When We Were Young Is a Festival and an Emo Time Machine
Heat through the bottom of your sneakers. You can feel it as you’re crossing the street. The flashing lights of Circus Circus are going, even in the daylight, and in the distance you can hear a rumbling. Heading through the gates, the sound gets closer, and you start to recognize it: your favorite band just started their set. Your feet have a mind of their own and you start running across the pink carpet toward the stage, just in time to catch that one song that got you into Emo Music. You remember what it was like back then…
This experience is not universal. It was only found on the Las Vegas Festival Grounds for the premiere Emo Festival, When We Were Young. The lineup included a returning (and slightly reuniting) Panic! At The Disco for their 20th anniversary of ‘A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out,’ Pop-Punk veterans Blink-182, Cali Punk icons The Offspring, the members of the Mount Rushmore of of Emo — Weezer, the self-proclaimed “mother-fuckin-princess” herself, Avril Lavigne, among many others.
While there were 2 dates across the weekend with the same lineup, I got to attend the first day of the festival on Saturday, October 18. As I walked through the archway, I immediately saw tons of attendees with Panic! styled makeup, festival outfits (but make it emo), and people who already had stacks of merch in their hands. I stopped a few people who had some cool looks to ask if I could take their portrait as I made my way through the festival grounds.
PHOTOS BY AMI NICOLE ACRONYM USING SONY RX100 VII CONSUMER GRADE POINT-AND-SHOOT
Over the course of the day, I bopped around to different sets. Sometimes it’s impossible to see full sets from everyone you want to see when they’re performing at the same time, and you have to make some tough decisions. My first conflict was Straylight Run vs. Drain. As a John Nolan stan, and the fact I got to photograph the Straylight Run set the night before at Fountainbleau’s BLEAULIVE, I wanted to relive that experience again for a few moments. Then I made it over to Drain, because I will never miss a chance to see their high-energy anarchy. Calling for circle pits with the intensity of a bomb, they’re always worth it because whatever they do is unexpected. Frontman Sammy Ciaramitaro said that once they get off the road, they’re going to be putting out a new album, to the cheers and delight from the audience.
PHOTOS BY AMI NICOLE ACRONYM USING SONY RX100 VII CONSUMER GRADE POINT-AND-SHOOT
Yellowcard is a band that somehow I’ve never been able to see live or capture on camera, so I waded into the massive crowd to catch their set. They shared that the band’s newest single, “Better Days” is the band’s first #1 hit. Frontman Ryan Key told the crowd that he didn’t bring that up to brag, but to let everyone know how much it meant to them that people are still listening to their music. The crowd was massive, showing that the band still has staying power, and boy, do people scream once Sean Mackin begins playing his violin.
Checking out some of the activations on campus, I caught a song or two from sets like All Time Low, Knocked Loose, and The Gaslight Anthem. Since the event was sponsored by 7-Eleven, there was an entire experience set up in the pathway between the two stage clusters, coupled with a slurpee machine. GHOST Energy also had their TV tower set up, along with their own special bar where you could order the Sour Punk Lemonade energy drink, hydration drinks, and more.
Art installations were set up around the campus to help you relieve your past, coupled with physical media, cell phones, CD players, and old school keyboards, just like the ones you used to destroy your family computer with Limewire. One of the other cool photo opp set ups on the property leaned toward the Sick New World branding. This was most likely created to help push the return in April 2026 for Vegas and Texas, with rumors of System of a Down headlining. Fans took breaks on some couches in a lounge where they could also snag temporary tattoos, caught some shade underneath some of the scenery where misting machines could be found, or hung out in the VIP areas if they were fortunate enough to snag them.
Speaking of the VIP, the GHOST Stage was split up where the VIP section crosses the entire front of the stage, while GA starts further back. I will admit, I would rather like the opportunty for the sides to be split down the center, one side being vip and one being GA, so there’s more opportunities for concert goers that didn’t have the cash for VIP to still be able to get to the barricade and enjoy the show up close. I noted this set up as I eased into the crowd for Bad Religion’s set, and later when I made it to the GA barricade for Alexisonfire, who was the band I wanted to see the most. Their music has an energy that I can’t describe, and their passion on stage is met with such ferocity, that it elevates what they do to a higher art than I can put into words.
