Virgin Music Festival @ Pimlico

That is very expensive ticket. Still deciding…

I really don't think this is going to sell out fast.

i cant believe you people are surprised at $100.

oh, the days of a big festival costing $30 just isnt happening. lol.

i would say that the Who jacked up the prices a good $30, though.

U.K.'s Virgin Fest Trots to Baltimore
The Who, Chili Peppers Among Starters at Pimlico

By J. Freedom du Lac
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, July 17, 2006; Page C01

And they're off!

Putting pop music – and lots of it – where the ponies usually run in Baltimore, Britain's massively successful Virgin Festival is coming stateside, with a one-day American edition of the super-concert scheduled for Sept. 23 at Pimlico Race Course.

The ambitious lineup is topped by classic rock stalwarts the Who, chart-topping funk-rockers the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and modern hitmakers the Killers and Gnarls Barkley.

"My goal was to put together a blockbuster event that's worthy of being called one of America's great music festivals," says the event's producer and promoter, Seth Hurwitz. "I want to give this area the biggest and best show it's ever had."

Some might say that was achieved during the glory days of the HFStival, but the assembled Virgin Festival talent is notable nonetheless.

The rock bacchanalia will also feature the Flaming Lips, the Raconteurs, Keane, Scissor Sisters, Thievery Corporation, New Pornographers, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Wolfmother, Drive-By Truckers, Kasabian and at least a half-dozen other youth-skewing acts from the indie-rock and club-music genres.

The complete lineup will be announced today, and tickets ($97.50) will go on sale Saturday. Lots and lots of tickets: Using a general-admission setup, Pimlico can accommodate up to 60,000 concertgoers, Hurwitz says. As such, he's advertising the day-long show in New York, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and beyond. "This will be a big East Coast event."

Bring on the Bonnaroo of Baltimore, the mid-Atlantic's answer to Austin City Limits, the Coachella of the East Coast!

Okay, maybe not.

The upcoming Austin City Limits Music Festival will feature 130 bands on eight stages over three days. The Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival (held on a 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tenn.) and Coachella Valley Music Festival (staged in middle-of-nowhere, California) are similar-sized annual pop extravaganzas.

By comparison, the U.S. Virgin Festival – backed by Virgin Group's singular chief, the billionaire Richard Branson – might seem downright quaint, with some 20 artists scheduled to perform on two stages, plus a deejay tent, over a single 10-hour stretch.

Hurwitz says his booking philosophy emphasized quality over quantity, to the point that he resisted putting together a two-day concert – "because I didn't feel we could do two days' worth of entertainment without seriously diluting the lineup for the one knockout show I wanted to do."

He also didn't want to copy the Coachella or Bonnaroo blueprints.

"Most festivals have a ton of bands on a million stages, and you need a chart to figure it out. It's sensory overload," says Hurwitz, co-owner of IMP Productions, which owns the 9:30 club and operates the Merriweather Post Pavilion. "I just wanted the best of the best."

Set lengths will vary, with the artists at the beginning of the bill playing less than the biggest names. "Big sets from the big bands," Hurwitz says. "But it's not going to be like a radio festival. People aren't going to do five hits and then take off."

Pimlico was selected as the U.S. Virgin Festival site by the creators of the 11-year-old British original. (They're also launching a Canadian edition this year, over two days in early September, at Toronto Island Park.)

While the track that hosts the Preakness Stakes might seem a peculiar choice for a rock festival, it's pretty familiar turf for Hurwitz: In the '90s, he successfully produced multiple Lollapalooza festivals at Charles Town Races in West Virginia.

Might Virgin Festival become an annual event at Pimlico? "That's the idea," Hurwitz says. Just depends on how the first one goes. (Insert cart-before-horse cliche here.)

The thing that doesn't make sense is that the concert industry and the music industry in general really isn't doing that well. We're not in a boom period where you can name your price for a concert. Only Madonna and the Rolling Stones can do that. Simple economics state that if something isn't selling OR if you are trying to introduce a new product you would LOWER the price to spur sales. The concert industry and music industry needs to lower the prices on concerts and music to make people want to buy them again. But of course that's never going to happen. With the current national and world situation, I think whoever priced this concert and HFStival were dreaming. If you have to charge this much for a concert just to have a handful of "name" bands then don't have it.

Who is this line-up aimed for anyway? Very few of the bands on this line-up appeal to the 16-21 crowd, do they?

I'm sure the people who booked this worked very hard on the line-up and I don't want to be a pessimist. I hope whoever goes to this enjoys the concert. But I just can't see the public sustaining the concert business when most of the tickets are $100+.

Brian

It's aimed for people who can afford a $100 ticket.

Originally posted by Brian_Walalce:


Who is this line-up aimed for anyway? Very few of the bands on this line-up appeal to the 16-21 crowd, do they?


Brian

hehe. yeah. I will be going for sure. and i think it will sell out. not right away,. but eventually i think it will.

i want to have this here every year! :)

I don't know whether I'll attend this, but not because of the $$$.

It was around $100 for Elvis Costello and BSO at Strathmore; around the same for Ben Folds and BSO at Merriweather. Around the same for U2 around the country. Hell, it was $45 (plus service charges, shipping etc.) for Belle and Sebastian last week.

$100 - $125 for a whole day of entertainment = very good value to me.

Originally posted by Brian_Walalce:
Who is this line-up aimed for anyway? Very few of the bands on this line-up appeal to the 16-21 crowd, do they?

Why does a festival have to be geared towards 16-21 year olds? Good on them for not booking a bunch of Fall Out Boy clones.

