Haters said it was going to be an "Emo Fyre Fest." They said "there's no way all of these bands are playing," "It's a scam", etc... Well, all of those things turned out to be big fat lies. The first ever "When We Were Young" Festival in Las Vegas was the best day of live music that I've ever experienced.
When the festival's lineup was announced a year ago, my friends/bandmates and I knew that we HAD to go. Almost every pop-punk (see: Emo) band that we grew up loving was going to be there. Bands like My Chemical Romance, Avril Lavigne, Jimmy Eat World, Alkaline Trio, Paramore, and more. That's just scratching the surface. To be fair, I also initially thought that it had to be a fake lineup. It was that amazing.
We did get lucky when day 1 of the festival was cancelled due to dangerously high winds, but day 2 (the one we had tickets for) was still a go. I felt bad for everyone who traveled to be at day 1, of course, but it was nice to have some luck on my side after my horrendous attempts at gambling the days prior.
It was the first festival I've been to where you had to literally run from stage to stage to catch all of the bands you wanted to see. Seriously, there was never a single minute where there wasn't a band playing that I was dying to see. I don't think I could tell you what my favorite show was of the day. It was so good to see Avril for the first time, same with Alkaline Trio, but Neck Deep and Mom Jeans crushed it as always, same goes for Taking Back Sunday and Dashboard Confessional, etc, etc, etc... like I said, I can't pick.
Other than having to deal with some oddly chilly Vegas temperatures (like in the 50s at night), crazy long food lines and expensive beer prices, the day was a success. There was something incredible about being in Vegas with 80,000 people who grew up loving the same music as you. It felt like such a tight community, everybody was just so happy to be there (including the bands).
Next year's lineup was already announced, and somehow it's even better than this year's. I never thought I'd ever see blink-182 and Green Day play in the same night, but here we are. I guess we'll be back in Las Vegas next October for "When We Were Young" number 2.