On Jan. 18, When We Were Young Fest, an emo music festival to end all emo music festivals, was announced on Instagram and Twitter, trending almost instantaneously.
The featured bands include several pop-punk and alternative powerhouses, including My Chemical Romance, Avril Lavigne, Bring Me The Horizon, Paramore and A Day to Remember, amongst over 60 other bands.
Fans were understandably excited, and tickets sold out within minutes on the Jan. 21 presale. Tickets for this originally one-day festival were exorbitantly priced, with general admission starting at $224.
Soon after the announcement, though, many people became suspicious of the illogical notion of this Las Vegas festival.
For starters, the event is being hosted by Live Nation Entertainment, the same entertainment company behind last year’s ill-fated Astroworld concert that left 10 attendees dead. Many speculate that this concert is just a cash grab by Live Nation to pay off legal fees from the aforementioned festival.
This is concerning, as mosh pits are notoriously dangerous places. With many prolific bands playing at once, there is bound to be chaos.
Originally, the concert was set to be held on one day, Oct. 22; however, two new days have been added, Oct. 23 and 29.
This shows a clear lack of foresight. For one, it is impossible for 65 bands to play on three stages in one day. It literally could never happen. For reference, Riot Fest, a festival with a similar following and demographic, hosted half that number of bands across four stages for the last day of their 2021 festival.
The new days help alleviate this problem, but splitting a festival across two weekends is a massive inconvenience to concert-goers.
Another concern raised by many fans was the fact that some bands seemingly had no idea they were even playing the festival. The All-American Rejects’ official page tweeted “Apparently we’re playing with ALL the bands” on the day the festival was announced.
Some have dubbed the When We Were Young fest “Emo Fyre Fest,” but only time will tell whether this concert will live up to the hype or notoriety.
