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

thanks seth.

- getting in and out was a breeze and i didnt arrive until 4 pm. found a spot less than 5 min away at the mall.
-LOVED the fact that i didnt have to use port a potties.
- liked the shade and being able to come and go in the pavilion
- staff were nice as usual

only full sets i saw were weezer, national, and franz

the bravery were interesting. think i'd prefer to see them at the club

public enemy were good but there were too many assholes in the crowd. really, who crowd surf during public enemy? one girl was lucky she didnt break her neck the way she fell.

weezer and the bit of blink i saw entertained me. cant say i'd pay to see either of them though

national - i always enjoy them and i swear their lead singer is going to burst a vein one day lol

franz was great, highlight of the festival for me. i am now a fan and i cant wait to see them again.  please bring them to the club asap

on a side note, why were soo many people spending hours in line to get into the pavilion instead of just finding a spot on the lawn. i mean, yeah it's nice to be under the pavilion but you missed most of the show standing in line - what's the point?

hutch wrote:
also I forgot to add: props to Seth and the organizers.. the fest had a really good vibe going….no real issues.. would have been nice to have more places to fill up water bottles and also there was a lack of garbage cans around the second stage..but that was small potatoes.. overall very well organized and no complaints.

I noticed this as well, lots of people just hanging out having fun…  And a second on having more drinking water available and as Hutch says especially near the second stage, it would also been nice to have another non freeip tent for people to chill under in the back of the second stage area.

I am really happy that so many people had a great time

that's what it's all about for me

Cali wrote:
on a side note, why were soo many people spending hours in line to get into the pavilion instead of just finding a spot on the lawn. i mean, yeah it's nice to be under the pavilion but you missed most of the show standing in line - what's the point?

For me it was a seat in the shade and much, MUCH better sound.  Biggest hassle in the pavilion was all the kids saving seats for friends who had gone out to get beers or whatnot.  Ushers did a good job of getting people out of the aisles and keeping things orderly.

I should have added earlier that St Vincent & the Hold Steady were the highlights for me.  Wasn't overly familiar with either act but enjoyed them both.

Both Weezer & Blink were better than expected.  Holy Fcuk were entertaining.  Bravery were ok.  That's about it for the acts I really liked.

Wish I'd spent more time roaming the tents and all but there were too many bands to see and we didn't have the luxury of 2 days to soak it all in.  Can't complain, though.  Had a blast.

I really enjoyed the show.  Caught The Hold Steady, part of Public Enemy, part of the National, all of Weezer (from the lawn).  Left after Weezer. 

Very well organized show.  Parking was easy in and out, Staph and vendors were friendly (and plentiful).  Nice Hay Bales to rest upon as well (more hay bales next year).

My only small gripe would be that the sound on the lawn for Weezer was not loud enough, and/or the sound from the Dance Stage area was too loud and bled onto the lawn.  I was around the middle of the Lawn, and could not hear some the Weez or could not hear them well enough for my old ears anyway.

Seth - Can DC ever again get a Weezer headlining show?  Wasn't the last one 5 years ago or more at Merriweather?  and before that it was the Baltimore arena.

I had a good time as well. Parking was easy, getting in took seconds, i never had to wait in too long of a line for a bathroom, and they were inside with a sink, etc.  I didnt see many groups, just Holy Fuck and Public Enemy. HF were worth going for alone (though they definitely are better to watch at night and inside.) I would have stayed for Girl Talk and Franz Ferdinand, but everyone I was with was ready to go when National started playing.  I would definitely go back to MPP for a another festival, if the line up is good. 

I had a great time at the fest.  I guess my only 'gripe' was the long lines to get into the pavilion early in the day when the left and right sections of the pavilion were completely empty.  I'm sure there was a reason for it, but it just seemed odd.  I never actually went into the pavilion and had a great time all the same.  Weezer was great and Mates of State too.  Good times.

Another satisfied customer here, too.      Parking and getting in/out was a breeze.  We stayed at the West stage pretty much all day.  No lines to speak of.  We caught The Hold Steady, Public Enemy, part of The National, Girl Talk and Franz Ferdinand.    Great day.    Thanks, Seth!

First off, I don't think the weather could have been any better yesterday.  Finding parking was a breeze and getting out was no problem.  i enjoyed the free tent by the west stage.  The announcer was hilarious and kept the people waiting in line for free shoes entertained.  I was bummed that after waiting in line for an hour, I ended up with free sunglasses instead of shoes, but hey it was free! I can't really complain about this.  I didn't show up until the Public Enemy set, which was better than I had expected.  The National were good. GT was the highlight of my night. I hadn't seen them before, so I didn't know what to expect.  I saw the Lips/EITS show on Friday night, and the confetti/balloons from GT reminded me a lot of the lips set.  I left a few songs before Franz Ferdinand finished their set, which proved to be a good decision since the blink show was still going on.  Thanks to Seth and everyone else who helped make this a great free festival!

Definitely props to Seth for making this such an enjoyable festival.  I did not have high hopes given that I was a bit "meh" on most of the acts, with only Franz as band I really wanted to see. 

Other than a bit of traffic for 3 or 4 miles of I-95, traffic wasn't too bad, I took a back way from route 32 (cedar lane) to get to the Mall, where I parked at the sears no problem, walked 5 minutes to the venue. Bravery were OK, Weezer were definitely entertaining, Girl Talk was actually a pleasant surprise for me, and managed to get really close to the stage for FF. Had not seen them yet (which is nuts, I've been trying for ages) and they put on a great show. 

