Virgin Free For AllYou already know the Virgin Mobile FreeFest is, well, free. But did you know there?s more to the destination festival featuring Weezer, blink-182, Public Enemy and Franz Ferdinand than free admission?
Turns out there will be a lot of freebies at the one-day-only event scheduled for Aug. 30 at Merriweather Post Pavilion, in Columbia, Md. Free stuff like cell phones, bus rides to the festival, sneakers, sunglasses guitars and even jet transportation.
That?s right. Jet transportation. Although the festival is free, you still need a ticket, and all 35,000 ducats were scooped up only moments after release. However, festival organizers are also giving tickets away to folks willing to donate free time to various youth organizations.
For west coast ?do gooders? Virgin America is providing use of a free plane, called ?FreeFest Express, to fly them to the festival.
But the FreeFest Express is not the only transportation freebie available to festival goers. Megabus is donating the use of a fleet of WiFi-equipped buses which will shuttle folks from Boston, New York and Philadelphia. Like the FreeFest Express, the WiFi buses will be made available to eligible fans who donated their time to homeless youth shelters.
One FreeFest sponsor ? Japan-based mega-company Kyocera ? will give away cell phones. Along with the free mobiles, Virgin Mobile USA will award free cell phone service for life to a lucky few. It all goes down in the Kyocera Lucky Layoff Lounge, which is open to everyone but is offering a few special deals to anyone who can prove they?re jobless.
Gibson Guitars will also be at the FreeFest, giving away free ?Flying V? electric guitars to winners in the Kyocera Lucky Layoff Lounge. Of course, words like ?prizes? and ?winners? indicate some kind of contest, but so far the guitar company hasn?t come clean with any details.
Converse is chipping in with free Chucks sneakers and sunglasses. Converse will also host the ?Punk Your Chucks Design Contest,? where folks who submit winning designs for Chucks will be awarded a year?s supply of the athletic shoes. In case you?re wondering how many pairs of Chucks make up a year?s supply, Converse says 12 pairs per year, which works out to one pair per month in case you?re mathematically challenged.
Official Virgin Mobile FreeFest vehicle sponsor Toyota will offer free Prius test drives to anyone who finds walking around the Merriweather Post a bit too strenuous.
And Sony Computer Entertainment America will give away free content downloads from the PlayStation Network to anyone who brings their PSP to the festival.
We?re not saying everyone attending the Virgin Mobile FreeFest will get all or even some of the freebies listed above. But festival organizers are playing up the ?free? in FreeFest, indicating there will be plenty of opportunities for festival goers to come home with more than they took to the event. Your best bet to stay on top of all the free offerings is to visit the festival Web site on a regular basis.
http://www.pollstar.com/blogs/news/archive/2009/07/16/679581.aspx
