How Virgin Fest Music Festival Is Celebrating the LGBTQ+ Community

Spawned of Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin lifestyle brand, the newly announced Virgin Fest promises to be the future of music festivals by inciting exciting sustainability practices, outwardly embracing the LGBTQ+ community, and giving back to the community it's serving.

"Being a gay man who loves music and loves people and loves diversity and loves humanity on the whole, I thought, 'why don't we have a festival that celebrates all of that?'" Jason Felts, creator and founder of Virgin Fest, tells PRIDE.

The just-announced lineup is lead by Grammy-Award winning artist Lizzo, who Felts picked personally. "Lizzo stands for everything [Virgin Fest] stands for," he says. Her "body positivity and her focus on our community is something I'm so proud of."

She'll be performing alongside international pop superstar Ellie Goulding, RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars 3 winner Trixie Mattel, former Fifth Harmony breakout star Lauren Jauregui, bedroom indie-pop singer Clairo, genre-and-gender-bending synth-pop star Dorian Electra, A$AP Rocky, Anderson .Paak & the Free Nationals, BANKS, Major Lazer, Kali Uchis, and more!

The lineup was handpicked by Felts, focusing "heavily on LGBT and our allies," but he and his team went several steps farther to ensure LGBTQ+ attendees were not only comfortable, but celebrated.  

All restrooms will be gender-neutral (and "clean and climate-controlled" Felts adds), and vendors at the festival have been screened to ensure their values align with the festivals'.

"There's a conscious effort to ensure that all of our food and beverage vendors share the same values." Felts initiated a value check system to guarantee that everyone from stagehands to beer vendors treat all attendees, but particularly those of the LGBTQ+ community, thoughtfully and respectfully, with an emphasis on correct pronoun usage. 

Virgin Fest will kick off at the Banc of Califonia Stadium and Exposition Park on June 6th and 7th, which also just happens to be the first weekend of Pride Month. 

All are welcome at Virgin Fest, "and it's not just a tagline. It's a way of life," Felts says. But that's not just why Virgin Fest is "the festival of tomorrow, today." Their focus on people and planet sets this apart from other music festivals.

With Virgin Fest's "heightened focus to become one of the most sustainable festivals in the U.S.," they are banning single-use plastics in lieu of a cup deposit system where attendees will be provided with a cup or glass and required to return it after use. They're also using various solar and biofuels to power the festival and providing Metro Train travel options for guests. 

And in an effort to give back to the community, Felts says they'll be giving all the leftover food they can to local Los Angeles food banks and homeless shelters.

Virgin Fest will also feature activations like Beyond, a technology hub that will take artists into the future of what the music industry could look like, and DTour, a secret theater performance promised to "surprise and delight." 

Find Virgin Fest lineup, ticket prices, and more info here.