Festival organizers have confirmed that Virgin Mobile FreeFest will not be returning to Merriweather Post Pavilion this year. I.M.P. Productions is exploring options to continue it in the future. According to MPP operator Seth Hurwitz,

“The Freefest was this fantastic product of a crossroads of Richard Branson and some very creative people at Virgin. The mixture got shaken up every year, and it always settled at the last possible moment for that year. That was part of the spontaneous magic that everyone could pick up on I think. Unfortunately, the pieces are not all there right now with Virgin. Whether they are again who knows.

The festival was first made free in 2009 as a result of the recession. It has since been a huge success, with headliners as big as Vampire Weekend, Pretty Lights, Jack White, and Skrillex selling out thousands of free tickets each year almost instantly. 

In 2012, Branson stated that the festival costs approximately $3 million to produce, claiming,

“We’d like to continue to do it for free because it fits the spirit of the brand. But if the money men at Virgin say, ‘Look, we did it for free while the public was struggling but now people are getting back on their feet, so maybe we should charge them,’ we’d have to think about it.”

We hope to see this festival make a return in the future!