The very best—and the very worst—of what we experienced at this year’s VirginMobile FreeFest.

Here’s the full schedule. Start planning your day, FreeFest-ers.

As it has every year since it became a free event, this year’s FreeFest tickets were depleted in a matter of minutes, with all 50,000 tickets swiped up off of Ticketfly.com.

Pre-sale tickets for this year’s Virgin Mobile FreeFest will go “on free” tomorrow on Ticketfly.com starting at noon.

Twenty acts are on the bill for the Sept. 21 concert at Merriweather Post Pavilion. Tickets will become available Aug. 9.

If Bruce Springsteen ever played the D.C. area on September 11, it’s not hard to imagine that the performance would entail a long, workmanlike set of earnestly anthemic music, plenty of emotional catharsis, and at least a handful of politically-engaged soliloquies between songs. For better or worse, local concert-goers were denied that spectacle this year. Instead, they got Vampire Weekend, the much-hyped indie-rock band that, coincidentally, vowed at a 2008 9:30 Club show to return with enough new material to fuel a marathon set worthy of “The Boss.”

Words and photos by DCist contributor Martin Locraft Vampire Weekend formed in New York City, recorded one album while each member was in the process of diving into the real world, became crazy popular thanks to blog ubiquity and a clever video, traveled the globe, and ultimately arrived at the 9:30 Club on Monday for a two-night stint. The lead singer is handsome, and they dress like their next stop is a laid-back Ivy League…

Got to love the hype machine. It has this way of artificially raising expectations to the point of absolutely assuring discerning music fans that this band is the biggest thing since the Beatles… or at least since the Arcade Fire. It also has a way of generating a backlash directly proportional to the size of the artificially raised expectations since, clearly, no band is going to achieve such a status, so what’s wrong with everybody?!…

FRIDAY: >> Maybe you check in with DCist only occasionally to get a few tips on which concerts to see, but tend to stick to touring acts for the most part, and still haven’t really exposed yourself to the local rock scene. If so, confess tonight and all your sins will be forgiven. Three of the best local bands are playing a show together on the Black Cat’s main stage at 9 p.m. — catch…