Virgin Mobile FreeFest wasn’t always free.
Back in 2008, Virgin Mobile Festival was a two-day event held in Baltimore with high-profile artists — and high ticket prices. The economic downturn late in the year forced organizers to reconsider holding another big-budget festival the next year.
The producers of the festival, I.M.P., had a conversation with Virgin Mobile and suggested to “just sit on the sidelines” that year, said FreeFest spokeswoman Audrey Schaefer. However, according to Schaefer, Virgin Mobile wasn’t too keen on that idea. “They basically said: ‘That’s no fun!'”
The company then went back into planning mode, figuring out ways to make the 2009 festival free. And with that, FreeFest was born.
Saturday, tens of thousands of music lovers across the area will flock to the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia for an eclectic, daylong music festival — entirely free of charge.
The Virgin Mobile FreeFest, now in its third year as a free festival, has assembled a lineup filled with artists from across the spectrum. There are well-known DJs (former LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy) and plenty of indie rockers (including TV On The Radio and The Black Keys), along with a punk-rock legend (Patti Smith), an up-and-coming rapper (Big Sean) and a soulful hit-maker who enjoys singing a certain four-letter word (Cee-Lo Green).
The festival is sold out — or, as its website is calling it, “Free’d Out” — due to an collective snatching of tickets on its Facebook page back in July.
Since the event doesn’t expect to make huge profits, Schaefer said, it is truly “a celebration of music for dedicated music fans.” While the festival is free for attendees, the bands still need to be paid, and Schaefer said Virgin Mobile underwrites much of that money to provide fans the day of music.
Of the 40,000 fans expected to attend, many will be college students. Among those attending will be senior computer science major Val Kravets, who is most looking forward to the “techno groove” of DeadMau5.
“I like how FreeFest is easily accessible to the public both financially and geographically,” Kravets said. “However, I do believe that if there was a cheap ticket price then the bands and performers would be more mainstream and popular — like the Virgin Fest of past years.”
Other students share this desire for more mainstream performers, and preferred last year’s lineup.
“Compared to past lineups, this year’s is far less impressive,” said sophomore English major Leigh McDonald, who has attended both previous years of FreeFest and listed Sleigh Bells, Girl Talk and Weezer among her favorite past performers. “That said, FreeFest is one of my most anticipated events of the year. There is always an interesting mix of music-loving people that come out.”
According to its organizers, FreeFest is all about giving — giving people a full day of free music, and giving back to the community at large. A portion of the day’s proceeds go to Virgin Mobile’s youth homelessness initiative, Re*Generation. Every person who received a free ticket could choose to donate $10 to the initiative, and those interested could spend time doing community service in exchange for tickets.
Schaefer said more than $300,000 has been raised and more than 50,000 hours of volunteer time have been given toward fighting youth homelessness.
The mindset, Schaefer said, is “let’s do something nice for people and in turn ask them to pay it forward and give back.”
But nothing about the festival — its charitable nature, its varied performers, its unique atmosphere and venue — is more important than its biggest draw, the word right in the festival’s name: free.
“Our attendees are thinking, ‘I’m gonna get to see the Black Keys and Cee-Lo Green and Big Sean, and I’m not paying anything!'” Schaefer said. “They feel like they won a game show.”
All FreeFest’s free tickets are claimed. However, you can still purchase a “Fan ePack” for $49.50, which comes with a ticket, a T-shirt and a poster.
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