Virgin Free Fest/Ticket Fly Hot Mess

While I have normally applauded ticketfly.com for their great service and ease of getting concert info out there quick and releasing tickets early the Virgin Free Fest was a total disaster. I haven't really hated on much on this blog but this was ridiculous! Usually if I want to see a hot show I have found out about them soon but if I know it'll be seated, or in this case free, I'll get my ass up to a phone or computer to make sure I get in the infinite waiting room of online servers to get my tickets before they sell out in mere minutes. I went to Virgin's first local festival with some friends that cost in the hundreds but it had a slew of great bands playing. I saw Wolfmother, Brazilian Girls, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Who, and The Racteouers that year. Not bad for the price despite it being played at Baltimore's dirty Pimilico Field infield. Then last year it went free and I was shut out thanks to Ticketmaster. I've been hounding the Virgin Free Fest fan page on Facebook all week to get a head of the pack and they released their presale code the night before the first attempt to made on the tickets. Needless to say I was ready. CRASH!!!!!! System crashed, what a bummer. Nothing worked, no direct links, nothing. I got back on Facebook and the masses were hot. Eventually at around ten after Virgin Free Fest sent a new link up. Still no dice. After ten more minutes they finally stated they got everything all up and working and I finally got in and got tow tickets. I was even able to call a few people to send them the link too. I checked today and tried but nothing got through. They posted later that 75,000 people tried for close to 35,000 tickets. That's ridiculous. Glad I got hooked up because I have been waiting to hear word on when LCD Soundsystem was coming to DC. I am also grateful that Sleigh Bells, Chromeo, and Neon Indian are coming too since I missed their last go round here. Sorry to vent but the ticket situation is crazy but I can't complain since they're free. Thanks Virgin and Ticket Fly, Love Julian.