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Baltimore's Virgin Mobile Festival Drops Ticket Prices To Free

Where: 10475 Little Patuxent Parkway [map], Columbia, MD, United States, 21044
June 25, 2009 at 8:47 AM | by | Comment (1)

There’s been a lot of talk about 2009 being the year the music festival died, (see Summercase, Langerado and the San Francisco Blues Festival), and the long-rumored next casualty has been the Virgin Mobile Festival in Baltimore. Despite being a hit in its first three years out, concert organizers have waited forever to announce any details on dates or lineup, leading many around the music blogosphere to assume the fest wouldn’t be able to pull it together this year.

Well our old billionaire buddy Richard Branson must have taken those nasty rumors personally, because Virgin has announced that not only will the show go on, but they don’t need to make any stinkin' money on it anyway. That’s right, this year’s concert is 100-percent free.

Now called the “Virgin Mobile FreeFest,” the concert has in fact been downsized quite a bit. It will take place on just one day instead of two (August 30), it’s been moved from the 75,000-person Pimlico Race Track to the 35,000-person Merriweather Post Pavilion, and while Kanye West headlined last year’s show, this year’s biggest bands are mostly names a good bit removed from the peak of their careers, like Blink-182, Weezer, and Public Enemy (although there are also some hot indie bands, like The National, Holy F*ck, and omnipresent festival act The Hold Steady).

But enough with the criticism—did we mention tickets are free? Tickets will be distributed this Saturday, June 27 at 10 am on a first-come, first-serve basis via the ticketmaster website (no convenience charges as long as you opt to pick up your tickets at the show). Virgin Mobile customers and those who bought tickets in past years will get e-vited to a private “free-sale” on Thursday and Friday. If you’re lucky enough to score tix, Virgin just asks that you donate $5 to their youth homelessness charity initiative, the Re*Generation.

Related Stories:
· Virgin Mobile FreeFest [Official Site]
· Rhode Island's Got Your Summer Music Right Here [Jaunted]
· Ireland Can Do Music, Sun and Surfboards Too [Jaunted]

[Photo: Kevin H.]

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Return to » Baltimore's Virgin Mobile Festival Drops Ticket Prices To Free


Not the venue

This is a fun event, though just to point out, the pic of a previous year that's above isn't the venue that's listed here for this year. The Columbia MD venue is Merriweather Post Pavilion but that's not what the picture is so don't expect a set up exactly like this. It's more like an ampitheater with lots of seating and grass/lawn in the back.
philadelphiaguy on June 26, 2009 at 1:02 PM #Permalink

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