When We Were Young Festival To Channel Aughts Alt-Rock For One-Day Vegas Blowout

C Flanigan / WireImage – Still Into You
Paramore’s Hayley Williams performs at Bonnaroo 2018.

My Chemical Romance and Paramore will headline new Live Nation-produced festival When We Were Young, a one-day alt-rock and emo bonanza that will descend on the Las Vegas Festival Grounds on Oct. 22.

Other top-billed talent among the lineup, which comprises more than 60 artists, include Avril Lavigne, Bright Eyes, Jimmy Eat World, Bring Me The Horizon, AFI, The Used, Taking Back Sunday, Dashboard Confessional and Alkaline Trio.  

Courtesy Live Nation – Emo Extravaganza
My Chemical Romance, Paramore and more than 60 other artists will play Las Vegas’ When We Were Young this October.

The date will come amid My Chemical Romance’s hotly anticipated reunion tour, which sold out upon its announcement in early 2020 – including four nights at the Los Angeles-area Forum – but was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The band’s 2022 North American touring is largely routed through arenas; its only other announced festival play is Chicago’s Riot Fest. My Chemical Romance will hit the road in Europe in May and June before kicking off its North American run at Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center on Aug. 29.

Meanwhile, When We Were Young is Paramore’s only currently announced date, and comes on the heels of the news earlier this month that the Tennessee band has returned to the studio to record its sixth studio album, which will follow 2017’s After Laughter. In 2018, Paramore toured arenas and amphitheaters and grossed $12.1 million worldwide, a figure highlighted by a sold-out show at the Forum that moved 13,475 tickets and grossed $889,150, according to reports submitted to Pollstar’s Boxoffice. 

When We Were Young’s lineup conjures memories of Warped Tour, the traveling festival that defined a generation of alt-rock in the ’00s. That festival’s founder, Kevin Lyman, appeared on Pollstar‘s cover in 2018, when Warped Tour officially called it quits.

In 2019, agent Mike Marquis, who now works at CAA and represents several Warped-affiliated bands, including When We Were Young bookings Mayday Parade and The Maine, told Pollstar that one way for those types of artists to remain successful in the long-term would be to “figure out creative ways to package and do something that’s worth talking about and has an X-factor.”

Speaking about the continued relevance of emo and pop-punk, Marquis said, “Music goes in cycles. Emo and pop-punk are kind of having a little bit of a resurgence now, because some of the kids that liked it at 16 are 26 now and they’re working jobs.”

Tickets for When We Were Young go on sale to the general public on Jan. 21 at 2 p.m. PT.