There have been quite a few comparisons to Las Vegas’ brand new When We Were Young Festival to its pop punk predecessor, Warped Tour. The biggest differences come, frankly, in the price of tickets ($250+ for When We Were Young, where Warped Tour was only around $40), the locations (When We Were Young is solely held in Las Vegas, where Warped Tour toured around the country), and in the overall accessibility of the event (When We Were Young features multiple sectioned-off VIP areas, where Warped Tour was, essentially, a free-for-all). As we’ve learned with the arrival of the When We Were Young 2022 set times, we can now add overloaded schedules to that list.
When the WWWY lineup dropped back in January, it was still a mystery how this festival would manage to squeeze so many acts into one day, but now we have a much clearer picture. The event is putting up dozens of bands across five stages throughout a single day, and with set times ranging from just 30-60 minutes, there’s extremely limited time to decide which acts to see.
Luckily (and I can’t believe I’m saying that), When We Were Young has shared its set times five days before the event takes place, as opposed to the day of, which was Warped Tour’s usual move. For such an exclusive and rare event, attendees will need all the time they can get to sift through the coveted sets they plan on catching.
The Black and Pink stages serve as the festival’s main stages, alternating each act throughout the day (including the festival’s coveted headliners, My Chemical Romance and Paramore). Meanwhile, the Checker and Stripes stages are similarly side-by-side, but those sets will be overlapping by about 15 minutes — which is sure to create some occasionally awkward and dissonant sound bleeding. The Neon Tent is situated between it all, and it’s going to be a mad dash to catch all the bands on your to-see list.
Tough conflicts loom over the entirety of the day. Do you take the nostalgic, old school route, or enjoy more recent, burgeoning acts carrying the banner for pop punk, post-hardcore, and emo? Bright Eyes and Manchester Orchestra are the two dominant “indie” acts on the lineup, and yet they’re scheduled to play at the exact same time. Meanwhile, many pop punk juggernauts are at odds with each other, and defenders of the genre will have the hardest choices to make.
It may be irrelevant to say so, but it’s surprising that the organizers didn’t opt to make When We Were Young a two (or three) day event, and looking at the schedule, it’s even more puzzling. If you’re one of the few attendees heading to multiple editions of the fest (October 22nd, 23rd, and 29th, which all feature virtually the same lineup and schedule), you’ll have multiple opportunities to take in the full When We Were Young experience.
Ahead of When We Were Young 2022, we’ve rounded up the seven biggest conflicts on the schedule, and shared our personal picks of who we’d see. (We excluded any conflicts with Paramore and My Chemical Romance because, come on, there’s no choice there.) Choose wisely!
