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We'd heard the rumors and speculated ourselves, and today the folks behind the Virgin Mobile Festival announced that its shortened schedule and new venue this year will have one pretty great thing going for it: it's going to be totally free.
The 2009 Virgin Mobile Festival will take place on Sunday, August 30 at Merriweather Post Pavilion, and will be, for real, entirely free. Why free? Virgin Mobile just wants to be nice, they say.
"In a time of economic challenges and daily sacrifices, we wanted to throw a fantastic party so people could let loose and have a great time -- on us," said Sir Richard Branson, Founder and President, Virgin Group. "Virgin Mobile FreeFest offers music fans a brilliant day of fun and music and a chance for them to give back to those even less fortunate."
OK, sure. Thanks, Mr. Billionaire!
You still have to snag a ticket, of course. The tickets will be given away to the public through Ticketmaster starting at 10 a.m. EST on Saturday, June 27. Virgin Mobile customers and previous Virgin Mobile Festival ticket buyers will have the best chances, as they'll be invited via email to a private "free-sale" (get it?) on Thursday and Friday. So if you fall into one of those two categories, keep an eye out for an email. Also note that Ticketmaster will waive its convenience charge only if you pick up your tickets at Merriweather or the 9:30 Club. Otherwise, you will have to pay a fee to have Ticketmaster deliver your tickets. Parking, however, will be free for the event.
To add another wrinkle, Virgin Mobile says that in order to "respond to the sharp decrease in national social giving," they'll be hosting a VIP seating area for people who complete 13 hours of community service at designated homeless youth shelters around the country (check back here after June 29 for more details). They'll also be promoting a text-based donation system (text “FREEFEST” to 20222) that will go to youth homeless centers.
So what about the music? Some really good bands are scheduled to appear, and then a couple of kinda lame headliners. Topping the bill are the band that everyone used to love but now pretty much hates, Weezer (hopefully they'll stick to older hits) and the band that no one ever liked, ever, Blink-182. The rest of the line-up is much more interesting: Franz Ferdinand, Public Enemy, The National, Girl Talk, The Bravery, The Hold Steady, St. Vincent, Wale, Mates of State, Taking Back Sunday, and Jet. There will also be a dance tent featuring HOLY F*CK, Pete Tong, Danny Howells and Lee Burridge. The full lineup is now available online.
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The parking rate, however, will be $150 per tire.
Hummm....The average temperature in August is 88F. I foresee $10 waters, $25 beers and $5 toilet dump fee.
Beer is incredibly expensive at Merriweather and all IMP venues.
For Christ's sake... I see the cynicism is running particularly high today. Let me get this straight: You guys are saying concessions are expensive at sporting events and concerts? That's not exactly earth-shattering news.
Aren't there more important things to complain about today than a free concert?
Hasn't anyone told you there in no such thing as a free lunch. These bands are not playing for free, the event staff is not volunteering, and the overhead for overall concert is not being paid by fairy dust. This cost will be captured in another way, just don't know how yet, but you will pay. My guess is that Virgin is not taking a profit and taking the hit in the name of marketing.
No one ever liked Blink 182, yet they sold more records then: Franz Ferdinand, Public Enemy, The National, Girl Talk, The Bravery, The Hold Steady, St. Vincent, Wale, Mates of State, Taking Back Sunday, and Jet combined.
Which makes total sense since people who hate a band generally go out and buy their records.
Concur: show me the money. Sorry Sommer, but just because you think those bands are "really good" does not make it so.
fucking right! i loved blink 182 growing up in the 90s and i'm not gonna lie, their albums still make awesome running playlist material. so lay off the hate.
I heard Blink 182 once took Sommer out on a date, hooked up with her, and then never called afterward. That might explain some of the misplaced anger there. I'm guessing lots of readers, myself included, really enjoy Blink 182.
Looking forward to totally not being able to get a ticket to see them.
I love Blink-182. I've seen them a couple times and watching Travis Barker on the drums was worth the price of admission. That man is amazing.
Can Travis Barker play the drums after being burned all over his body? This is a legit question, not a poke.
Don't know, haven't seen him play recently.
Yeah, I don't like Blink-182. But I generally recognize that "everyone" doesn't mean "me and my like-minded friends," and "nobody" isn't a substitute for "millions of people that I don't know."
Still a rip-off.
