When We Were Young: Is It Worth It?
If you are like me, then you most likely went through some kind of emo phase during your pre-teen or teenage years. This likely means that the announcement of the upcoming When We Were Young festival was exciting at first glance. For those who may not know, When We Were Young is a scene and emo music festival taking place on October 22nd, 2022, in Las Vegas, Nevada. As seen in the first photo of this article, this festival will headline several iconic punk-pop bands and artists, including My Chemical Romance, Paramore, Avril Lavigne, etc. While this festival may seem nostalgic for us former and/or current emos, there are many flaws with the logistics of it that could turn it into the next disastrous music festival such as Astroworld.
Live Nation, the company that was behind the Astroworld music festival, is the same company behind When We Were Young. Astroworld was the tragic music festival, with Travis Scott as the headliner, that left 10 people dead and hundreds of people injured back in November 2021. The deaths and injuries of patrons were due to overcrowding in the venue and people being physically pressed against each other. This led to the loss of oxygen and ultimately, asphyxiation, too little medics who knew proper CPR, and not enough access to water. Although Live Nation released a statement about the Astroworld disaster, the fact that the same company is trying to host another musical festival not even a year after their previous disaster instead of taking a break to improve their logistics is the first red flag.
The second red flag is the duration of When We Were Young. The average music festival usually lasts about 3–4 days, each artists’ set lasting about 45–60 minutes, sometimes even 2–3 hours if they are the headlining performance. If one looks at their website, When We Were Young is will take place on one day, October 22nd, from 11 am-12 am. In addition, the festival features the performance of 65 artists in total with only three stages. Assuming each stage will have simultaneous performances means that each artist will get about 35 minutes to perform, and this does not account for the amount of time it will take to set up before each act and takedown after. Headliners such as Paramore and My Chemical Romance might get more time than other artists to perform because they are headliners. A festival like When We Were Young needs at least two-three days to be an adequate festival so that each artist has enough time to set up and take down without their performances having to rush to make room for the next artist.
Now let’s talk about the ticket prices. I did not think the prices themselves were that bad. It was, however, the difference between General Admission (GA) and GA+ that stood out to me. GA+ costs about $175 more than GA, and the only difference between GA+ and GA is that GA+ gives you access to the air-conditioned bathrooms at the festival. The fact that one has to pay nearly $200 more for access to a bathroom is outrageous. Everyone should have access to an air-conditioned bathroom for reasons I probably do not need to explain, especially since the festival does not say anything about portable toilets or any other kinds of restrooms. Not to mention, the tickets are also non-refundable, during a pandemic. So if someone gets sick and can’t go to the festival, they lose a large amount of money over something that is not entirely their fault.
The other thing that is outrageous about this festival is the rules. One is not allowed to bring blankets, towels, or chairs to sit on. Given that the Las Vegas Festival Grounds website does not say anything about offering physical seats, one can only assume that festival-goers will be required to stand at all times, which can get physically exhausting. In terms of water, the festival states that you can only bring an empty plastic water bottle and each person is only allowed to bring one water bottle. Although When We Were Young does offer water refill stations, not being allowed to bring your water is unhelpful. If one is not able to quickly make it to the water refill station, then one could get dehydrated from not having enough water.
So while it would be a blast to jam out to some nostalgic punk rock and pop bands, this festival carries so many red flags, that I would advise those who choose to go to be cautious. I will not say that this festival is going to flop because there is always that small chance that When We Were Young could end up being one of the best music festivals in history. However, given that the tickets for this Vegas festival are non-refundable, it is important to ask yourself if given all of the warning signs, is this festival worth making the financial sacrifice?
