The “When We Were Young” alternative festival was just announced, and fans have mixed emotions about it.
Per Newsweek, My Chemical Romance and Paramore are set to headline the bonanza of 2000s alt bands this year in Las Vegas, with more than 65 acts lined up so far.
The pop-punk, alternative festival will go down on October 22 in Vegas.
The poster announcement immediately went viral with many former emos and punk rocker wannabes rejoicing!
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However, with the festival’s announcement also comes some worry and apprehension.
The “When We Were Young” festival is being put on by Live Nation Entertainment, the same company that put on Travis Scott’s deadly “Astroworld Festival” in November 2021.
The Blast reported on the deadly November 5 concert that took place at NRG Park in Houston, TX.
Ten people lost their lives and more than 300 were injured after the 50,000-person crowd surged toward the stage crushing and suffocating people along the way.
On Wednesday, January 19, ‘Astroworld,’ ‘Live Nation’ and ‘When We Were Young’ all began trending in conjunction with one another on Twitter.
Many expressed their concerns about the safety of the alt festival.
One concerned fan tweeted, “i’m gonna be real with u guys after the whole astroworld incident a few months ago i think putting so many bands with huge fanbases in one place for a single day seems like a very questionable idea.”
They followed up tweeting, “like how hard can it be to do it over multiple days so people don’t stomp over each other trying to get from a stage to another cause the sets last less than an hour. oh yeaH also COVID IS NOT GONNA DISAPPEAR OUT OF NOWHERE?”
Another echoed this sentiment writing, “Y’all so ready to forget Live Nation was responsible for multiple fatalities at Astroworld cuz they put together the screamo revivalists all star team festival.”
Many others saw this as a money grab from Live Nation and felt the company was doing this to save face in the wake of Astroworld.
“l*ve n*tion really looked the astroworld disaster and thought “how do we follow this up” and decided they needed to kill the entirety of early aughts pop punk bands,” this person tweeted.
“Not Live Nation trynna use the alt scene to pay their lawyers fees after astroworld 😂,” another wrote on the social media platform.
Fans Are Not Amused By Live Nation’s Latest Stunt
This person also called Live Nation out for using this festival to pay their attorneys fees: “This is 100% Live Nation tapping into millennial nostalgia to pay their Astroworld stampede legal fees. Don’t be suckers, we’ll live to enjoy our oldies for longer if we just stay the f**k home. #WhenWeWereYoungFest.”
I guess you could say mixed emotions is an understatement.
Live Nation, Scott, Drake and Apple have been hit with multiple multi-million dollar lawsuits in the wake of the tragedy.
The Blast previously reported on the more than 100 lawsuits filed in the aftermath.
In November, we reported that a $750 million lawsuit was filed by one of Houston’s biggest attorneys.
According to TMZ, the hefty lawsuit was filed by 125 fans, who attended Astroworld Festival. They are being represented by Tony Buzbee, the attorney who has been representing Houston Texans Quarterback, Deshaun Watson, in his sexual misconduct massage cases, since March of 2021.
This lawsuit states that Travis and other organizers of Astroworld Fest were negligent in planning the concert as well as training security, which was said to lack heavy presence of. This lawsuit plans to cover both physical and mental health injuries, and for the individuals who passed away.
Buzbee released a statement about the lawsuit saying, “No amount of money will ever make these Plaintiffs whole; no amount of money can restore human life. But, the damages sought in this case attempts to fix, help, or make up for the harms and losses suffered by these Plaintiffs — nothing more and nothing less.”
In December, Drake and Scott were hit with yet another lawsuit, this time it was for $10 billion.
According to the Houston Chronicle, Travis Scott, Drake, Live Nation, and additional organizers, have now been slapped with a $10 billion lawsuit by Attorney Brent Coon of Brent Coon & Associates. He is representing 1,547 clients from the festival.
“What happened at Astroworld was an unconscionable tragedy and it is important that justice is served for all those impacted. I believe our firm is best suited to help lead this case, not only because of the number of victims who have selected our firm to represent them in this action, but due the fact that we possess the extensive legal experience as demonstrated by our lead counsel work on many plant explosions, product recalls and other mass tort actions.”
Scott has fired back at the lawsuits filed against him, as he’s maintained his stance that he didn’t cause the chaos at his festival.
