A Newbie’s Guide To When We Were Young Fest
by czb
It’s that time of year again - the air is crisp, the leaves are turning, and the scent of pumpkin spice is wafting through every coffee shop and craft store in your local area. With the changing of the season comes one of the most anticipated music festivals of the year - When We Were Young Fest at Las Vegas Festival Grounds, taking place the weekend of October 18-19, 2025.
Whether you’re new to the fest or you’re a 3rd-year veteran like me, here are CZB’s tips for having a safe, fun weekend with your fellow emo brethren and bretherenwomen.
Preparation (pack ‘n’ play)
Wristbands
Weeks before you even arrive in sunny Las Vegas, you should have received your wristband in the mail with instructions for activation (unless you opted for Box Office pick-up). Every level of ticketholder - whether GA, GA+ or VIP, will receive a wristband of varying color as their ticket for entry. Hopefully, if you’re traveling to the fest, by the time you’re reading this you have it in-hand and ready to go.
activate it once you receive it, but as tempting as it seems, DO NOT put that thing on yet - wait until the morning of, because once that thing is tightened it’s nearly impossible to remove without a tool kit and gentle finagling.
Stick that precious loop of fabric in a safe compartment of a carry on or bag that you will have eyes on at all times. Guard it with your life. If you lose YOUR WRISTBAND en-route, or it never showed up in the mail, visit the Box Office upon arrival and event staff can help you out!
Clothing
In terms of packing, prepare for all weather scenarios. The first year WWWY was held, day 1 was cancelled due to extreme winds (Sadderday), and on Sunday it was 68-69 degrees and still breezy throughout the day. I had to switch my outfit plans to jeans at the last minute because the fit I’d packed was meant for 80+ degree weather.
In contrast, the last 2 years of WWWY have been in the mid-80s - a dry heat, but heat nonetheless. Give yourself options for windy days, hot days, and chillier days to be safe (or don’t, and give yourself an excuse to buy more merch to accommodate weather changes). It wouldn’t hurt to throw a hat in the mix as well to give yourself some extra sun protection.
Footwear
Depending on your physical ability to do so, remember that you will be on your feet for nearly 12 hours, with few breaks in between. It’s a schlep to walk to and from the venue on its own, and the festival grounds are fairly spread out. You will be standing for most if not all of the sets you will see. As the day goes on, it will become more and more crowded, and there will be fewer spaces to camp out and take a break.
This is not the time to try out those fresh-out-of-the-box Demonias you snagged, or those cute thigh-high “vegan” leather boots that look fire with your fishnets.
Really think to yourself - could I wear these for 12-13 hours non-stop, in a full crowd, in blazing heat? WWWY does not allow chairs or blankets to be brought into the venue. If there is even the slightest question or hesitation swirling in your mind, opt for a safe pair of shoes that you know you can tolerate in this setting. Insoles help!
Festival Bag
Review the WWWY bag policy before you leave the house - Certain items and certain styles of bags are prohibited. You will absolutely need sunscreen - liquid, not aerosol - and if you’re an elder emo like me, a hefty amount of ibuprofen. Refillable water bottles and hydration packs are encouraged, and if you bring nothing else, please prioritize the ability to hydrate as needed.
Other items for consideration include chapstick (preferably with SPF), wet wipes (Vegas is dusty!), deodorant, earplugs if you care about your eardrums, and a charging block to keep your phone battery sustained for an entire day. Having a charging block on hand, even a cheap one, has saved me more times than I can count.
Lockers are available at the festival to store bags and merch - you can purchase a rental for $27/day and have peace of mind that your items are stored.
Festival App
WWWY has a super nifty app that will update with the 2025 information within a week of the show. The app includes the set times, a map that includes all the stage, food, drink and restroom locations, GENERAL MERCH AND ARTIST MERCH LOCATIONS (WHICH MAY BE DIFFERENT!) and a ton of helpful information to plan your day(s) at the fest. I highly recommend downloading the app and enabling notifications.
WWWY often holds pop-up FESTIVAL merch tents before the festival starts, which is great because the lines can be long inside the venue day-of (ARTIST MERCH IS INSIDE THE VENUE ONLY, BTW). The app will also send out push notifications about after-hours artist side shows around the city, any changes to the set times throughout the day, and safety alerts as well - the first place you’ll receive any updates will be straight from the app. You can download the WWWY app from the Apple App store or Google Play before you get to Vegas.
2. Navigation (gettin’ around safe and sound)
I’ll start off by saying - everyone who has been to the first year of WWWY will remember the plague of the “fake line” to the festival entrance. All The emos lined up single file all the way down Las Vegas Blvd, only to find that the real entrance was past the gates!
