411 Music Summer Festival Preview: Virgin Festival
Posted by Mitch Michaels on 06.22.2007
The 411 Music staff begins a series of looks at the hottest festivals of the summer. Are they worth your money?
Ah, the summer festival season. Designed for you to pay less money for more bands and more money for less food. But before you go saving up for those $8 bottles of water, the 411 Music staff is here to tell you what's worth your while.
Over the course of the summer, we'll be delivering you previews and reviews of all the summer's big festivals, helping you decide what to spend your money on and making fun of you for all those great live moments you missed.
Our first fest to see the spotlight shone on it is Virgin, which Virgin Mobile brings back to Baltimore (as well as Toronto and Vancouver) for its second year. Let's look at the hard facts.
The Dates:
August 4th and 5th. You can kick off August with a bang. The dog days are just beginning, and heat is the bane of any all-day outdoor summer fest (and a big plus for the aforementioned $8 bottled water peddlers). Still, all you college kids out there don't have the buzz kill of having to report to class the next day and you can groove knowing summer's not quite over yet.
The Place:
Virgin returns to the Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. It's a great central location for anybody on the east coast. Pimlico plays home to the Preakness Stakes and concertgoers who like their gambling will have easy access to booths in order to lay their money down. The field is a big place, perfect for keeping the sounds separate for Virgin's 2-stage format, but close and overlapping sets may have the more ambitious concertgoers doing a lot of rushing back and forth.
Baltimore itself is a nice city to visit, especially the Harbor area. With an early festival end of 10:00 PM on both nights, you'll surely wanna check out places like the ESPN Zone, or stay a couple extra days and check out the Orioles taking on the Seattle Mariners at Camden Yard.
The Price:
General Admission: $175 (2-day)/$97.50 (single day), VIP: $450 (2-day)/$250 (single day). Festival tickets seem to be grouped into two categories this year. There's the ultra cheap (Vans Warped Tour, OzzFest) and the pretty pricey (Lollapalooza). Virgin would definitely fall in the latter category. If you wanna put down nearly a C-note for a one day ticket, choosing which day may be tough. Still, $175 for both days isn't too bad, considering you're getting the likely one-shot Police reunion show for around the price of seeing JUST The Police. If you can afford those VIP tickets, though, make sure to shoot me an email. We should be friends.
The Bands:
Virgin features nearly 50 bands this year. Let's break them down.
The Heavy Hitters: The Police, The Smashing Pumpkins. Two major reunions headline this show, and they'll most certainly draw different artists. When you look at big names touring this summer, it doesn't get much bigger than The Police and Billy Corgan's band.
The Big Backups: Beastie Boys, 311. These two bands are nearly the essence of what Virgin is about, combining rock and hip-hop into a harmoniously awesome experience. Both are touring vets and are known for crazy live sets.
Best Of The Rest: Modest Mouse, TV On The Radio, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Interpol, Velvet Revolver, Wu Tang Clan, Incubus, Cheap Trick. Virgin's major secondary bands give you a little taste of everything. Modest Mouse, TVotR and YYYs are three of the biggest "indie" rock bands in the world right now. Velvet Revolver is a veteran supergroup promoting their second CD, and Wu Tang are rap legends on yet another reunion. Then you have established acts like Incubus and Cheap Trick who are known for several radio hits.
The Up And Comers: LCD Soundsystem, Amy Winehouse, Paolo Nutini, Matisyahu, Regina Spektor. All of these artists are on the fast track to fame now, with radio hits that everybody's gonna be singing along to eventually. Be the first kid on your block to see them live!
Supporting Cast: Fountains of Wayne, Peter Bjorn and John, Sasha and John Digweed, The Fratellis, Danny Tenaglia, Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals, Van Doorn, Shout Out Out Out Out, Felix Da Housecat, Booka Shade, Miguel Migs, Fiction Plane, The Crystal Method, Bad Brains, Infected Mushroom, Girl Talk, Dieselboy and Andy C, M.I.A., CSS, Deep Dish (Dubfire + Sharam), Spoon, James Zabiela. Out of all the festivals, Virgin just may be the strongest overall. There's also a contest currently going on to book the final band. The Higher and MuteMath are favorites as of now.
The Verdict:
If you can make the trip and you have the cash, Virgin is a definite must see this summer. Three of the 411 Music staffers already have their tickets, so you could call it one of 411's preferred events. With two big reunion acts headlining and a major line-up of supporting groups, not to mention a nice location, Virgin definitely gives you bang for your buck.
