All downsizing should be so benign.

Everyone knows the fourth installment is a bitch to get right. Witness Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. Or Batman and Robin. Or The Phantom Menace. Or Thunderball.

We could go on. (Virgin Mobile Festival and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, anyone? No?) But faced with an economy gazing into the abyss and a steady attrition of big-name talent to other, more established summer festivals, Virgin Group Chairman Sir Richard Branson and event promoter Seth Hurwitz pulled off an unlikely feat of largesse, reducing the scale of this weekend’s fourth iteration of their eclectic summer bash, and reducing the cost of entry further still. Tickets that two years ago would have set you back $175 for the weekend (and to be fair, offered a reasonable value at that price) now came at the low-low price of zilch (“Let Free Ring!” declaimed the banners behind each stage), perhaps explaining why the crowd appeared to skew a lot younger this time than in years past.