Update: Virgin Mobile Festival ‘09 is a go!

By Alex Young on April 3rd, 2009 in Festival News/Rumor, News

Update: Virgin Mobile Festival ‘09 is a go!

Earlier today, we noted of what looked to be the impending cancellation of this year’s Virgin Mobile Festival. However, just a few hours later, Jayne Wallace, director of corporate communications for Virgin Mobile, has revealed to the Baltimore Sun that the Baltimore based music festival is in fact scheduled to return this summer. “Nothing in life is definite…But for all intents and purposes, we fully expect to hold another festival. We have some exciting ideas we’re looking at,” Wallace explained.

No additional details were given, such as dates, or where Virgin Fest would be taking place – there is some speculation that Pimlico, the festival’s current venue, may be demolished in the coming months. As a result, according to the Baltimore Business Journal, the festival may be eying a move to to Columbia, Maryland’s 17,000-seat Merriweather Post Pavilion.

As for possible acts for this year’s bill? As reader Tom G pointed, there is some speculation that Metallica could be a possibility. It’s probably safe to say Coldplay, the Beastie Boys, and some Virgin-approved acts like Muse and Franz Ferdinand are others potential acts given their appearance/likely appearance at other U.S. festivals in early August, all of which is contingent of course on Virgin Festival actually taking place in its usual early August slot.

As always, we’ll keep you updated…

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comments (24)

  • MUTEMATH, MUSE and INCUBUS .. need I say more?

    I hope it happens!

    mike June 24, 2009 at 4:54 pm

  • From Virgin website here http://music.virgin.com/festivals/ it says the Baltimore fest is at Pimlico and the venue for Vancouver one is still TBA. Sooo if it wasn’t at Pimlico I would think it would still say TBA

    sorry forgot the link in the last post

    razuuuner June 16, 2009 at 6:05 pm

  • From Virgin website here it says the Baltimore fest is at Pimlico and the venue for Vancouver one is still TBA. Sooo if it wasn’t at Pimlico I would think it would still say TBA

    razuuuner June 16, 2009 at 6:03 pm

  • I too bought tickets for Lollapalooza this year..$190 for 3 days of music is very comparable for what I spent on two days at Pimlico that past 3 years..and with no lineup or even a web update, this looks to be the best bet for a summer concert.

    Ali May 28, 2009 at 4:13 pm

  • The past few years they had pretty much everything finalized the the end of may. Here we are at the end of May and we still don’t know if it is still going to be in Baltimore. I would like to see maybe different dates as 100 degrees and all those people is hot! If it gets moved to NY, I don’t think that we will be going. I would be nice if they would let us know something so that people can plan, especially since we are in a recession and people have to save:)

    Katie May 20, 2009 at 3:14 pm

  • they announced 2 of the 5 virgin festival for canada and they both blow.

    let’s hope MD gets something decent cos’ they’ve already screwed toronto by moving the festival to the backwoods of no mansland.

    debaser May 19, 2009 at 3:50 pm

  • Could they have dropped the ball on this any more? I decided to go to lollapalooza instead. I guess they figure people don’t make plans for the summer. I don’t think it’s even going to happen at this point.

    C May 19, 2009 at 3:07 pm

  • pimlico was great all years it should still be first pic if not possible the state faifgrounds would also be great meriweather
    not so much in any case we want this fest bad ………..peace se ya there

    atom May 13, 2009 at 10:55 pm

  • So what’s the deal with Virgin Mobile Music Festival 2009? If it’s a go, they need to finalize acts, dates, times, etc. so people can start making plans. August will be here before we know it!

    Michael Schmiedlin May 1, 2009 at 9:14 pm

  • RFK might be a good place. It’s not Baltimore, but it’s a fairly large venue, not as big as Pimlico, I don’t think but there should at least be the room for three stages.

    Dogma April 29, 2009 at 4:58 pm

  • Virgin Fest wouldn’t be same if they tried to squeeze it into Merriweather…. I’m so glad they’re doing Virgin Fest, I was afraid that it was canceled because of the 40th anniversary of Woodstock being around the same time that they usually do Virgin Fest.

