Fans of Raleigh’s music scene will have a chance this weekend to attend a two-night fundraiser featuring a variety of bands and music genres hosted by NC State’s very own radio station. Friday, Feb. 1 and Saturday, Feb. 2, NC State’s WKNC will be holding the 16th annual Double Barrel Benefit concert at the Raleigh venue Kings.

Jack Greene, WKNC’s program director and a fourth-year student studying business administration, has helped plan out what will go into the Double Barrel Benefit concert.

“It’s a two-night concert series we have where people who are familiar with WKNC know we tend to play a pretty wide variety of music,” Greene said. “We want to have that reflected in our actual concerts. So we have two nights with a bunch of different genres of music. The first night is more rock-leaning, we have some hardcore bands playing; the next night is R&B and more electronic-type stuff.”

To match with the style of music WKNC typically features on their station, they have arranged for artists from across the musical spectrum to come and perform. One of the artists who will be playing at the event has been seen before by WKNC’s general manager, Jules Conlon, a fourth-year studying biological sciences.

“I’m excited to see Young Bull,” Conlon said. “I saw them at Hopscotch this year, and they were really good. I’m also really excited for House Fire and to see how the crowd is going to react to that. It’s a little more out there than stuff we usually play, but personally I really like it.”    

Other artists that are playing include Kate Rhudy, Max Gowan, Real Dad and Das Drip on night one. On night two, along with Young Bull, there will be M8alla, Housefire and Moon Racer.

Conlon went over the wide variety of music that WKNC has chosen to play for this year’s benefit concert.

“This year we have indie-rock, we got hip-hop, we have noise and we have hardcore,” Conlon said.

As Conlon mentioned, the concert is meant to raise money for WKNC, as they receive only a fraction of their funding from other fees. The money is used to run different events, like Concert on the Lawn, which WKNC hosts throughout the year for the NC State students.

“[The Double Barrel Benefit will] raise money so we can keep the radio station alive because we are 46-percent student fee funded, so we need a little more money to keep things running,” Conlon said.         

With the cause to keep a student organization alive, WKNC’s Double Barrel Benefit concert is a unique experience that thrives off of a sense of community. Blending together not only students from NC State but also local artists and the general Raleigh community is Greene’s favorite part about this event.          

“Every year I’ve gone, it’s just been so much fun,” Greene said. “I don’t know … when I go to concerts, there’s never a strong sense of community, whereas this is the one time a year where I feel like Raleigh artists and NC State students come together to support a local institution. So I think it’s really fun and special in that sense.”

The Double Barrel Benefit concert has been held at Kings over the years, and WKNC will keep the tradition alive for this year’s concert as well. The event tends to sell out, with anywhere from 100 to 150 tickets being bought each night. Tickets go on sale for $13 for one night, or, if bought through the advanced ticket combo, are sold for $22. The doors open at 8 p.m. on both nights with the show itself starting at 8:30 p.m. More information about WKNC’s Double Barrel Benefit concert can be found on their website.

Greene wanted to be sure to get the message out from WKNC.  

“Just definitely come,” Green said. “We will guarantee it will be a good time. Treat yourself to a good weekend and please come out.”

Editor’s Note: WKNC is a branch of Student Media.