OFFICIAL Virgin Mobile FREEFEST 2009 Q/A - Hype Thread! REVISED

[sweetcell]

http://www.pollstar.com/blogs/news/archive/2009/06/29/676091.aspx

[wml7]

dance tent + end of august = smelling good.

like a wet cat

haha nice there you go

[Dojokoto]

Sir Richard Branson said in Jimmy Fallon's interview that you have to do 13 HOURS of community service at selected US homeless posts. And if you complete it and get that time card in, then you get VIP tickets, which mean by seating only.



If you are in the West coast, at some time, branson arranged flights for some people. So get ready!

[walkonby]

Sir Richard Branson said in Jimmy Fallon's interview that you have to do 13 HOURS of community service at selected US homeless posts. And if you complete it and get that time card in, then you get VIP tickets, which mean by seating only.



If you are in the West coast, at some time, branson arranged flights for some people. So get ready!

i can hear it now, during blink's set:  "like oh my god alexis . . . i actually had to touch a homeless person just to get here."

[gaaaaaaaaah]

13 hours of community service is not a lot at all.  For anyone bitching about not getting tickets, and not wanting to pay for them, just do that.

Do "VIPs" have to sit in the specified section?

[wml7]

in their cars

[gigy]

anyone get the karma package?

[Dojokoto]

anyone get the karma package?

I did! you hhave a question?


I actually do not know if you are supposed to sit in that section, but I'm like 100% sure that you can just leave and hang around the GA area.

[hemisphire]

The story at USA Today says it's 8 hours of volunteering to get a GA ticket, or 13 hours for a VIP one:
http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2009-06-29-freefest-volunteerism_N.htm

And it looks like signup for volunteering has started:
http://www.virginmobilefestival.com/

[hemisphire]

http://www.pollstar.com/blogs/news/archive/2009/06/30/676459.aspx

Virgin Mobile is also organizing volunteer projects in Philadelphia, Boston and New York where two free I.P. tickets will be given to folks donating the most time above 13 hours. Winners will also get a free bus ride to the festival by way of the event?s official bus line, Megabus.

Youth homeless organizations working with the festival include Bridge Over Troubled Waters in Boston; Green Chimneys in NYC; Help USA in Philadelphia; StandUP For Kids in Baltimore and Sasha Bruce in D.C.

?Once again, the folks at Virgin have come up with an idea that is so simple and wonderful, it reminds us we need people from outside the concert industry to take a fresh look,? said I.M.P. chairman Seth Hurwitz. ?The idea of offering people the opportunity to do charity work in exchange for concert tickets is truly inspiring, and I am going to look for ways to do that the rest of the year. Why not use our power to give??

[Dojokoto]

http://www.pollstar.com/blogs/news/archive/2009/06/30/676459.aspx

Virgin Mobile is also organizing volunteer projects in Philadelphia, Boston and New York where two free I.P. tickets will be given to folks donating the most time above 13 hours. Winners will also get a free bus ride to the festival by way of the event?s official bus line, Megabus.

Youth homeless organizations working with the festival include Bridge Over Troubled Waters in Boston; Green Chimneys in NYC; Help USA in Philadelphia; StandUP For Kids in Baltimore and Sasha Bruce in D.C.

?Once again, the folks at Virgin have come up with an idea that is so simple and wonderful, it reminds us we need people from outside the concert industry to take a fresh look,? said I.M.P. chairman Seth Hurwitz. ?The idea of offering people the opportunity to do charity work in exchange for concert tickets is truly inspiring, and I am going to look for ways to do that the rest of the year. Why not use our power to give??

In addition to this post, for the people in the Baltimore/DC area, you're in luck, kind of. There are 230 tickets to hand out, and all you have to do is fill out your information and your schedule. And of course do the 13 hours. You're volunteer supervisor will check your hours weekly, so there's no cheating, since they check online.

Get to it!

[wml7]

It would be ironic if in reality there was really only like a thousand free tickets to get online but the majority of the tickets are with people who volunteer and what not.  So that they actually get a shit load of people to do all that volunteer work, 34,000 of them.  All for a free show and to help the needy.   

[wiretap studios]

I'm thinking the same, because I read in a report that people who attended last years festival didn't get theirs. BUT, I did go last year, and I did get the email for the password, BUT AGAIN, I signed up for the festival updates email listing.

We didn't.  We didn't get the presale code, and we haven't got a single email from Virgin Fest on 4 email addresses.  Not for the website opening, not for the regular sale, not for anything.  I contacted Virgin and they gave me the email they said they 'sent' the code to, which it was not at, nor in the spam folder.  I also was online Saturday at 10am in the hopes of making up for the presale and never got through.  I wouldn't mind doing community service for even a regular ticket, but I live 4 hours south of DC...so that's out. 

Since I see that people on Ebay have tickets for sale in quantities of 10 and above, I can only feel that former customers got shafted, and scalpers just got a shitload of free inventory with no overhead.  If I even were close by to do the volunteering, how can I trust a company to get it right when so far, they haven't?  I'm not complaining about not getting something for free, I was planning on paying for tickets this year, and even tried the donation option.  But don't promote that you are doing a favor for former customers, when it really was just an internet free-for-all (literally). 

[wiretap studios]

Needing more than two, I used my wife's account to get a second pair, and chose mail for her order (she's rarely in DC). I was thinking it was $5 per order, but iwas actually $5 per ticket.

Thanks for going beyond the max limit of 2, that was really thoughtful for the other people that didn't get any. 

[Dojokoto]

I'm thinking the same, because I read in a report that people who attended last years festival didn't get theirs. BUT, I did go last year, and I did get the email for the password, BUT AGAIN, I signed up for the festival updates email listing.

We didn't.  We didn't get the presale code, and we haven't got a single email from Virgin Fest on 4 email addresses.  Not for the website opening, not for the regular sale, not for anything.  I contacted Virgin and they gave me the email they said they 'sent' the code to, which it was not at, nor in the spam folder.  I also was online Saturday at 10am in the hopes of making up for the presale and never got through.  I wouldn't mind doing community service for even a regular ticket, but I live 4 hours south of DC...so that's out. 

Since I see that people on Ebay have tickets for sale in quantities of 10 and above, I can only feel that former customers got shafted, and scalpers just got a shitload of free inventory with no overhead.  If I even were close by to do the volunteering, how can I trust a company to get it right when so far, they haven't?  I'm not complaining about not getting something for free, I was planning on paying for tickets this year, and even tried the donation option.  But don't promote that you are doing a favor for former customers, when it really was just an internet free-for-all (literally). 

It really was. On thursday, it didn't even feel like it was a presale for previous festival goers, and current Virgin Mobile customers. It was a free for all for everyone, and if you are going to make the festival free, don't make the password FESTER again.... That's kind of common sense, and instead to prevent all this scalper crap. In the presale, give unique passwords to each person invited, AND, make the rest of them for grabs on Saturday. And every other ticket make it available for will calls, nothing else.