Virgin Mobile Spreads the Love ... You Can Too!

Virgin Mobile is spreading the love this week, giving 35,000 music lovers a break from recession-era money woes while raising thousands to help kids with  woes that aren't so easily fixed.

The company's FreeFest 2009, an all-day, free-of-charge music festival that is drumming up support to address the issue of youth homelessness, is set to take place this Sun., Aug. 30 at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland.

Now in its third year, tickets to the Virgin Mobile Festival used to run about $100 a day. This year, though, the organizers wanted to “do something special for people," said Felicia Hall, Virgin Mobile's Cause Marketing Manager. “We wanted [the news of the concert] to be a light moment during the day."

The concert, which sold out (or, as the organizers like to call it, "freed out") in 30 minutes, will rock from 11 a.m. until 10 p.m., featuring bands like Blink-182, Weezer, Franz Ferdinand, Public Enemy, Mates of State and The National.

You can get in on the good karma even if you don't have tickets to the event. Virgin Mobile is encouraging everyone, concertgoer and homebody alike, to donate $5 to The RE*Generation, the company's charitable initiative to help homeless youth. Join the give-fest by texting "FREEFEST" to 20222 and answering "yes" to the response. Your contribution will be sent on its way and added to your next phone bill.

Ms. Hall is proud that the initiative is "getting people involved in giving back." The donations the FreeFest generates will benefit the work of five organizations around the country: Bridge Over Troubled Waters in Boston, Green Chimneys in New York, Help USA in Philadelphia, Sasha Bruce Youthwork in D.C. and Stand Up for Kids in both Baltimore and Los Angeles. Most of these organizations run shelters or transitional living facilities for homeless kids. Donations will benefit these facilities and support important street outreach work.

"It's a huge opportunity for these organizations to continue their outreach when donations are down otherwise," said Ms. Hall. "This means more beds for kids who have been displaced where other shelters have closed."

The FreeFest is giving these beneficiaries more than just donations, though. A volunteer program has mobilized around 3,000 volunteers who have donated more than 30,000 hours. The bulk of the volunteers — 2,500 of them — are in Howard County, Maryland (the site of the concert), and received concert tickets in exchange for putting in at least 13 hours. Volunteers in the other cities who put in 13 hours joined a lottery to win a spot on the FreeFest Express, a series of buses and planes donated by Megabus and Virgin America, which will give a cadre of lucky volunteers a free lift to the concert.

Organizing a concert this way is a new and exciting experience for the Virgin team used to mounting traditional ticket-funded events. "It's been fun," Ms. Hall mused. "It's been a wild ride."

There's still almost a week to add your own contribution to one of this summer's last moments of wild goodness. Pick up your phone and text "FREEFEST" to 20222 to spread the love.

And donate directly by clicking here! There's still time to do your part ... both for communities in need and the sake of rock and roll.

Photo courtesy of Adam Riggall, via Flickr