‘Knight’ of free food attracts thousands

Fun, games, sauerkraut and hot dogs — more than 3,000 students turned out Friday night for all of this and the smooth jams of Bobby Valentino at Hot Dog Knight.
Rutgers University Programming Association’s kickoff event at the Rutgers Student Center on the College Avenue campus aimed to unify the University, said RUPA Adviser Matthew Ferguson, the assistant director for Student Life.
“Hot Dog Knight or Hot Dog Day, whatever it may be, is just a time for people to get together for no other reason than to be together and eat some food,” he said.
Within the first two hours of the event, RUPA went through almost 3,000 hot dogs.
Livingston College junior and RUPA member Greg Kassee, clad in a hot dog costume, said he hoped the event would bring all the different parts of the University community together.
“I want the students to come out. I want Rutgers to come out, New Brunswick to come out. Get a hot dog, have some fun at the games, care about RUPA, come to our other events,” Kassee said. “We’ve got a lot of other events coming up, this is just the kickoff.”
Kassee said students had a lot of fun with his hot dog suit.
“People love the hot dog suit,” Kassee said. “They dig it.”
Activities available to students included a frog hop, a mini-golf putt challenge, a ladder crawl and a car smash.
School of Arts and Sciences sophomore Daniel Kwon said he enjoyed the free hot dogs and the spirit of the event.
“It’s an event that anyone can go to,” Kwon said. “I just walked out, saw it and walked over.”
Rutgers College senior Scott Huynh said the activities were well-planned and organized. Huynh watched another student take a sledgehammer to a ’01 Ford Taurus at the car smash and admitted he would miss this sort of event when he graduated.
“Specifically, [I’ll miss] watching people beat the crap out of cars,” Huynh said.
Outside the student center before the concert, vendors and organizations showered students with coupons, keychains, breakfast milkshakes, Doritos, tote bags and other free items.
“We worked hard to get all these different vendors here that would give away samples and everything,” Ferguson said. “We know it’s the beginning of the year too and that’s when students need the most free stuff.”
Douglass College junior Melissa Harkins, a Rutgers Juggling Club member, said the club had been performing at the student center since its meeting let out earlier in the day. Harkins said the club had not juggled any hot dogs but it was being considered as a possibility.
The Bobby Valentino concert followed Hot Dog Knight, beginning at 8 p.m. when opener Rotimi took the stage of the Multipurpose Room of the Rutgers Student Center, on the College Avenue campus. An hour later Bobby Valentino walked out to the stage to a crowd chanting “Bobby.”
Rutgers College senior Roselyn Jose, RUPA’s vice president of music, said about 400 people attended the concert.
Valentino sang whole songs and snippets including “Beep,” “Butterfly Tattoo” and “Anonymous.”
School of Arts and Sciences first-year student Johnathan Chu said he had a great time at the concert.
“Bobby V’s crazy,” Chu said. “He’s really good live.”