Most of those bands suck, whether they used to be cool, or not. And since it's at Merriweather, it might as well be in Montana, as far as I'm concerned.
Free concerts are like free gifts. If they suck, you should smile politely and ignore. If you don't, you just come off like the would's biggest wad.
Sounds sticky!
Free tickets to a huge concert? There is absolutely no way that this can go terribly, terribly wrong.
It'll be OK. I hear they've hired MS-13 to do security. Those guys don't take any guff from anybody.
Free Virgins?
Sign me up.
Except for Public Enemy, I can't even name a song by any of those bands.
You kids get off my lawn!!!
Just for that - you deserve to have the guitar riff from Franz Ferdinand's "Take Me Out" in your head for the rest of the afternoon.
Baaawheee na na nee na nee
Baaawheee na na nee na nee
Baaawheee na na nee na nee
Baaawheee na na nee na nee
There you go. You're welcome.
Since I've never heard that song, your earwig is useless on me!
wouldn't that be more?:
Bwount-knee bwount wow knee
Bwount-knee bwount wow knee
Bwount-knee bwount wow knee
Bwount-knee bwanna-bwanna-bwanna-bwanna
Wow, so who thought "Free Virgin Festival tickets?", could so rapidly be followed by "no thanks". This line up is similar to those free concerts thrown by local municipalities all over the country...washed up has-beens and mediocre up-and-comers.
It's worth wasting 30 minutes hammering away at the site
just to see The National, Girl Talk, St. Vincent, & Holy Fuck.
Hell, I'll try for tickets just for Girl Talk. And if you want an early shot at tickets, I think you can pick up a Virgin phone for $15 at Target, which includes some minutes, so you'll be their customer and on the advance ticket list. Then you use the phone minutes on CL for the "casual encounters" section. Win win!
or you can just search for the link online, which im sure will pop up tomorrow. that's how i get presale passwords for bands i want to see (i.e. depeche mode's presale for citi members was openly available online)
Yeah, but then you don't get the sexphone, hellooooo.
No one ever liked Blink 182, yet they sold more records then: Franz Ferdinand, Public Enemy, The National, Girl Talk, The Bravery, The Hold Steady, St. Vincent, Wale, Mates of State, Taking Back Sunday, and Jet combined.
Everyone knows that record sales are an indication of musical quality, as evidenced by the fact that the Hannah Montana soundtrack outsold Mos Def.
I am not talking about quality. I am merely stating the the notion that "no one ever liked" a band that sold millions of albums is typical hipster BS.
Somebody liked Blind 182. Lost of somebodies in fact.
It reminds me of a quote by Jason Newsted back when he was with Metallica and was asked if the band had "sold out." His reply? "Yes, we sold out, every single night on tour."
typical hipster BS
I know she works for a blog and makes lots of snarky comments, but does Sommer really count as a "hipster?"
This is exactly why I hate the word "hipster", it's lost all meaning. People just use is at as an all purpose insult over matters of taste/style.
Wow. That's so "alternative."
the hold steady are just about the only thing that could get me to consider going to merriweather post pavilion ever again. toss in public enemy, the national and st vincent, and FREE, this is a go.
Such hatred. It is a FREE show people. I'll give you that Weezer hasn't had a good record since the Green album and Public Enemy (WTF) is a gigantic question mark but anytime you get to see Taking Back Sunday, The Hold Steady or The National is a great experience. Certainly worth the price of a zipcar to get out to the countryside
What would the zipcar fee be for an all day concert? 5 or 6 times the cost of a traditional car rental?
Zipcar for a day would be $65-$70. Divide that by four (yourself and three friends) and you are at $17.50 or so. Or get a regular rental car for around $40, plus the cost of gas.
Man, everyone is so crabby today!
Sorry. For once, I wasn't trying to come off snotty. I was misinformed about zipcar prices. Someone told me they were $25 an hour. I just looked it up and they were way off + zipcar has a daily rate.
I saw many of these bands at Coachella. Public Enemy played "It takes a Nation..." from start to finish. That was kinda cool.
See some of you non-haters there!
Public Enemy is great live.
I concur. At Bonnaroo their set was a full-length performance of “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back.”
Yeah, they killed at bonnaroo
I paid for tix last year- but haven't received the email about getting advance tickets. Anyone know whats up?