• by Kelly Samardak , August 12, 2008

Virgin Mobile Festival Pre Party, Havana Club, Baltimore
August 8, 2008

I know what you're thinking. Why leave Manhattan to cover a party, when, like, all the best stuff happens in the core of the big apple. Not so, my insular friends. The only thing worse than someone on the East Coast who hasn't yet been to Manhattan is someone from Manhattan who never leaves. Which is why I mixed business with pleasure (or Bleasure for all you Home Movies fans) on the greatest weekend on earth: the weekend of Virgin Mobile festival. Strapped with my trusty and dusty Canon and my crowd surfing goal (yeah, it's taken me this long), I headed to beautiful Baltimore, hon, and discovered how the mobile half live.

Baltimore starts with a B. So does benchmarking - and I seriously think people should benchmark Virgin Mobile for their usage of the musical equivalent of pre rolls and, really, mobile networking. Ringtones and ringbacks aren't just "oh for fun," kids. They're a powerful tool and the music industry, in it's own little tailspin of transformation, really gets the influence that (perceived) music aficionados. Come on - the cool kid was always the guy who knew the bands before you did.

The festival organizers obviously aren't ignoring peoples' need to stalk each other before big events , otherwise they wouldn't have snuggled up alongside myspace and facebook to pre-load the hookups (uh, I mean connections, not dirty hookups. Maybe) and create that warm and fuzzy feeling of being a part of something huge, not just a turtle flapping his feet in the festival pond. Afraid that when you're elbow deep in Boardwalk Fries you'll miss Iggy and The Stooges? No worries, you had mobile alerts to keep your face out of the Bud Light and in the music. I'll get more into the actual festival in my Part Two coverage, but suffice it to say, if you had joined the facebook dance tent group, you could have predicted that yes, your blue sparkly latex bunny suit was indeed appropriate. I'm always curious, though, if the crowd was suspicious of the social tie-ins as a potential marketing ploy -- or if they welcomed the space to virtually gather and find each other.

OK fine, let's talk about the pre party. I was a little late arriving due to a prior commitment to Brian Roberts, but the free bevies were flowing and the veggie platter was glowing underneath the heated crab dip when the elevator let me off into Havana Club above the Ruth's Chris steak house. My first photo victims were Bob Stohrer, Chief Marketing Officer, Virgin Mobile USA, who was hanging around the bar with Keith Pizer, Partner at 1 Trick Pony. They're an ad agency and graphic design shop based out of Hammonton, N.J. - "in the heart of sunny South Jersey," emails Keith. Everything you see/saw, the jockey on the guitar, the lightning bolts - and everywhere you see/saw it resulted from a jam session with Virgin Mobile. The results were blown out across all of their material and in my opinion jerked you full of pre-festival excitement, defibrillatorstyle.

Surveying the partygoers directly in front of Bob and Keith were Mark Tesi, Design Manager, Virgin Mobile USA, and Marc Debartolomeis, Director of Design and Presentation, Virgin Mobile USA. Something tells me they've also run into Bob and Keith before. The always-smiling Liz Lowry, Manager Mobile Sales, Sony BMG, was itching to dance when I found her with Mary Tastet, Director Digital/Mobile RED, and Larry Kanusher, Senior Vice President, Business and Legal Affairs, Sony BMG.

Tomorrow you're going to get the dusty feet edition - Part 2 of my favorite music festival with a lovely media spin. Oh, and PS, I highly recommend you begin your trek next year with the Amtrak café car instead of the stinky traveling toilet that is the Greyhound. I also believe a monkeyman on a motorbike on a high wire is a complement to any event.

Send invitations to kelly@mediapost.com and get your monkeyman high wire act covered in Just An Online Minute!

See the pre party photos on Flickr!

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