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Today I’m nursing a major VFest hangover, but let me tell you, it’s the best hangover EVER - highly recommended. I’m buzzing from seeing so much good live music; I’ve been listening to more live recordings all morning; basically anything I can get my filthy hands on.

If you haven’t already guessed it, my highlight of the weekend was Muse’s incredible one hour set on Saturday night…they just killed it. They should have been the headliners and closed out the whole show, IMO. But there were so many other amazing bands there…reliable standbys like The Strokes, Jose Gonzalez, Alexisonfire, Phoenix, BSS, and newly discovered favourites like ohbijou and DJ Champion.

Oh, and Zero 7, who, despite having a thrice delayed set - because of Lupe Fiasco sneaking in a set, soundcheck problems, and then a power outage - were incredible. I was SO happy to see that they came with vocalist Sia Furler in tow to sing classics like “Somersault”, “Destiny” and “Distractions”. And Jose Gonzalez did guest vocals on a few tracks too. Lovely set & highly danceable, too!

If you missed the live streams & you weren’t on the island, keep your eyes peeled (ew) because we’re gonna have select performances up on MuchAXS in the next few days for you to review. And keep sending us your pics & videos from the weekend, to vfest@muchmusic.com!

AKA “Eighth Grade Speechwriting Contest Entry”

Great to be here!! I can’t believe that procrastination can get you this far: to a music festival in Canada’s biggest city. Here’s the story. I am one of the contest winners from the MuchMusic Vfest contest. I am a graduate student back in the Peg… that is Winnipeg in case you don’t know. I have been working from home for the last 2 weeks trying my best to get a paper done for publication. The house has never been cleaner. Writing up scientific data is not my forte, but I managed to step up on the couch with my laptop in front of the TV. See we just got cable a month ago. I have been living without cable for 5 years. The student life of no time or money for TV. Besides, I can get all of the good shows with the good old rabbit ears. So now we have cable and I have rediscovered MuchMusic. I saw a commercial on the channel last week advertising the Virgin Festival with Massive Attack headlining and a chance to win a trip for two if you entered online. I was entered within two minutes. I got the call that I was a winner two days later and flew to Toronto a week later. It is my first time in Toronto. I have never seen so many glass condo towers. I have had time to hang around the massive downtown area with friends for the last couple of days. It has been a fantastic weekend. And here I am at the festival. There are some great bands lined up tonight. I am really looking forward to Broken Social Scene. Great that they could step in at the last minute…although I am still disappointed that Massive Attack couldn’t make it out. Thanks MuchMusic for the great weekend!!

Chantal

Helloooooooooooooooooooo

So today has been a very exciting day. After arriving at the Festival and creating our blog we decided to go and walk around Toronto Island for a bit. We were expecting Thrice to play at about 3:30, sadly they played ahead of schedule and we missed the first bit of them playing. They were fantastic! I know I know you’re probably thinking “That’s what they say about every band that they write about…” but every band that we have talked about truly is fantastic, or more. They had a great set, and besides the fact that they had to set up something after every song they were amazing.

Wolfmother played after Thrice. At first we thought that the crowd was a bit small so we headed to the front of the stage. Little did we know that a massive crowd was forming behind us. We left just before Wolfmother finished to write this blog and soon found out that almost the entire island was watching the show! It was the biggest crowd we had ever seen!

Sadly we aren’t able to stay for The Strokes, The Raconteurs, and Broken Social Scene, so this is our last blog for the remainder of the festival. We’re heading back to St. Catharines in just over an hour You’re going to have to rely on the other bloggers to keep you up to date on this amazing festival that we have been able to partake in!

Again we’d like to thank MuchMusic, Virgin Mobile, and Future Shop for making such an amazing festival!

Peace out,
-Kaitlyn and Drew (St.Kitts Representatives :P)

Hey hey hey peeps!

So after we posted our previous blog, we went and saw…ALEXISONFIRE!!!!!! They were kick@$$ last night, we were right in the front row and it was one of the most amazing shows we had ever seen. They were sooooooo energetic and in my opinion it was the best show at this music festival so far. They put on a great show! They got people into a huge mosh pit and almost the entire crowd was in it! Everyone was screaming/singing along and it was amazing to see the enthusiasm in the crowd. They interacted a bit with the crowd, telling a few stories, and making fun of George or Wade on the odd occasion :P. Too bad you probably missed it if you’re reading this!!! Suckers!! Joking joking.

We’re gonna head out now, check a few more bands and we’ll be back in a few hours to give you (The People of the World!) an update on our last exciting day at the Virgin Music Festival!

peace out,

- Kaitlyn and Drew

So, the first day of VFest is officially over but there’s still tons more to come starting tomorrow at 1pm ET! Lupe Fiasco, Thrice, Wolfmother, The Strokes, The Raconteurs & Broken Social Scene (we’re speculating that one Ms. Emily Haines will be joining BSS on stage, given that she’ll be in town performing on Tuesday afternoon…’tis possible).

