On Saturday, September 21st, nearly 50,000 people attended the fifth annual Freefest concert at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Md.
Tickets for the concert were in theory completely free, with the idea being that instead of paying for tickets, concert goers would make voluntary donations. For those who did not score one of the free tickets online in the initial sale, craigslist was a viable option.
Spread across the 40 acres of Merriweather grounds were three different venues: the Pavilion Stage, the West Stage, and the Dance Forest, each with their own quirks.
Event planners really took advantage of the great space Merriweather has to offer, and there was something interesting going on everywhere you turned. When not listening to music, patrons could ride on a giant Ferris wheel, go in the fun house, or shop around at the tents of vendors.
The impressive lineup for Freefest included 20 artists with music styles all across the board.
The day began with NYC-based duo Ghost Beach treating listeners to a mix of their cutting edge, synth pop sounds at the Dance Forest stage. Popular acts early in the day also included Sky Ferreira, who performed 45 minutes worth of songs from her EPs as well as her upcoming debut album Night Time, My Time, as well as Scottish synthpop band Chvrches, and Black Joe Lewis, known for his gritty blues style.
A little later in the day, concert goers made their way to the packed Pavilion stage to see MGMT, definitely one of the most popular and recognizable bands at the concert. Though It had been drizzling a little bit prior to this, it was during MGMT’s set that the rain really started to come down.
The Pavilion stage itself is located at the bottom of a sloping hill, at the bottom of which rainwater quickly collected and formed a giant mud pit. One of the highlights of the day was definitely seeing a slightly intoxicated middle aged soccer mom lead a slightly more intoxicated (albeit shoeless) soccer mom through said mud pit. There were many other mud-pit casualties.
While MGMT was wrapping up its performance at the Pavilion, Robin Thicke was just getting underway at the West Stage. I stayed to hear the controversial blurred lines singer perform the lyrical masterpiece that is “Give it 2 u” but the scantily clad back up dancers that appeared after about 40 seconds, combined with his constant, painful crooning of “oh baby” led to my departure.
I spent the next hour and a half or so waiting in line in the pouring rain to get into the pit for Vampire Weekend. Though I couldn’t see the Avett Brothers from my spot in line, I was able to hear some of their set, which featured bluegrass, folk and rock elements, an interesting combination which made for a very distinctive sound, though not my favorite.
The highlight of my night was definitely being in the pit for Vampire Weekend. Lead singer Ezra Koenig did a great job with cult favorites like ‘Horchata’ and ‘A-punk’ as well as songs like ‘Diane Young’ from their newest album Modern Vampires in the City. Though there were some complaints that Ezra seemed unenergetic and too stationary, the great energy in the crowd made up for any of his shortcomings.