With the fragile state of our economy dominating headlines of all major news and media outlets, the word “Free” has practically been forgotten. Not if Richard Branson has anything to say about it! This year Richard and his team of music juggernauts at Virgin Records are offering up the 3rd annual Virgin Fest as a FREE show for all. That’s right kiddies, FREE. All Virgin asks is that you make a charitable donation of $5.00 to fight Homlessness through their non-profit organization RE-Generation.
August 30th Virgin Records will take Merriweather Post Pavilion by storm. Music starts at 11am and will continue through the night. Merriweather has been home to many music & arts festivals in the past. Such as HFStival, Warp Tour, Lollapalooza, Lilith Fair, and this summer’s Rock the Bells Tour. It’s stage has been blessed by the likes of the Jimmy Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, The Grateful Dead, & Phish to name a few. Hell, Baltimore natives Animal Collective even named their 2008 album ’Merriweather Post Pavilion’ as a tribute to their favorite venue. It certainly falls in my top 10 favorite venues, and is ALWAYS a great time. And if that doesnt light your glow stick, Virgin Records is bringing their own traveling sound system which Branson boasts is the best in the world. Lets be honest he owns a record label, an airline, and an island…clearly the man has good taste. Included in his bag of tricks is a ‘Dance Tent’ equipt with suround sound. 360 degrees of body rockin’ music. Quite the-end-of-summer-Sunday-Funday if you ask me.
In my opinion this years line-up isn’t nearly as impressive as the three day line ups of Pimlico in the past, but none the less there are acts worth sneaking a peak…not to mention you can’t beat the price. Head liners include Weezer and Blink 182, like I said not exactly all that exciting (although I am mildly obsessed with Travis Barker from Blink182, and Weezer’s ‘Sweater’ song…so hold this thread as I walk away).
The real gang buster of this years line up definatley has to be Gregg Micheal Gillis, which you may know as Girl Talk. Gillis hails from ‘Shitts’burg, PA but aside from that this kid is pure gold. Known by the masses for his mashup skillz. More importantly he is known in the music industry for revolutionizing musical law. He successfully beat several law suits over copy-write issues referencing un-approved samples from other artists. He argued that playing other people’s tracks is in essence free advertisement for them, and the court system agreed. He mixes everything hip hop, electronic, jazz, glitch, rock, even James Taylor all in the same song…which truly is a site to see.
For the full line up and further information on the 2009 Virgin Fest please check in with the festival’s website . Early Bird tickets go on sale (and by sale I mean free) 6/25 – 6/26. Early Bird ticketing is for past Virgin Fest patrons only. For NOOBS tickets are accessible this Saturday 6/27. Please note you can only get 2 tickets per person and its first come first serve. We are expecting this to sell out, so don’t sleep on this one!
June 24th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
gangbusters that aren’t girl talk- wale, danny howells, mates of state, pete (“you’re a legend sir”) tong (even though he can’t mix for shit), and holy f*ck… somebody just do me a favor and kill flav.
July 28th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
i’d say pete tong is a little higher up on the attraction scale than someone who pushes a button on his computer and starts dancing