    Katrina April 12, 2009 at 1:06 pm

  • merriweather already helped kill hfstival

    Anonymous April 10, 2009 at 4:07 pm

  • marriweather would not be good at all

    wayne April 10, 2009 at 2:45 pm

  • The Virgin Festival will be NO fun at all in Merriweather.

    It is too small. It is not a good venue anyway. Festivals do not work there.

    I live for this every year! Please don’t move to Merriweather!

    TRUST!

    wawijr April 7, 2009 at 3:00 pm

  • Muse…headliner..case closed..simply the best act in the world

    Petrocs April 6, 2009 at 9:57 am

  • Thanks for the props Lenny. It takes a big man.
    I guess i just argued the point cause i’m actually mad at Richard Branson and his sheer negligence of others anticipation of his festivals. So I should not have made any beef with you.
    Another thing that pisses me off about Branson is when he did finally announce the fest in Calgary last year it was a major let down seeing as “he said” that he was letting the fans schedual it, which was a total farce cause 90% of the bands that were @ V-Fest Calgary last year were bands that had all been through town in the last 9 months. I know the “Schedual your own Band” festival is a total lie. But dont make the citizens of Calgary look like fools, they do that enough on their own. (i.e. Calgary Stampede)
    My final point being, the real reason Branson brought V-Fest to Calgary was to butter up the city and province so he could dip his greedy little hands into the “Tar Sands” up north. Now that he and others see there’s not enough $ coming out of said Tar Sands he will not bring the Fest back. Just would kinda be nice to let people know so they can buy tickets to a real music festival like Sled Island (???????? where are the rumours) or Sasquatch.
    I feel sorry for people who work the V-Fest schedualing division. That’s gotta be one shitty job. Its like being a bouncer or a parking meter maid.

    bobbyrisigliano April 5, 2009 at 2:41 pm

  • From what I heard the Brawn deal gives him the right (starting next year) to the paint job, including leasing out sponsor space to other sponsors, so in that respect you’re right :^P

    But back on topic, whenabouts was the Baltimore announcement? I seem to recall them usually being around mid-June…

    Lenny April 5, 2009 at 12:47 pm

  • Bobby, the Virgin Calgary lineup was supposed to come out in January last year. They only released it in April because they ran into a lot of unexpected problems. I don’t see why they would release it this late again.

    Adam April 4, 2009 at 4:17 pm

  • I will say this. Virgin Calgary lineup was announced on April 9th last year. So that would make the announcement coming this Wednesday if they keep the same timetable?

    bobbyrisigliano April 4, 2009 at 12:43 pm

  • Hey Lenny, I’m gonna argue this one. Yes he did buy into Braun racing but he’s not even one of the major investors. As we all know he’s one savy business man, and if it doesn’t make money he won’t invest in it, hence this excerpt from Autosport.com

    “I’ve been quite fortunate in that I have done ballooning and boating, and done quite a lot of sporting activities, and it hasn’t cost any money as I always got someone else to sponsor it. So I am a bit of a cheapskate when it comes to these things, and make everything pay its way. ”
    Nuff said

    bobbyrisigliano April 4, 2009 at 12:36 pm

  • Considering Branson just inked a big sponsorship deal with a Formula 1 team, one thing’s for sure–they’re not exactly hurting for money…

    Lenny April 4, 2009 at 11:50 am

  • still no word north of the boarder. My question is, you think Virgin may be feeling the internet pressure? I’ve never seen the likes but i got about 200 of my friends to email withion the past 2 days “what up with your fest? were spending our dough elsewhere”. Id like to think that an internet community can make a multi national conglomerate squeem a bit.

    bobbyrisigliano April 4, 2009 at 1:39 am

  • I’ve always known the Virgin Fest announcements to be kinda late in the making–that’s what made the first one so seat-of-the-pants to plan for a 7 hour road trip, and so damn worth it.

    Lenny April 3, 2009 at 6:46 pm

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