The musical festival When We Were Young abruptly canceled its Saturday lineup on the same day some of its biggest artists were set to take the stage.
In an announcement on their social media page, organizers of the emo music festival, which has a lineup that includes Paramore, My Chemical Romance, Avril Lavigne and a bevy of other bands and performers, shared that the cancelation of the Saturday lineup was due to the dangerous winds at the Las Vegas Festival Grounds.
“When We Were Young Festival organizers have spent the last several days proactively preparing the festival grounds for a windy Saturday. The National Weather Service has now upgraded their Saturday forecast to a High Wind Warning, including dangerous 30-40 mph sustained winds with potential 60 mph gusts,” the statement from festival organizers reads.
The festival organizer add that the choice to cancel the festivities was made after careful advisement from both weather and safety experts.
“Under advisement of the National Weather Service and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, we have no other choice than to cancel today’s When We Were Young Festival,” it concludes. “The safety of our fans, artists and staff will always be our top priority.”
In a statement to Yahoo Entertainment, the festival organizers said, “Ticketholders who purchased their tickets directly through the festival’s ticketing company, Front Gate Tickets, for Saturday, October 22nd’s When We Were Young Festival will receive a refund in as little as 30 days to the original form of payment. According to the National Weather Service, Sunday’s weather looks sunny without any wind advisories. When We Were Young’s additional dates including Sunday, Oct. 23 and Saturday, Oct. 29, are moving forward accordingly.”
As expected, the decision to cancel the Saturday portion of the show, which included Lavigne and My Chemical Romance, didn’t sit well with excited festival goers, many of whom had traveled to Las Vegas from out of town specifically for the event. Fans flooded WWWY’s social media pages, which had just posted on Friday evening about being excited to kick off the festival, as well as took to Twitter to express their disappointment.
Watching my fellow thirty something emos aimlessly wandering the Vegas strip knowing we’re all prepared to be disappointed at all times anyway #whenwewereyoung #imnotokay
— Monica Moore – Suriyage (@horrorchata_) October 22, 2022
cool memories of staying in a overpriced city for a show that was canceled less than one hour from the event
— gab (@g04lves) October 22, 2022
Yup. Great memories. That time I planned an entite trip around a festival that was canceled in the morning of.
— Olga (@olga) October 22, 2022
bro you knew when you tweeted this that there was a weather advisory cmon
— ????i brought u my pussy????u brought me ur cum???? (@monhoevillesun) October 22, 2022
LadyGang co-host Jac Vanek took to social media to express her sadness, creating a video set to the viral TikTok version of a man singing Secondhand Serenade’s song “Fall For You.”
“POV you just heard When We Were Young Fest is cancelled and you don’t know wtf to do with your life,” Vanek wrote on her video.
For then When We Were Young festival to be canceled an hour before it starts is literally so saddening especially the people that flew out and drove hours and spent so much money on the tickets and plane tickets and hotels gas just wow
— Apple Juice (@ajjimenez98) October 22, 2022
remember that time I flew to Vegas for When We Were Young and it got canceled an hour before the event starts………………… i do
— Capital Los (@illerthanmost_) October 22, 2022
On their own Twitter page, My Chemical Romance re-shared the statement from the festival and included their own message as well.
“To the fans who have tickets to WWWY night 1, we are so sorry that dangerous weather caused the show to be canceled,” the band wrote.
Taking Back Sunday also commented, solidifying the organizers’ decision to cancel. “We are here and it is very unsafe conditions with the staging and gear. We will see you tomorrow,” the band wrote.
Dashboard Confessional, who is not set to take the stage until Sunday, also chimed in.
“Stay safe out there today!” the band wrote. “I’ll be seeing you tomorrow!”
Yahoo Entertainment reached out to organizers of the When We Were Young festival and representatives for Lavigne but did not receive a statement by the time of publication.
