Las Vegas’ emo festival When We Were Young is returning for its third edition in 2024, and although fans went wild with the announcement of their favorite artists playing albums in-full, many were aware of something lacking from the lineup: women.
WWWY 2024 is set to take over the Las Vegas Festival Grounds on October 19, featuring headlining performances from pop-punk powerhouses My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy. While other big-name acts like A Day to Remember, Sleeping with Sirens, The Used, and Pierce the Veil made the list, many fans took to social media to note that only a mere five artists on the bill included women: Cobra Starship, 3OH!3, The Distillers, The Forecast, and Pretty Girls Make Graves.
Do you not realize that the whole point of when we were young fest is the nostalgia of old emo bands and all the emo bands that were popular at the time were male fronted? /genq
— demitri alexsandr corio (@theriddingpengu) November 13, 2023
I gasped when I saw. There’s zero effort. Pretty disappointing.
— Cassadee Pope (@CassadeePope) November 14, 2023
Although many pointed out that older emo bands that were popular during the early 2000s — which is the entire idea of WWWY — were male-fronted, others took to social media to share who the festival could have booked, including women that were at the forefront of the “scene” and “emo” community during the same time period.
Potential acts that were overlooked include Paramore and Avril Lavigne (both who had played at previous editions of the festival), as well as Flyleaf, Evanescence, Hey Monday, PVRIS, We Are The In Crowd, Tonight Alive, and more.
PVRIS, Tonight Alive, We Are The In Crowd, The Pretty Reckless, Millionares, Paramore, Avril Lavigne, The Veronica’s, Evanescence, Tatu, Fefe Dobson, Demi Lovato- https://t.co/aachiAN4m8
— ★ gods favourite emo ★ (@yasminesummanx) November 15, 2023
Honestly don’t get why Paramore, Avril, Evanescence, & Flyleaf aren’t on the list.
— matt (@_bunkz) November 15, 2023
new years day 😭😭😭
— morelikenantn’t (@condesacoratura) November 15, 2023
throw stand atlantic in there skinny dipping in full would be nuts
— mark sebetka (@mark_sebetka) November 14, 2023
“wwwy fest is about nostalgia you cant get mad that theyre werent any popular women fronted bands back then!!!!” i promise yall that tonight alive, we are the in crowd, paramore, pvris, and against the current kept me alive like the air i breathed when i was 13, you are so wrong
— sage (@gothicwhorror) November 14, 2023
Following the backlash, WWWY announced new additions to their lineup, featuring women-fronted bands: Hey Monday performing Hold On Tight, Tonight Alive performing The Other Side, The Millionaires taking on Cash Only, and We Are The In Crowd playing Weird Kids. Others added to the bill include Daisy Grenade and CARR.
See the full, updated lineup below:
Presale tickets went on sale Friday, November 17, and nearly an hour after the sale began, the festival announced tickets were sold out and encouraged fans to join a waitlist for day two.
Tickets start at $325 for general admission with $19.99 down, followed by GA+ at $550 and VIP at $650. Fans can also score tickets via MegaSeats (and receive 10% off with the code “TICKETNEWS”), StubHub, or Ticket Club, where readers can get a free membership with the code “TICKETNEWS.”
