The Knocks at FreeFest 2013. Photo by Michael Kandel.

Last Saturday, nearly 50,000 fans clamored to Merriweather Post Pavilion for Virgin Mobile’s annual FreeFest to catch the likes of Vampire Weekend, Robin Thicke, Icona Pop, and many more. But while most of the neon-clad crowd were more concerned with the wailing guitars, thundering drums, and chronic “oontz-oontz-oontz-ing” from the festival’s performers, Virgin Mobile was busy at work raising money for homeless youth charities in the area. And this weekend, Virgin Mobile broke the $1 million mark in the amount of money they’ve raised for charity over the past five years from FreeFest.

According to a press release, The RE*Generation, Virgin Mobile’s charity for helping homeless youth reached a benchmark from this year’s festival.

Thanks to the 50,000 people in attendance at the 2013 Virgin Mobile FreeFest presented by Samsung, fest fans broke through the $1 million donation benchmark for Virgin Mobile USA’s initiative, The RE*Generation, which addresses the needs of homeless youth. Previous FreeFests raised enough money to build the RE*Generation House, a transitional living facility for homeless youth in Washington, D.C., which opened this year. The funds raised at this year’s festival will go toward operating it for two years. With this year’s contributions, fan donations have totaled more than $1 million over the last five years of FreeFest.

Although FreeFest is technically free, the festival’s organizers, which include I.M.P. Productions, always offer priced tickets after the free ones are gone. Between that and other on-site activities and ways for festival-goers to attend, Virgin Mobile is able to raise significant funds for its RE*Generation charity every year.

Not bad, FreeFest.