FreeFest concert tickets come with a price: Volunteerism
From USA Today:
By Korina Lopez, USA TODAY
The free tickets may already be snapped up for Virgin Mobile’s FreeFest, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still get in free.
You just have to work for it.In an unusual charity-benefit twist, promoters for the day-long music festival Aug. 30 at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Md., set aside 3,000 more tickets as rewards to fans willing to volunteer time for the homeless.
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Thirteen hours of service at select homeless organizations gets a VIP pass; eight hours earns general admission. (Volunteering details will be posted today on virginmobilefestival.com.) And those who already have tickets are being asked to donate $5.
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“Social giving is at an all-time low,” says Virgin Mobile USA’s Ron Faris. “There are 2 million young people out there ages 12 to 24 who are homeless. So we’re willing to eat the cost of a $100 ticket, if people can just donate $5 to help homeless youth organizations that have been decimated by this economy.”Other concerts this recession-ravaged summer have looked for innovative and economical ways to fill seats. Rothbury and Bonnaroo festivals enticed fans with layaway plans. LiveNation offers four-packs (buy three tickets, get one free). No Doubt ticket buyers get free downloads.
But the 17-band concert, headlined by Weezer, Blink-182, Franz Ferdinand and Public Enemy, is one of the rare major music fests to go completely free.
“Free gets more publicity for Virgin and the bands,” says Pollstar editor in chief Gary Bongiovanni. “From the band’s perspective, Merriweather is a great place to play, the fans are appreciative of the free tickets, and that goodwill will transfer to the bands’ performances. And the charity component should be commended. Virgin didn’t have to add that.”
The 35,000 “free” tickets went “on sale” Saturday and disappeared immediately.
“The idea of a FreeFest that focuses on helping other people on such a massive scale, especially in this economy, is very ambitious,” Blink-182 singer Tom Delonge says. “My other band, Angels & Airwaves, did a thing in New York City where we had kids do community service to get into our show.”
“My fiancée worked in mental health for years, and homelessness can happen to anyone,” says Cam Muncey of Australian rock group JET. “Just because someone has hit a hard patch doesn’t mean they should be forgotten.”
Can music fans look forward to more free festivals? “This kind of gesture isn’t going to be replicated anytime soon,” Bongiovanni says. “After all, not many people can write a check that big except for (Virgin founder) Sir Richard Branson.”
June 30th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
shut the f up about AvA…ppl would vote at least 85/15 you should focus on blink
June 30th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
can i slap you?!
June 30th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
in case of any confusion…i was referring to brandon
June 30th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
Oh calm down already. I for one am glad there doing the freefest with an option to donate, I for one will definatly throw 5-10 bucks there way
June 30th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
dude shut the fuck up, tom can talk about ava as much as he wants its a big part of his life, he loves both bands.
June 30th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
shut up brandon .. there other ppl who dont like blink but like ava. who hadnt even herd of tom b4 ava, its somethin totally different and awsome…cant wait 4 the new album(ava) and the blink
you jus need to grow up and accept that tom enjoys both bands… plus, its more music from him!
June 30th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
I think it’s an awesome idea. That is so cool that there is a free show and there are people helping people.
Just a note to the negative guy Brandon:
1: AVA is an amazing band. Not as amazing as Blink, but if you consider yourself a Blink fan then you should be at least objective enough to acknowledge the seperate sounds that go into Blink (one of which is AVA)
2: If I could get into a concert for just volunteering my time I would totally do it. It would save me a lot of money, and I would feel a little better about helping people along the way instead of shelling out a massive amount of money to greedy ticketmaster. So, props to Tom DeLonge for being cool!!
3: Who cares what 85/15 means. AVA makes Tom happy, just like production makes Mark happy and Hip-Hop makes Travis happy. I wouldn’t tell them to quit any of their side projects because a true fan would just be happy that they’re back and touring, not further whining about more stuff that doesn’t even matter.
June 30th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
What a fucking brilliant idea! If only I lived closer ):
July 3rd, 2009 at 8:54 pm
Mark’s adorable in that photo
July 6th, 2009 at 10:28 am
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