putting a smile on Eric's face."

"This is all about Eric. We want to make him happy," he said.

Solop, along with Joe Geis and Marisa Mendez, is holding the 52 Fest at Alvin P. Williams Park, a county facility fashioned from a manmade peninsula at the foot of Debra Place and Cliff Road, the narrow ribbon of street that runs along the water in Sewaren.

52 Fest, named after LeGrand's Rutgers football number, will perform on two stages beginning at 1 pm and continuing through to 8 pm. The bands span a broad range of music styles, from hip hop to metal, rock and alternative, and local bands such as Socratic have signed up to perform.

The big draw, Elliot said, is Funkmaster Flex, a musician who is an industry himself. A hip hop artist and DJ with a popular radio show and an MTV program celebrating his love of cars, Funkmaster Flex has a huge following and has been advertising 52Fest for weeks on the radio.

"It's gonna be a blast. It's been brutal getting everything in order, but it'll probably be one of the best days of my life," Solop said.

The promoters have made ingenious use of social media to get the word out. In addition to their 52 Fest website and the Funkmaster's promoting the concert on the radio, they've been pumping up the interest via Facebook and Twitter.

Other media sites have helped. Solop said he and LeGrand were on the local NBC news about the festival, and the popular statewide radio station NJ 101.5 has been getting the word around. They'll also have a table at the event.

Initial ticket sales have been low, Solop admitted, but in the flash action world of social media, that can be remedied in a nanosecond.

He's expecting most of the sales to come from fans paying $20 a head at the gate. 

After making an estimate of the bands' followings, Solip thought that 1,000 people may show up. The county recreation department, who issued the permit to the township for the event, estimated significantly more would be there to enjoy the concert.

"We made it a festival in honor of Eric, for his friends and for Woodbridge. Every one of us knows about Eric. This would be a perfect celebration to make a memorable event for Eric that he'd remember for the rest of his life," Solop said.