Day 1, in summation:
ohbijou - ohwatchout!
The Hidden Cameras - jovial
Buck 65 - bucking awesome!
Phoenix - magnifique!
Muse - unf**king believable
Alexisonfire - incendiary
Gnarls Barkley - gnarly
The Flaming Lips - ball-tacular

So, um, Muse. For a trio, these guys just finished absolutely obliterating the VFest stage - one after another, every member of the Much team barged into our trailer to spew expletives at how mind-bogglingly loud & kickass they were:

Devon: Even more balling than their Dior sports jackets.
Nick: Matt Bellamy’s guitar playing is so rock ‘n roll that it’ll make your nose bleed.
Richard: Rocks balls!
Wendy: Jaw dropping.
Adina: The devil wears a red tracksuit.
Ryan: I peed a little.
Justin: I’m trying to think. I’m speechless. I need to go lie down.

They were RIDICULOUS. If you haven’t seen this band live, DO IT NOW. Even if you don’t like their music (which I’ll have to address at another time because it’s an impossibility), you can appreciate how ear-shreddingly awesome they are to listen to in person. If you missed watching their set on MuchAXS, stay tuned cause it’ll be uploaded for you to enjoy in the next coupla days!

Hey hey hey people of the world!!!!!!

My name is Kaitlyn and I’m one of the 5 grand prizes winners who will be updating you on what’s been happening here at the Virgin Music Festival!

The 5 grand prize winners arrived here by ferry at about 1:30pm. We were shown around the island and taught how to blog, then we were on our own. Drew (my guest) and I wandered around the island for a while, looking at all the merchandise and the stands that were set up everywhere. We went to see IllScarlett at 2:15, but because were delayed, they didn’t started until 2:40. They were amazing. They put on a great show. If you haven’t heard any of this bands music check out their MySpace.

One other band we saw before dinner was Phoenix, which was pretty good. After that show we had some dinner and then toured around the island a bit before The Dears were going to play. The Dears were quite good as well, but we were very excited to see Muse. Drew and I had never heard any of their music but we had heard some great stories about how good they were, and guess what, those stories were true! Muse put on an absolutely amazing show, their music was fantastic, their lighting was great, and all the musicians in the band were extremely talented. If you haven’t heard any of the Muses’s music I’d recommend looking up their music this second!

Now we are on our way to see Eagles of Death Metal who are playing right before ALEXISONFIRE!!!!!!!!!! We’re so insanely excited to see them.

We’d like to thank Muchmusic, Virgin Mobile, and Future Shop for setting up such a fantastic event, and giving us the opportunity to ROCK OUT LOUD!!!! hehe.

We’ll be posting another blog on the kick@$$ Alexisonfire show and more tommorrow!

- Katie and Drew

Hey all you bloggers out there!

This is my first time blogging so bear with me. I’m Ashley Noland, I am 22 years old and one of the five grand prize winners of the Virgin Mobile Festival giveaway and I’d like to start by thanking everyone at MuchMusic and Virgin Mobile for being so incredibly awesome. I tell you a little bit about myself - I’m a previous student of Ryerson University where I took two years of Geographic Anaylsis and I’m in the process of changing my major. I’m accompanied by Brittany Harris my little cuz, who I like to refer to as ‘Hollywood’, for her killer style and wicked shades she always rocks.

After a well-rested night at the Westin Harbour Castle - the lovely hotel which Much and Virgin put us up at for the next three days - we arrived here at the Virgin Festival pumped and ready to see all the wicked bands lined up and we were not disappointed. The first band we caught was one I had never heard of, but found to be killer was Ill Scarlett. One of the best aspects of the festival has been getting to experience bands that I have never known before and being gladly surprised. I’m now a proud fan of Ill Scarlett and Phoenix, who rocked my world.

Personal favourites are The Raconteurs, The Strokes, Muse, and my soon-to-be boyfriend Sam Roberts, who I’m stoked to see tomorrow. It’s getting fierce out there now as The Dears take the stage, everyone is patiently awaiting Gnarls Barkley to performe after Muse. However the highlight of my evening will be to watch those good old Canadian Boys and one of the best bands alive - Alexisonfire. So I better jam if I want to catch all those great tunes. I will talk to you peeps later. So take care everyone and I will ttyl!
Ash-wee

So, we’re not even halfway through the day’s festivities and things are rolling on…just watched Phoenix perform to a really enthusiastic crowd. They played nine songs, including one of my favourites to hear live - “If I Ever Feel Better”. LOVE IT! Check out pics of their performance right here!

Sidenote: there is a lot of beachballing & hacky-sacking going on!

Still to come tonight: The Hidden Cameras, The Dears, MUSE (!!!!), Gnarls Barkley & The Flaming Lips!

So…here we are behind the scenes at Virgin Fest 2006 and things have JUST gotten underway - the webcast is live and you can watch a whole bunch of performances live as they are happening. HOW COOL IS THAT??? So even if you can’t haul your ass out to the gorgeous Toronto Islands, you can still watch the whole show from the comfort of your desk. Stay tuned for some more wicked performances throughout the day/night. This is gonna be a real barnburner!

Did I mention how awesome it is to be here? The island is already buzzing with bands! We sat next to Phoenix during breakfast!