Virgin Free Fest returning to Merriweather

[runwhiteyrun06]

Just got back a little bit a go. I only saw Jimmy Eat World, Trombone Shorty, and Edward Sharpe as I have prior commitments tonight. I really like the atmosphere and set up of the festival. It was a gorgeous day out too.


Man, Edward Sharpe needs a good punch in the face. The whole drugged out messiah thing gets boring after a few songs.


Thanks to all those that make this festival happen! I can't wait for next year.

[killsaly]

tc was great, so is luda.

[sweetcell]

Unannounced changed of rules: $60/$65 GA Pavilion are no longer General Admission.  Only $125 let down to first 16 rows or pavilion. $60 are limited to rows 17+.

Seth: didn't you say $60 had same pavilion rights as VIP?  "52% off" is sounding more and more suspect (although in the organizer's defense, apparently the decision to change pav access was made by virgin mobile. I'm not saying it's inherently wrong... I'm just saying it's wromg to spring this as a surprise, after we've paid. It's called managing expectations.

[wml7]

joe was right with pavement playing a whole set or they were close to it

[lily1]

i met mr lily in silver spring and we drove up to MPP without any traffic in less than 30 minutes and parked right at MPP with no problem. 

we did west stage only today:

temper trap
trombone shorty
yeasayers
thievery corporation

i'd be curious to check temper trap out again-don't see the u2 influence, but definitely see the radiohead influence. i'm on the fence with yeasayers. i liked the stuff that reminded me of fleetwood mac and fleet foxes, but other stuff just bored me.

trombone shorty was great as usual. too bad the crowd didn't have a clue.

the sound for thievery corporation was the best i've heard in a few years from them. seriously. the bass wasn't drowning and the lyrics were not muddled with all the instruments. it was great to actually hear every single enunciation from loulou and sistah pat.

seth-thanks for a great afternoon and i look forward to 2011. everything was really well run. i really appreciate that you allow concert goers to bring in bottled water and provided faucets with cold water for refills.

[kosmo vinyl]

Seth sure has a winner on his hands with this the FreeFest at Merriweather, throughly enjoyed my day out there.  Best change had to be being able to get into the Pit if need be or a loge seat for the GA folks when a band was playing they wanted to see.  I also noticed an improvement in sound for the lawn, unlike the anemic sound to be had during Weezer.  Definitely a better distribution of people between the two stages this year.

I did what one is suppose to do at a festival, caught the full sets of the band I was most interested in seeing and sampled some of rest.  Hung out with some cool boardies to boot. 

Getting in and out was a breeze when I got there at noon.

Still think the dance forest is too close to the pavilion, sound carries a bit to far from it.

 

[Here's the thing]

Thanks, Seth, Staph and Virgin/Richard Branson. You should be very proud of yourselves and each other. I love it when people figure out how to make things work well, and you did today.
The set-up was great, every staff person I encountered was pleasant and efficient. I never waited very long for anything, even mid-event when things seemed the most crowded.
Well done!

[Vas Deferens]

...their fans need a good punch in the face, too......awful band.

Man, Edward Sharpe needs a good punch in the face. The whole drugged out messiah thing gets boring after a few songs.

[Jesse]

Unannounced changed of rules: $60/$65 GA Pavilion are no longer General Admission.  Only $125 let down to first 16 rows or pavilion. $60 are limited to rows 17+.

Yeah. Even though the unannounced change of the rules in the middle of the day for the $60 ticket was a little off, I thought the $60 ticket was well worth the price.

Great Line-up this year. And aside from this change of rules, i thought the festival was very well organized.

Great Job.

[sweetcell]

i had a fantastic time today.  just about everything one could ask for was on offer: great music short lines, reasonably priced beverages, friendly people, even the weather was amazing (hope i'm not sun-burned).  my day:

- brite light brite: kinda awful.  as soon as they got a beat going it would be yanked away but some glitchy fx.
- temper trap: musical highlight of the day, IMO.  second half of set was epic.
- second half of JEW, enjoyed them more than i thought i would
- considered catching some of trombone shorty, but bailed b/c of the intense sun
- forum meet-up, under-attended as usual   tried ignoring edward sharp dude in the background.
- caught a little bit of yeasayer, then back for a bit of joan jett, then back again for some TC.  they sounded really good.
- matt & kim: what a great festival band.  pure, unbridled fun.  i totally have a thing for kim.
- pavement: first band i saw from the pit.  glad i saw them, but they weren't mind-blowing.
- lcdss: destroyed.  i'm only so-so on the new album but this show exceeded expectations.  danced up a storm.
left during lcdss' encore, drove out right away with no traffic to speak off.

only negative for me was the unannounced change that $60 GA pavilion tix were no longer allowed in the first 16 rows.  i had been going down there all day, then suddenly someone changed their minds.  would have been better if we were warned about this (at a minimum it would have saved staph from having to explain it a million times, and being put in an awkward situation that they were responsible for). 

can't wait for next year!  THANK YOU IMP, MPP, SETH, ALL STAPH, and anyone even remotely associated with this great gathering

I thought the $60 ticket was well worth the price.

100% agreed.

[Vas Deferens]

did they start playing songs during the second half?

they were 7 minutes late then for the first song they did this boring instrumental piece that went on for another 7 minutes...

is the singer singing in English?

- temper trap: musical highlight of the day, IMO.  second half of set was epic.

[hutch]

Pavement was great.. that was like a dream set list..

LCD Soundsystem was amazing...really really good...

Managed to catch both from the pit....

Got there late for meetup but was at 932 twice...but later

[sweetcell]

Managed to catch both from the pit....

how did you pull that off?  didn't they clear out the pit after pavement, with a bzillion lcd fans already lined up to get in?

[kosmo vinyl]

I got in the pit quite easily for LCD and got the sense that even after the line cleared that people got in... My only snafu of the evening was not getting in the LCD line earlier or taking a chance on getting in after Pavement's set, as I ended up around the corner and unable to really hear the end of their set.  Had a nice view of the fireworks though, including watching people dodging the some of the still falling debris.

[K8teebug]

What a great day.  Trombone Shorty was terrific.  I thought the crowd got into it after a bit.  Joan Jett looks hot.  People were nice.  I thought Edward Sharpe was really cute.  They didn't bother me with their Arcade Fire meets Polyphonic Spree songs.  Matt and Kim had good stage presence, but their songs were annoying.

Pavement and LCD were just fabulous.

I too was pissed about the sudden change of rules for the front.  My friend who only had a sponsor badge and a checkered wristband, couldn't sit in the front, even though we'd been sitting there all day.  So, he moved back with another group of friends.  It was not necessary and annoying.  There was no one up front for Pavement.  LCD, another story, but then they let everyone back.  Very disorganized on that front.