When We Were Young music festival sparks concern among fans

An+announcement+that+the+When+We+Were+Young+concert+sold+out%2C+Jan.+31.

Photo courtesy of @whenwewereyoungfest on Instagram

An announcement that the When We Were Young concert sold out, Jan. 31.

Live Nation recently announced a massive pop punk music festival, When We Were Young (WWWY). Originally scheduled as a one-day event on Oct. 22, 2022, additional dates were quickly added for Oct. 23 and, most recently, Oct. 29.

The original on day event was scheduled to include more than 60 acts spread out across three stages, though recent updates from WWWY now advertise “multiple stages of various sizes.” As a result of shifts in scheduling and presentation of the event, many prospective attendees are anticipating a repeat of the 2017 Fyre Fest, an event many refer to today as “the world’s biggest festival flop.

At Fyre Fest, where ticket packages ranged from $1,200 to $12,000, headliner Blink-182, as well as the “gourmet” catering company guaranteed in the VIP packages, dropped out of the festival without notice.

Ticket sales for When We Were Young are running on a system of $19.99 in nonrefundable down payments and subsequent payment plans, as prices range from $244.99 to $519.99.

The festival will be held at the Las Vegas Festival grounds, with headliners including My Chemical Romance and Paramour, and other performers including Pierce the Veil, The Story So Far and Neck Deep.

Fans and concertgoers alike have voiced concerns surrounding the execution of this event. Many are wary of attending another large-scale event organized by Live Nation following the events that took place during Astrofest just months prior, where ten were left dead and numerous others injured.

Other concerns surrounded the suggestion of placing 62 bands to perform in one venue over the course of just one day, a plan that many online said was “impossible.” The event is scheduled to run daily from 11 a.m. to midnight, which therefore would provide a 13-hour window for the entire lineup to take place. Many prospective attendees ran the math on the event, and figured an approximate half-hour show per band if an even distribution were to take place. This allotted time would also contain setup and breakdown for each performer’s set.

Upon the announcement of the third date on Jan. 24, where the same complete lineup would perform for a third run, fans took to the Twitter announcement post to voice their concerns. Users have commented on different subjects, including disbelief that “EVERY BAND agreed to a third date,” and “thinking about buying a ticket just so I can join in on the inevitable class action lawsuit that comes out of this!”

One user even wrote, “At this point, if you don’t see this for the scam it is you deserve to lose your money. There’s no way even half the bands have agreed to this, let alone the logistical nightmare it’d be if they did.”

Many prospective attendees are voicing conspiracies surrounding Live Nation’s legal fee debt, saying that the company is “actually just preying on the pop punk scene to pay back their litigation fees.”

Despite a widespread variety of concerns, all three dates have sold out entirely as of Jan. 31, and waitlists for each date have already begun compiling lists of names.