Gold Fest - Sean Kingston and Gavin DeGraw at LSU

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BATON ROUGE -- Join LSU head coach Les Miles, Mike the Tiger, the LSU cheerleaders and Tiger Girls at Gold Fest on Thursday, Sept. 25, at 7 p.m. in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in advance of the Tiger football team kicking off the Southeastern Conference home schedule that Saturday in Tiger Stadium.

Gold Fest, which was originally scheduled to be a part of LSU Homecoming 2008 before Hurricane Gustav forced the rescheduling of Homecoming festivities to Nov. 9-15, features a powerhouse concert by two of today’s hottest musical stars, hip-hop artist Sean Kingston and singer-songwriter Gavin DeGraw. Fans are also encouraged to wear gold to the Mississippi State game that Saturday to amp up the excitement as LSU attempts to defend its BCS National Championship.

Sean Kingston’s cut, “Beautiful Girls,” made history with one of the fastest ascents up the charts ever. Following that, the singer/rapper scored two more top 10 hits including “Me Love” and “Take You There.” His blend of hip hop, reggae, pop and doo-wop creates a refreshing musical style.

The 18-year-old Kingston prefers to use creativity instead of profanity in his songwriting. He has sold more than three million digital singles, more than three million ringtones and has toured with artists like Gwen Stefani, Chris Brown and Kelly Clarkson. Kingston was also featured on Natasha Bedingfield’s hit “Love Like This.” In fact, his own “Take You There” and “Love Like This” climbed the radio and iTunes charts together giving him back-to-back hits in January.

Gavin DeGraw is a talent who, in just a few years, has become one of today’s premier singer-songwriters. Selling more than a million copies and earning platinum certification, his first album, “Chariot,” yielded three hit singles – “I Don’t Want To Be,” “Follow Through” and the title-track, “Chariot.” “I Don’t Want To Be,” was chosen as the theme song for the hit television show, “One Tree Hill.”

His new, self-titled release, “Gavin DeGraw,” has more of a rock flavor without being a hard rock album. The first single, “In Love With A Girl,” finds DeGraw crooning about the security of being in a relationship. It is a quintessential rock jam that amplifies DeGraw’s ubiquitous themes of romance and is a perfect introduction to the new sound of his latest album.

Gold Fest is sponsored by LSU Homecoming 2008, LSU Athletics and Cox Communications. Tickets are $6 for LSU students and $11 for all others. Tickets are available at the LSUsports.net. Groups of 30 or more may receive a group discount by e-mailing homecoming@lsu.edu.

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