Pro: I really liked that they didn’t have any huge acts until Coheed, made it so it was easy to get around. Spreading out the food and beverage, made it easy to get both. Sound on the 2nd stages was great, main for the most part was ok, just not loud enough at times. Cons: Merch, that whole situation was ridiculous, they could have made so much money with a better set up. I almost think they didn’t have quite enough room for the headliners. But it is what it is. Main stage wasn’t high enough, just hard to see from a lot of the vantage points overall a lot of fun, I know they didn’t quite get what they wanted attendance wise, but totally think that was cause of the weekend they choose. Week before or week after and I think they get to that 30k mark.
If I was planning this for next year, I would push everything back a little closer to the side stages since those crowds never really got huge and leave even more space for the main stage. Agreed about main stage needing to be higher. I’m 6’4, and even I didn’t have the greatest vantage point in a lot of places.
What an awesome weekend. I’m so glad for this festival, felt like warped tour in 2019 again, I hope this becomes a yearly fest. As I mentioned in earlier posts and others have said, my main complaints are the merch lines being a disaster, really should have had more than one tent. And also the main stage being too low and sound being iffy some bands. I think overall everything was spaced out well to where it didn’t feel too overcrowded and condensed. And another pro is I think the food options were quite good for a festival and I don’t think they were too overpriced.
Bad merch line and festivals go hand in hand I feel. I'll never not do VIP for these types of things. Got really close for blink thanks to the pits that opened up for turnstile and I was able to sneak through.
I actually thought besides giving bands their own tent, Chicago Open Air was the best to handle merch that I’ve seen at any festival. They had like a shopping mall type set up, you walked around and picked up everything you wanted and then they had like 8 registers open you could check out at. Never seen anyone else ever use that setup.
Saw an article saying Saturday had around 20k people attend. Sunday personally felt a little more crowded (or it could’ve just been where I was)
I didn’t go Saturday but could see the crowd from my hotel room, and Sunday seemed considerably busier. Overheard a lot of people at the fest who went both days saying the same Hope it did well enough for this to become an anaul thing!
Actually what was really rough on me was the early November doing a 90 min set after all day on the beach and standing on that hard concrete floor.
I was on the concrete for the first 20 minutes or so before moving over to the left side of the stage where it’s all carpet. Got up fairly close too lol
curious to see who comes out of the woodwork for a reunion next year …I could see a fob headline…would LOVE if they could get the format….something corporate? The academy is?
we talked about it in the car on the way home next year it would have to be some combo of headliners of Green Day, Fallout Boy, Weezer, or MCR. You could prob even get away from A Day To Remember if you had an equally as strong direct support.
I want to start by saying I had a great time and enjoyed the fest a ton. I just think my overall takeaway is I don’t love beach festivals or the crowds that these festivals draw now. Since the scene has gone all the way in on nostalgia it just doesn’t feel the same. I thought Saturday really had the feel of a first festival. Sunday was much better operations wise. Echoing the same comments about mainstage, also thought the camera work left a ton to be desired, screen watching from a distance really didn’t capture the essence of the set. But even with my complaints it was a great two days out with the homies and it’s now officially Roo season
was MCR going to record a new album or were they just doing a reunion tour? Green Day’s been rumored for a new album so I could def see them maybe one of those “final” Sum 41 shows
Green Day > MCR > FOB in order of preference, but would gladly take any combination of those headliners. The Killers would be sick too, even though they're not really in ""the scene"". Brainstormed other bands that'd make sense for next year that I'd love to see: Sum 41 Descendents Jawbreaker The Gaslight Anthem The Academy Is... Goldfinger The Wonder Years The Menzingers Silverstein Bayside Code Orange Trapped Under Ice Fiddlehead Drain Angel Du$t Mindforce Vein.fm
The wonder years have to be an absolute lock next year. Adjacent will pull as many bands as they can from the tri-state area
we literally watched all of the same bands….even Waterparks who my wife made me go watch cause “she saw them at warped tour and remembered liking them” to which she replied while they were playing. “Yea I don’t like these guys…sorry”