Free Virgin Fest This Year

Last year I got some free passes to Virgin Fest so I took the bus down to Baltimore and checked it out. Despite my general disdain for festivals I have to say that Virgin was pretty fun. Great bands, excellent and varied food choices, big beers, and the best part was it was relatively cheap - aside from the ticket. Well this year that all changes because they're letting everyone in for free. You still need to grab a no fee ticket from TicketMaster on July 26th, 10AM.

The ticketing page is pretty confusing and I'm not sure why anyone would spend $30 on a free ticket and a shitty Virgin Fest t-shirt, but it's an option. My guess is they dedicated a bunch of tickets to each tier so when the free tickets run out you'll be forced to buy a dumb t-shirt package to get in. Still though, $30 ain't too bad for a festival.

On that note, the bands playing are not nearly as good as last time (NIN, STP, Kanye, Stooges). The free show features Blink-182, Weezer, Franz Ferdinand, Public Enemy, Jet, The Bravery, etc. Lots of bands people used to give a shit about but not so much these days. But I guess we can't complain about free, huh? There are noticeably less bands listed this year so I'm guessing they nixed the second stage, unless they're still adding to the bill.

Link:
Virgin Mobile FreeFest

Franz Ferdinand Playing Music Hall On October 8th. Happy Birthday To Me!

I wanted to do something cool on my birthday, October 8th. I talked to some promoters and looked into some restaurants and really something was missing. Then I tune into BrooklynVegan this afternoon and I see that Franz Ferdinand is playing Music Hall on my birthday. YES! That's what was missing, an awesome concert. Somehow there are still tickets for this show so get them while you can. They're $30 after all the surcharges and bullshit but fuck it, whatever. I've wanted to see this band since I first heard then when I was wee intern at Sony Music. Now I get to see them on my birthday...awesome!

Link:
Tickets