PHOTOS BY AMI NICOLE ACRONYM USING SONY RX100 VII CONSUMER GRADE POINT-AND-SHOOT
A fan in the audience tapped me on the shoulder to hand me a bracelet, something that many fans at concerts have been doing since the Swiftie friendship bracelet trading at shows caught on to other genres. The note read the maker’s Instagram name along with a request to be friends. It was Alexisonfire themed — which is now a prized keepsake for my own collection that people have traded with me over the years. It’s little acts like this that create unity within the scene. As I walked out of the crowd at the end of the set, another fan turned toward me and he goes “I don’t even know how to describe what I just experienced, that was insanely amazing” and I said “I don’t know what your thoughts are on religion personally, but THAT was worship and church, my friend.”
PHOTOS BY SOPHIA JULIETTE, WHEN WE WERE YOUNG
The end of the night was coming sooner than we could predict as the sun went down. Acts like The Offspring, Avril Lavigne, Weezer, and Blink-182 all put on signature performances, and Simple Plan even joined Avril to sing “Young and Dumb” (night 2, Avril’s ex-husband and Sum 41 Frontman Deryck Whibley joined her on stage to play his song “In Too Deep”). I snagged some dinner at one of the food stalls and camped out in the distance to listen to the end of Taking Back Sunday’s set, as well as the start of Beartooth’s set — the former being one of the bands that got me into Emo, and the latter a band I only just began listening to in 2024. The range of the bands on the lineup stemmed across years of launch dates, cementing the “it’s got something for everyone” ideology.
Then, the moment everyone had been waiting for: Panic! At The Disco. Fans were streaming the set on TikTok from the crowd, so many people were able to catch this historic moment in the band’s career. There had been a rumor that Ryan Ross, former bandmate of Brendon Urie, was spotted in Las Vegas, kicking up the excitement of a bunch of Ryan stans. Unfortunately, Ryan did not grace the stage, but drummer Spencer Smith did return for this performance, which made OG fans very happy. In additon to their set, there was a special pop-up photo experience at the corner of — you guessed it — 4th and Fremont that weekend, which encouraged more fans to come in costume. Urie broke the performance into 2 sets, first playing ‘A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out’ in full, which some songs had not been played live by the band since 2007. The second set was made up of tracks like “Miss Jackson,” “Nine in the Afternoon,” and “High Hopes.” Many fans took to social media after the set ended to express their excitement for having caught one of the albums that was a must-listen back when it came out, and die hard Panic! fans were happy to have the band back for another performance, plus hope for future releases.
PHOTOS BY LUTHER REDD, WHEN WE WERE YOUNG
THE VERDICT
PHOTOS BY AMI NICOLE ACRONYM USING SONY RX100 VII CONSUMER GRADE POINT-AND-SHOOT
I personally loved the layout and the ammentities of the festival. While it’s commonplace these days to have a water station at a festival, it was in the perfect spot and a central location, which is very important for a place as hot as Sin City. I also noticed that when snagging some Island Noodles that the food pricing was comparable to the fests I attend in the midwest, which is nice, because Vegas truly ain’t cheap.
Another thing I picked up on was with the crowd and the culture of fest itself. With each band you were obviously going to get different crowd personalities, but it seemed like many people had the understanding that some of us aren’t spring chickens anymore. Still, some circle pits, walls of death, and crowd surfing occured for those who dared to participate, but there were actually quite a few people who were fine with just enjoying their time listening to the music, standing in the crowd, or sitting on the faux grass toward the back.
If I were discussing this with friends who were considering going, I would prepare them for the layout, knowing when to take breaks, what to bring with you over the course of the day, and what shoes to wear. I would also stress that if you even like even only 5 bands on the lineup, you’re probably going to find some new-to-you music that maybe didn’t tackle your soul when you were young(er). It’s an experience that you won’t forget, and is on par with other major festivals that aren’t as niched down to a more central genre.
While they do not have a ticket link for pre-sale for next year, make sure if this sounds like your cup of tea to bookmark whenwewereyoungfestival.com so you can readily get tickets for next year’s festivities. You never know who will be on the lineup next!