For those of you watching the vote over the last few weeks... you probably knew the outcome of this already... but now it is official:

The Birthday Massacre Wins Annual "Book the Band" Contest, Joins Stand-Out Line-Up at Virgin Mobile FreeFest
Diehard Fans Are Given Access to Last Batch of Free Tickets Courtesy of Winning

August 18, 2009 --
WARREN, NJ -- (Marketwire) -- 08/18/09 -- After roughly 700,000 text and online votes, fans chose The Birthday Massacre as the winner of this year's Virgin Mobile FreeFest's Book the Band Contest, powered by Kyocera. Employing Facebook and other social networking sites, The Birthday Massacre nabbed more than 280,000 of the votes in Virgin Mobile USA's and Kyocera's third-annual Book the Band Contest. The Birthday Massacre will join A-list headliners including Blink-182, Weezer, Franz Ferdinand, Public Enemy, and a dozen more at the Virgin Mobile FreeFest on August 30 at Merriweather Post Pavilion, in Columbia, Md. With entertainment spanning across two stages, a dance tent, and acres of arts and attractions, FreeFest will host The Birthday Massacre as they take to the stage with their fusion of new wave retro rock.

"Book the Band has been a hugely successful program in its three-year run because it gives fans the rare shot to program the actual show," said Ron Faris, Director of Brand Marketing & Innovation, Virgin Mobile USA (NYSE: VM). "And this year, as an added twist, we've given more than a hundred free tickets to our sold-out show to The Birthday Massacre, as the winning band, to distribute to fans in the area as a way of thanking them for voting." "Book the Band is an incredible launching-pad for up-and-coming bands, energizing their fans, giving them great exposure and culminating with a spot in the all-star line-up at the Festival," said Tom Maguire, head of global marketing at Kyocera Communications Inc. "Through programs like Book the Band and Kyocera ALL Access, where 14 young fans will win the chance to create a behind-the-scenes documentary about FreeFest, Kyocera and Virgin Mobile USA are thrilled to give fans a voice in how the event shapes up and how it's remembered well into the future."

The Birthday Massacre issued a statement: "The Birthday Massacre is happy to be sharing the stage with some of the bands that we have admired for a long time. We have just finished touring Europe and playing some big festivals, but this is the biggest and it should be great fun for us and our fans. Thanks to Virgin Mobile and Kyocera for the chance to play." The Birthday Massacre beat out four other up-and-coming bands by receiving an overwhelming 40 percent of the more than 700,000 votes placed online and via text from July 27, 2009 to August 14, 2009. Black Gold came in second place with more than 220,000 votes. The other participating bands were Alesana, Iglu & Hartly, and This Providence.
For more information about The Birthday Massacre, visit the Book the Band section of the Virgin Mobile FreeFest website -- http://www.virginmobilefestival.com/... . Fans can also sign up for news and updates."



YES, WE WILL HAVE MORE INFO ON TICKETS COMING TO YOU SOON. We just a bit of time to sort out all the details. Honestly, there's no need to write us now concerning tickets. We'll update this blog soon with allthe info you need!

THANKS FOR VOTING EVERYONE! it's due to the efforts of our die-hard fans, friends (and families, heh) that we grabbed this show.

~Love, The Birthday Massacre

Hello all,

We're still in Europe...having some great shows...and we have some good news!

The Virgin Mobile FreeFest, one of the largest and most critically acclaimed music festivals in the U.S. is launching “Book the Band By Virgin Mobile” – And THE BIRTHDAY MASSACRE has been invited to participate for a chance to win slot in the Virgin Mobile FreeFest lineup. FreeFest will take place August 30th at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Md., featuring headliners Weezer, Blink-182, Franz Ferdinand and Public Enemy, along with a dozen other acts.

Clearly, we'd LOVE to have this spot of the festival.... but we need your help! You can vote for us in 2 ways:
Fans can vote online or via text message by sending "BIRTHDAY" to #59907 on any wireless carrier (standard text messaging rates apply):
-OR-
Go to the FreeFest website, www.virginmobilefreefest.com/booktheband
and vote there... also see the standing in (almost) real time!

YOU CAN VOTE AS MANY TIMES AS YOUR LITTLE HEART DESIRES.

and lets hope that's a lot.


Fans Who Vote for the Winning Band Will Get a Chance to Attend Sold-Out Show !!

Thanks for your help everyone....and with luck we'll see you at the Festival!

Hello Bebo

We are in Manchester, U.K. for the third show of the tour.
Decent airplane food on the ride over (for once) and they didn't bust our gear, nor hassle us much at security/customs. Seems like a good start. Day one was a very needed warm up at the John Henry rental/rehearsal space in London. What a brilliant idea to have the rehearsal space in the same building as the rental pro-shop. If you forget to rent something, or leave something behind... it's only two floors up to get what you need. Sweet.

It all seems very familiar. Like our last European tour we are sharing a converted double-decker bus. While nicer, it is still rather crowded with 16 people on one bus. So far, it doesn't smell bad. We'll see how long that lasts. As usual it's a constant stuggle for us to get on the internet (and that's IF you brought a power converter for whatever country you're in to charge your laptop or phone). It's not very "rock 'n' roll" to be so concerned about such things... but you miss being able to talk to loved ones easily and we'd love to be twittering and facebook-updating and keeping you guys informed more often. We're working on it. It feels like we were just here a month and a half ago, not a year and a half.

Oxford and Nottingham went well...good start to the shows. Looking forward to the Manchester show tonight. Nice to see Novus UK again as our support. The line up outside is a good size already. This venue is a bit more suited to our show set up compared to the odd Satan's Hollow "in the round" venue the last time we were in Manchester. Sound check was delayed due to a noise curfew, but went well. So far the venue stages have been a little cramped for a 6 peice band and difficult to really go all out on. There are some festival stages in the near future that should change this.

Rhim's been running and missing the junk he used to eat. Chibi's be fighing off motion sickness and trying to sleep as much as possible (Barf count = 1 and not even from anything cool). She's finished reading her 400 page novel already. Owen's read two books because he keeps waking up at 4am. Rainbow's been tryin to get the power in his bunk working and killing zombies. Falcore's been looking for a sweet deal on Lagavulin. O.E. made the worst sandwich ever and only took one bite of it. Kisou is probably sound asleep on a nice soft couch in Toronto. This makez Chibi jealous.

We finally have all the proper dates and times listed for every show this tour on our MySpace page. There were a couple of last minute changes to the dates at the very end. We now play the M'era Luna festival on the 8th and the Heitere Open Air on the 9th. The Hamburg date was changed to the 5th awhile ago.

Time to get ready for the show. See you soon!

~TBM