When We Were Young Receives Backlash

This past Tuesday, the When We Were Young fest announced its 2000s Warped Tour-esque lineup and send the internet ablaze with reactions. Among the lineup is headlining acts My Chemical Romance and Paramore along with support from A Day To Remember, The Used, Taking Back Sunday, Avril Lavigne, Dashboard Confessional, Jimmy Eat World, Alkaline Trio, The All American Rejects, and dozens of others. Some were ecstatic, some made fun of it, and others were critical of the quality of the event calling it the “emo fyre festival.”

Me patiently waiting on the standby page for when we were young waiting to get scammed at emo fyre festival pic.twitter.com/aekJbA3MGi

— COLE WORLD (@mattyboy0001) January 21, 2022

People are also concerned with pandemic safety. Most notably, fans are concerned about crowd control given the festival is being organized by Live Nation, the same company behind the catastrophic Astroworld festival in November. With 65 bands crammed into just one day, it appears too good to be true for many. It didn’t help when Newsweek fanned the flames with their piece on the matter When We Were Young Concert is Being Organized by Same People Behind Astroworld (Granted, Live Nation is one of the two largest concert promotion companies in the U.S.). A festival spokesperson responded to Newsweek with,

“The safety of fans, artists and staff is thoroughly planned for among event organizers and in coordination with local authorities. We have seen a lot of excitement around this festival and we look forward to putting on an incredible event for all of the fans this October. We encourage fans to check the festival website and socials for all of the latest updates.”

WWWWY has also shared updates concerning how it will work. Rather than just one stage as initially reported, it will feature multiple stages (the exact number isn’t known yet). It appears there will be multiple stages installed across the one-day event with supporting acts and headliners performing simultaneously. Earlier bands will have shorter sets (about 20-30 min) and headliners will have longer ones (45 to 60+ min).