The entrance to WWWY is next to Circus Circus, at 2784 Las Vegas Blvd S. Don’t get caught up in a fake line that starts blocks away - just make your way directly to the entrance and join the appropriate line based on your ticket designation.
Utilizing the monorail to get there is your best bet if you aren’t walking distance - but be aware that when the festival ends, the monorail will be absolutely packed! Have a game plan for how you plan to exit the festival.
For heading home, if you are not staying at accommodations within walking distance of the festival grounds, I would strongly recommend walking several blocks away from the venue before attempting to call a rideshare. It will be an absolute swarm of emos in all directions when the night ends.
Give yourself extra time to move about the festival grounds. Again: as the day goes on, the venue will become more and more crowded.
By 6PM, it will be even harder to get from stage to stage. By this point, you have the map handy on your phone and you will feel comfy knowing how to get from a to b, but the venue is more spread out than you think! the space between stages will become super packed once the sun goes down.
Oh, and speaking of phones - take a screenshot of both the map AND OF THE SET TIMES to have handy in case you lose service during the festival (this image of the festival map was posted on WWWY socials as of October 9 - this may change between now and the day of the fest!).
I also recommend taking a selfie and putting text overtop which includes the contact information of a friend you are attending the show with. set that image and text overlay as your cell phone background on your lock screen in case your phone goes missing or is stolen.
There is a lost and found at WWWY, but if you have your name, face, and contact information included on the lock screen, it will be much faster to find you. Again, service is spotty, so those find-your-phone apps may not work efficiently if your phone goes missing. I personally kept my phone on airplane mode most of the day to retain battery.
A Note on ADa aCCOMODATIONS
Though I personally did not utilize the ADA sections of the festival, there is a designated ADA line for entry. There are several ADA platforms available within the festival grounds - but from my recollection, NONE of them had shade. Be prepared to be seated in full sun! Unlike DC Warped Tour, for example, the grounds are mostly paved with occasional turf IN HIGH-TRAFFIC SPOTS. There are no areas of natural grass or dirt, and it is fairly flat with minimal gravel. Just something to keep in mind when traveling from A to B.
3. Hydration (stayin’ alive)
Taking a break mid-article to remind you that Las Vegas is a dry, usually hot place to be. A soft breeze and a few hard seltzers in your system can trick you into feeling good for the first few hours of the event. If you front-load the booze too quickly, things will take a turn before you know it. DRINK THE DANG WATER!
WWWY has free water refill stations scattered around the grounds. Again, familiarize yourself with where they are located and drink more water than you think you need. The water station lines generally move quickly and it is worth the wait to refill. The first year I attended WWWY, I used the bathroom only maybe 3 times in 12 hours, and I was drinking water all day, plus a seltzer here and there. THAT’s how dry it was. (Never thought I’d be sharing my pee schedge with the world but here we are).
4. Gyration (pit/show etiquette)
WWWY is a marathon of 20-30 minute sets - getting in and out of the crowds may be a challenge as the day goes on. We have a whole article dedicated to festival etiquette written by one of our greats, Emo Punk Memories, so I won’t get too in-the-weeds here. Some of this is common sense/repeated ad nauseum.
TL;DR? Don’t be a dick in the pit. Don’t sit on the ground where the action is happening. You see someone fall? Pick them up. You don’t want to carry crowd surfers? Move to a less traffic-prone spot. Just be kind.
And to the younger folks in the crowd - stop giving the older generations fodder to call the new gen of emos out for their “bad” etiquette and lack of manners, please? I have been DEFENDING you so I’m counting on you to be chill. All generations of show-goers are guilty of this but please, I have so many hopes for y’all.
5. Exaltation (gettin’ high on festival vibes)
It is almost impossible to NOT make friends at this event. Every year I have attended, I have met fellow barricade-campers, pit-dancers, and Kandi-prancers. A couple I met in the merch line the second year I attended met up with me to watch Fall Out Boy and MCR’s sets the following year (Amanda and Tyler if you’re reading this I hope you’re doing well, please come to Baltimore and we’ll hang!).
I’ve been to many shows and many festivals, and I can confidently say that WWWY is one of my favorite events to attend. I won’t be there this year, which hurts some, but some dear friends are getting hitched and I wouldn’t miss it for the world. I have it on good authority that several of our fellow NAPNET friends will be attending - keep an eye out for them! We are friendly! Say hi to us but don’t be weird!
iN summation: dRINK WATER! make new friends! Go to the early sets! I was at the barricade for Magnolia Park’s set when they went and was blown away! You never know which artists you will end up falling in love with. You are going to have an amazing time. Take it all in and stay safe, emos.