I think that the tickets will sell pretty well. When you get bands with name recognition like the Who and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, there will be a demographic of older folks with money who don't go to many concerts that would easily shell out $100+ to see them. I don't think this kind of festival is geared towards us boardie types because a) most of these bands we can see at the 9:30 Club and watch them play full sets (Drive-By Truckers, Kasabian, Thievery Corp. and Scissor Sisters would all probably fall in that category), then there's 1 huge teeny-bopper band (the Killers) and 1 pretty pop band (Keane), and of course the 2 big headliners. For those of us that go to a lot of concerts, there's probably not one big draw that most of us DC-based folks would say "WOW, I am SO not going to miss that." I think that's the draw and success of something like Coachella. They have carved out a niche, and they feed off of certain types of bands that, when put together, is diverse but still manages to draw enough folks over 2 days even though it's in the middle of nowhere (even if they did add Madonna on this year, but is more of an exception than a rule). More power to Seth for putting on a big show like this. I don't think we should criticize it just because it's not what some of us want. I won't complain about it, but I will politely pass because it doesn't offer enough of the type of music I want to see that would make it worth my time and money. This is a forum that allows us the chance to voice our opinions. I know it's a business, but personally I would have considered going if there had been a few more bands that haven't toured the area in a while: the Stooges, the Shins, PJ Harvey, etc. And of course I can only imagine how different a festival like this would have turned out with a band like Radiohead on. But I can imagine that folks like that were approached and they were probably just unavailable. Just imagine if he was able to get a band like the Smiths or the Stone Roses to reform for something like this.

And I think this will sell out pretty quickly, based on being marketed as a "big east coast event".

Originally posted by bearman:
I don't think this kind of festival is geared towards us boardie types because a) most of these bands we can see at the 9:30 Club and watch them play full sets (Drive-By Truckers, Kasabian, Thievery Corp. and Scissor Sisters would all probably fall in that category), then there's 1 huge teeny-bopper band (the Killers) and 1 pretty pop band (Keane), and of course the 2 big headliners. For those of us that go to a lot of concerts, there's probably not one big draw that most of us DC-based folks would say "WOW, I am SO not going to miss that." I think that's the draw and success of something like Coachella.

This is a very good point. For people that don't go to a lot of concerts, or don't want to go to a lot of concerts, this is a great opportunity to see it all at once, all in one day.

For the record, I'm thrilled that they're doing this festival. I hope it continues on into the future and it can eventually become a bigger event. It is great to have something like this so close to home.

Compared, however, to a fest like Lollapalooza or ACL or even Coachella/Bonnaroo, this does seem pricey. Those festivals last three days, and cost about $50 to $60 more - featuring more bands and bigger headliners. I can appreciate that they have to cover costs, but $100 for a one day event, when you consider the other festivals that it can be compared to, is pretty steep.

the main reason i am going to go is this:

the majority of my friends dont go to as many concerts as i, and dont go delving into as much new music either. so this will be a chance for me to go enjoy a concert with dozen of friends, and other than RHCP, i can really stand to listen to any of the bands on the lineup.

also, Coachella started out as a one day festival, and has turned into something really great. so i will support this in hopes that it can gain a name and perhaps Seth can make this into its own thing too.

its not like ANYONE on this board can really talk shit on Seth or his ideas and such, right?

Is there a way to purchase these tickets at a box office, so that we can escape the ticketmaster charges?

Originally posted by JohnnyBaconbitz:
Is there a way to purchase these tickets at a box office, so that we can escape the ticketmaster charges?

Good question.

Originally posted by corporal clegg:
i cant believe you people are surprised at $100.

oh, the days of a big festival costing $30 just isnt happening. lol.

i would say that the Who jacked up the prices a good $30, though.

I agree with the above. I actually expected more than $100 with The Who on the bill.

I think the price is fair for a festival of this magnitude. Personally, I'm less than impressed with the final line-up. I think the only bands on the bill that I feel I must see are The Raconteurs and The Flaming Lips. The rest I've either seen before (and in more intimate venues) or don't particularly want to see at all. Also, I'm just not a fan of the big outdoor music festival format. I'm on the fence somewhat, but I suspect I'll be attending, even if it's only for The Raconteurs and The Flaming Lips. With my luck, they'll both be playing at the same time!

Maybe the option to buy a ticket for $50 with the requirement to leave before the Who will come up…. put me down for that! Never understood nor followed the who… and IMHO is the major sore spot of this lineup…. but I understand I'm probably not the majority.

Originally posted by myuman:
Maybe the option to buy a ticket for $50 with the requirement to leave before the Who will come up…. put me down for that! Never understood nor followed the who… and IMHO is the major sore spot of this lineup…. but I understand I'm probably not the majority.

Change "The Who" to "Red Hot Chili Peppers" and I'm right with you.

Originally posted by eros:
Change "The Who" to "Red Hot Chili Peppers" and I'm right with you.

Ditto.

Pollstar has been updated with the full line-up:
http://pollstar.com/tour/searchall.pl?By=Venue&Content=pimlico

http://www.virginfestival.com/ still says to "check back on July 17." :roll:

A lot of valid points but a clarification is needed on Coachella, it did not start out as a 1 day festival, it had one year with one day but the original Coachella in 99 was 2 days. And unlike Coachella, that began not as a attempt to have the "best" festival in America it became that by having the diversity of acts that's easily assembled by Goldenvoice in the LA area and just added to its mystique by continuing to cater to the type of crowd that frequently reads this board, and still did so even by adding Madonna. It seems odd that the first foray by V festival in the the US would come to this type of set up but it appears that this is just a licensing effort and they gave the local promoter complete control of the event which is nice and the effort and intentions seem earnest enough. I'll probably go because I'm a festival junkee and I want to support the effort even if I'm underwhelmed by the offering but the Toronto stop looks like it will have a bit more success and likelihood of becoming an annual event IMO.