Virgin America and Filter Magazine have teamed up to bring festival fanatics and music lovers a coast-to-coast traveling "experience" called I'm With the Band. The October 3 flight will be taking off from JFK and landing at LAX. The event is a tie-in to the Culture Collide Festival in Los Angeles. For $139, you can watch acoustic performances by Penguin Prison, as well as DJ sets from both Kevin Barnes from Of Montreal and School of Seven Bells. It's a cool lineup, it's just a bit of a ridiculous concept.
First of all, anyone in attendance is only "with the band" because they're trapped with them in a flying box in the sky. Secondly, I'd be interested in hearing about how entertaining the DJ sets were, considering everyone will have to stay seated for as long as the "fasten seatbelt" sign goes off. Thirdly, what if a set isn't your thing? There's no option to walk away and check out what's on in a different tent or on another stage this time. You're stuck, and if you don't like the music, you're SOL, bro.
The concept isn't entirely new. JetBlue hosted a concert series for grounded travelers in an airport that included Sarah McLachlan and Taylor Swift. Kanye West has rapped on a plane too. But a festival on a plane, and only three artists making up the whole lineup? Come on.
Melissa Fossum and I decided we've had it with this idea, and we're going to take action. Melissa has called dibs on the first music festival in space. Meanwhile, I've decided I'm curating the world's first Antarctic music festival with a lineup consisting of bands of international notoriety. (I'm specifying because, to my surprise, an Antarctic music festival already exists.)
It'll be just like any other massive rock festival. Very few people will shower (in fear of the slight possibility of icicles forming on their bodies), everyone will drink a lot (gotta have that liquid blanket for additional warmth in such a cold location), and crowds will look like packs of sardines (except they'll be huddling voluntarily to concentrate their body heat). Naturally, we'll close out the festival with a hologram of Santa Claus performing with Pearl Jam just because we can. We'll see how it goes; maybe events like this will...wait for it...take off!