The festival itself was pretty awesome. My own personal experience was beyond a nightmare. I blame Virgin itself for the fiasco and the tickets at will-call, that were never at will-call. I do owe a HUGE thanks to some woman working who got me tix -- esp after the fact that my friends and I all gave ours away. 2 hours after running back and forth between will-call, I was at least in. Thankfully virgin follows twitter and soon I had virgin calling. No one knows what happened (epic FAIL!), but some other woman hooked me up with VIP tix.
Spent part of the day with free drinks - huge plus - (for someone complaining about the free drinks/food in the tent -- its free -- its alcohol - what more do you want). I appreciated the access to the pit/pavilion. I missed most of Edward Sharpe which was the one band I really wanted to see.
Caught some of Joan Jett. Ran into a friend of sonicks whom I knew from high school in California. 18 years later was a bit surreal. Caught some of Thievery Corporation (talking to friends and watching people dance moreso than paying attention). Matt & Kim were awesome live. So much fun. I never was into them for their music itself, but their live show is always a good time.
Pavement were awesome! One of my favs. After all my shows in Summerstage with them, this was up there with their first show. They sounded great. Malkmus was in great spirits. Had a great setlist. It wasnt 2 hours which I had been used to, but I really appreciated this. Plus, the pit was empty. Everyone there seemed to be die-hard fans (at least in the middle), singing along, dancing. Talking to each other. Im convinced the older crowds are so much better! (or it means Im old).
LCD SS were just awesome. Managed to get back into the pit, but it was damn crowded. So was on the left side and had a perfect view. Everyone was dancing, singing along. Some people who wanted to talk the whole time, which I never understand. If this is the last time Ill be seeing them, def was not disappointed. James Murphy seemed to be having a great time. Wished it were longer.
The 9:32 afterparty was a great bonus. Not sure who was dj'ing, but that was not good. The drinks alone were well worth it. It took me 40 mins to get back to the hotel as I could not figure out the way out of Merriweather, but I couldnt complain about that and some people were nice to tell me where the hotel was
All in all - Im undecided on the whole winning tix/free flight/hotel. Most of the things did not run smoothly. Ive never won something like this but all in all it turned out mostly to be a headache. And when I finally got home (naturally) I found out that someone stole my license plate.