This weekend marked the debut of Richard Branson's bloated, strobing talent display, known as as the Virgin Festival. For the tens of thousands that shelled out at least $55/ day, it was a great opportunity to see a sorely-needed large-scale outdoor rock festival near downtown Toronto featuring some big-name acts. But based on the choice of Centre Island as its venue, the V-Fest left itself plenty of bugs to iron out for future editions.
For your consideration, here's the good, the bad and the ugly with respect to Toronto's first Virgin Music Festival.
The Good
You've got to give the festival organizers credit, on paper, the line-up was loaded with talent. Bands like Muse, Gnarls Barkley, The Dears, Wolfmother, The Strokes and The Raconteurs all brought big sound to the small island. Some artists were rushed or bumped to another stage and some met an even worse fate....more on that later.
Outside of the musical acts, the festival was also run very effectively. Ferry wait times were minimal, line-ups moved quickly and there was plenty of room near the stage. After the disapointing way the last major concert for about 15, 000 was organized at the same venue (Broken Social Scene/ Bloc Party), this weekend's festival of 50, 000 people ran relatively smoothly.
The Bad
Day one featured some less than desirable weather and a stunningly apathetic crowd. I'm not entirely sure what it is about Toronto and it's rock concert-going fans, but I've been to more than a few good shows lately where lead singers have literally had to request the audience to get into it. Very weird phenomenon.
Also more than a little distracting was the avalanche of advertising. I'm all for sponsorship keeping these starving artists afloat and my ticket prices a little lower but man this thing went a little too far. Model search contests by Levi's, text message auctions for Harleys, Virgin cell phone sales booths, Infinity sound systems demos, GM car displays and more Robitussin-flavoured Dentyne Ice than seemed medically safe bombarded me at every turn. Virgin was shameless in pushing everything not bolted down to the island.
The Ugly
The island's 11 p.m. curfew swallowed the headlining acts on both days and really put a damper on this festival in my opinion. The Flaming Lips was finally managing to awaken the masses with their "Hallmark Store exlposion" brand of pyrotechnics launched at the crowd but less than five songs in, the Lips were zipped with minimal explanation.
As Flaming Lips lead singer Wayne Coyne shook his head and apologized to the crowd for his band's contribution to the buzz kill it made me wonder if that was good enough for the diehard fans that basically dropped 55 bucks for 4.5 songs.
Even with a rescheduled Day 2 looking to learn from the previous day's mistakes, replacement headliners Broken Social Scene met a similar if not expected fate receiving no love from anyone near a power switch after 10:59 p.m.
Festival organizers and island officials will likely hem and haw and cite first-time scheduling kinks that need to be worked out but at the end of the day they're not the ones getting screwed out of their money. That minor consideration of how strict the curfew is enforced caused a major problem in terms of the overall fan experience.
Centre Island can prove to be a great local alternative for larger outdoor concerts in this city. Public transportation is accessible, the traffic disruption is minimal and all while providing a large enough outdoor space for bigger bands. The challenge lies in working within those strict time constraints effectively and that's where Virgin will need to improve if it hopes to build upon its first crack at V-Fest.
For your consideration, here's the good, the bad and the ugly with respect to Toronto's first Virgin Music Festival.
The Good
You've got to give the festival organizers credit, on paper, the line-up was loaded with talent. Bands like Muse, Gnarls Barkley, The Dears, Wolfmother, The Strokes and The Raconteurs all brought big sound to the small island. Some artists were rushed or bumped to another stage and some met an even worse fate....more on that later.
Outside of the musical acts, the festival was also run very effectively. Ferry wait times were minimal, line-ups moved quickly and there was plenty of room near the stage. After the disapointing way the last major concert for about 15, 000 was organized at the same venue (Broken Social Scene/ Bloc Party), this weekend's festival of 50, 000 people ran relatively smoothly.
The Bad
Day one featured some less than desirable weather and a stunningly apathetic crowd. I'm not entirely sure what it is about Toronto and it's rock concert-going fans, but I've been to more than a few good shows lately where lead singers have literally had to request the audience to get into it. Very weird phenomenon.
Also more than a little distracting was the avalanche of advertising. I'm all for sponsorship keeping these starving artists afloat and my ticket prices a little lower but man this thing went a little too far. Model search contests by Levi's, text message auctions for Harleys, Virgin cell phone sales booths, Infinity sound systems demos, GM car displays and more Robitussin-flavoured Dentyne Ice than seemed medically safe bombarded me at every turn. Virgin was shameless in pushing everything not bolted down to the island.
The Ugly
The island's 11 p.m. curfew swallowed the headlining acts on both days and really put a damper on this festival in my opinion. The Flaming Lips was finally managing to awaken the masses with their "Hallmark Store exlposion" brand of pyrotechnics launched at the crowd but less than five songs in, the Lips were zipped with minimal explanation.
As Flaming Lips lead singer Wayne Coyne shook his head and apologized to the crowd for his band's contribution to the buzz kill it made me wonder if that was good enough for the diehard fans that basically dropped 55 bucks for 4.5 songs.
Even with a rescheduled Day 2 looking to learn from the previous day's mistakes, replacement headliners Broken Social Scene met a similar if not expected fate receiving no love from anyone near a power switch after 10:59 p.m.
Festival organizers and island officials will likely hem and haw and cite first-time scheduling kinks that need to be worked out but at the end of the day they're not the ones getting screwed out of their money. That minor consideration of how strict the curfew is enforced caused a major problem in terms of the overall fan experience.
Centre Island can prove to be a great local alternative for larger outdoor concerts in this city. Public transportation is accessible, the traffic disruption is minimal and all while providing a large enough outdoor space for bigger bands. The challenge lies in working within those strict time constraints effectively and that's where Virgin will need to improve if it hopes to build upon its first crack at V-Fest.
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