I rather liked the whole setup at Merriweather for a festival.  The only problem is getting good seats in the pavilion.  I never even tried to get in, just wasn't worth waiting for God knows how long and then being tied to the seat for fear of not being let back in.  I didn't mind sitting on the lawn and watching the screens for the bands that were there.  Though I imagine if it were bands I were very excited about, I'd be upset at not being able to get close.

Overall a very well put together event.  I'm just yet another one of those picky forumites that would like to see a more "indie" festival in the area.  But that's just my personal taste.

I'd like to hear more from folks who parked at the mall -  in festival-designated spots or otherwise.  No hassles getting away last night? 

I parked at MPP (where the 4-per-car requirement was not strictly enforced).  Getting in was easy as hell but even after leaving immediately after Blink finished w/Damnit it took 40 minutes to get out.  Not the worst thing to ever happen but a little surprising given the limited parking and the number of folks who had already bailed.

I parked at the mall near Sears and it really only took me about 15-20 minutes before I was going along at a good clip on Broken Land Parkway.  I made sure to drive around the inner mall ring road instead of the main outer ring road until I could leave by getting directly onto the parkway from the parking lot.  The parking lots at the mall were very full when I arrived around 3:30pm, but was in the right place at the right time for some mall shopper in a minivan pulling out of a space.

i had a blast, seth - you have a winner on your hands.

MPP is a great location for a festival.  the in-place infrastructure does a lot to address my usual complaints about many other festivals (porta-potties, lack of decent food and drink selection, lack of shade, bad parking, etc).  LOVED the set-up of the west stage at the bottom of the hill - the slope ensured that everyone had a good view even from the back.  please re-do this at future installments.  please!

i gotta say i was shocked at how amazing the parking situation was.  the missus and i have been traumatized by a few bad parking experiences (hello, nissan) and were more than worried when (1) we realized that almost twice as many people as a normal capacity MPP show might be in attendance, and (2) we got a parking spot on the upper deck of the garage - we were afraid this would mean an hour just to get out of the garage.  these turned out to be false concerns - we stayed until the end of franz and when we got to the car, the garage was 90% empty already.  traffic moved out incredibly smoothly, i took 29 all the way to 495 and was on the outer loop in less than 15 minutes.  amazing.  maybe it's because so many people left right after weezer?  or blink-182 went on past most of their fans' curfews so they left before we did?  whatever it was, it was the best festival parking experience i've ever had.  thank you!

to people who complain about the line-ups to get in to the pavilion or pit: what did you expect?  there were 30,000+ people trying to occupy some 8,000 spaces… of course there is going to be a line-up and most people weren't going to get in.  there is no way of fixing this.  if you really want to be in there, plan accordingly.

music i caught: mates of state were pretty good.  taking back sundays were pretty awful.  hold steady were decent.  the 2 minutes of jet that i caught were not bad, i was expecting worse.  couldn't really get in to public enemy, but the crowd was eating it up.  the national were pretty but unmemorable.  weezer was surprisingly good, even better than expected.  girl talk was fun (when isn't he?).  FF were the highlight of the festival, as expected.  didn't catch a single note of b-182's set.

miss p, kosmo and thedirerctor showed up for the 2:30 meet-up, along with the missus.  would have been nice to see more of the regulars…

and who here knew that the festival had a live stream?  seth, you might want to advertise that a bit more.  great promo for getting the festival's name out there.

again, thanks to IMP & its staph!

I had a great time.  MPP is a much better environment than Pimlico for a music fest - it's not even close.  I only wish I could've stayed to watch Blink and/or Franz, but my daughter and her friends had their first day of school today.  A 2 day festival at MPP is something I would pay for.  Who wants to spend 2 days inside a racetrack, although I admit that is better than the parking lot environment of Bamboozle.  Anyways, my experience at music fests had been a big turn-off until this one.

well I did show up at the 230 932…I got in about 232 actually.. but I don't know what any of y'all look like so I kind of looked at everyone, walked around and looked at the stuff on the walls and walked up… I didn't feel comfortable yelling "MEETUP!!!!!!!!!"

sorry about that..next time

yeah, good point… we didn't pick a precise spot or way to identify ourselves.  my bad.  indeed: next time.

I showed up at around 3:00, but didn't see anyone I recognized so I bailed.

again, sorry: collectively, we only had about 30 minutes of conversation.  once we started discussing the weather and how pleased we were that blink-182 were back together, it was time to split :P

(seriously tho, we must have just missed each other as we left at 3:00 - too bad, would have been nice to catch up!)

I had a really good time. I'm not sure if I like it better than Pimlico, though. The shade that Merriweather has to offer is very enjoyable. But one downside of having a festival here is the terrain; there are alot of hills at MPP. When you go see just a concert, its not so bad because you're usually in the same place/area for the duration of your stay. But at a festival like Vfest, I got tired pretty quickly going from area to area, constantly going up and down.

I stayed in the dance tent for most of the time, but ventured out to see Public Enemy, get food, and just wander around alot. The dance area was pretty cool - I was expecting a tent, but was rather surprised at how well it worked having the area in the trees like that. It made for a really good vibe at night.

Also, the last little gripe - most of the porto-potties didn't have any sanitizer dispensers in or around them. But MPP does have actual bathrooms which is a definitely nice alternative.

whoever godinhell is on youtube he filmed some great Franz Ferdinand.. I think he's a forumer…