BEST Virgin EVER

This past Saturday, we ventured up to our northern neighbor (AKA Maryland) to take in one of the eagerly anticipated Best Fall Ever events: the Virgin Festival. Before you start speculating as to what may go on at said Virgin Festival, let me explain the event. It is an all day concert featuring a variety of artists, sponsored by Virgin Mobile. What else could you mean by Virgin Festival???

Anyhow, Kimmmm, Kelli, a few of Kimmmm's college buddies (Justin, Kate & Luke), and I journeyed on up to the Preakness grounds to spend one glorious music-filled day. And a glorious day it was. The performers ranged from the New Pornographers to the Red Hot Chili Peppers. From Clap Your Hands Say Yeah to the Killers. From the Flaming Lips to Thievery Corporation. And of course, the biggest legendary draw: THE WHO

Based on the various artists that performed at a single venue, you can imagine the heterogeneous audience that attended such an event. Among the massive crowd of drunks, at any given time, I could observe aged hippies that probably attended the original Woodstock, a variety of costumes including the Swiss Miss girls and half-naked girls on stilts, college students from any area school in a 100-mile radius, and DC yuppies (such as ourselves).

My favorite fan was spotted during the CYHSY concert, which generally appeals to a rather mellow audience. Well, this particular fan was the only member of the audience that did not conform to the mellow ambiance. In fact, he danced his heart out, reminding me a lot of what a Richard Simmons aerobics class would instruct you to do ("Bounce, 2, 3, 4. Now shake 2, 3, 4. Now raise your hands and hold. Now, jump, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8."). As you check out the photo I snapped of my favorite fan, you will notice that not a single other person in the audience has arms flailing overhead like this man:

By any chance, does a specific Sesame Street song come to mind ("One of these things is not like the others...")???

Perhaps one of the most fascinating observations (that eventually turned into a game for us) was identifying the variety of concert tees everyone sported. I always thought it was a major fashion faux pas to wear a t-shirt of the actual concert you're attending. But as it turns out, the majority of people wore any concert tee, regardless of who was performing. Sure they wore shirts from previous the Flaming Lips and the Who concerts, but they also wore concert tees from Guns 'n Roses and Garth Brooks.

And then out of nowhere, the unthinkable happened: we spotted a Baha Men tee. Not only did somebody have the audacity to wear a shirt of the annoying group that sang "Who Let the Dogs Out," but that person had actually attended a Baha Men concert in order to purchase it. Great, now that damn song is in my head all over again.

All in all, we had a very memorable and very exhausting day. I still find it hard to believe that we saw the Who...or as Kelli put it: "the band that sings that CSI song."