We did something pretty radical this summer in the US and so very Virgin: this year’s Virgin Mobile music festival in the US was free. There was no better way to reject everything that the recession had thrown at people than to throw a free festival, with ample sunshine, a late summer breeze, rolling hills, and a brilliant line-up headlined by Blink-182, Weezer, Franz Ferdinand, and Public Enemy.
I wish all of you could have experienced it. Here are my highlights...
We sent out about 35,000 tickets for free, and any uncollected tickets were exchanged for $10 donations to homeless youth charities.
Volunteering with Virgin Mobile’s youth charity partners was another way to earn fest tickets. West coast volunteers flew from LA on Virgin America (my favourite domestic US airline!), which donated a plane-ful of seats to west coast volunteers (who donated their time at StandUp For Kids in LA and San Diego). The plane was stocked with Sony PSPs and complimentary Veev Acai "free-tinis.” Talk about a pre-party...
Throughout the day, Virgin Mobile made donating easy, and US$80K was raised for our wonderful, deserving partners. Public Enemy’s Flavor Flav, Blink-182’s Tom DeLonge and I gave out free pints (when the beer wasn’t being spilled on us) at the Karma Bar, where $1 FROM every drink went to Virgin Mobile’s worthy partners. Free also came in the form of one-of-a-kind items like custom-made Flying V festival guitars. All earnings from the raffle tickets went to youth homeless charities. The Virgin Mobile team was extremely thoughtful about integrating a donation component without being heavy-handed and while still keeping the fun in Freefest.
After checking out The Hold Steady at the west stage and hanging out with the many bands who had gone out of their way to be part of Freefest, we watched Red Bull skydivers make their dramatic sunset landing on the Merriweather Post Pavilion roof.
So many fans of the festival’s terrific line-up thanked me for Freefest but truth be told, their thanks should really go to Virgin Mobile and its partners, the many sponsors that helped make it happen and Merriweather Post Pavilion’s promoter and staff who worked so hard to put together a truly exceptional and upbeat way to end summer and kick off autumn.
Good to see that our music heritage is alive and kicking, and you will have chances to be part of many more exceptional Virgin live music experiences around the world.
Keep an eye on virgin.com/music for news of next year's Virgin festivals around the world. See you there!
