When We Were Young (festival)


When We Were Young is an annual music festival currently held at the Las Vegas Festival Grounds in Winchester, Nevada. It is typically scheduled for the third weekend of October. The most recent event took place from October 18-19, 2025.

History

The first incarnation of the festival took place at The Observatory in Santa Ana, California on April 8 and 9, 2017. It was headlined by Morrissey.
In 2022, the festival was moved to Winchester, Nevada at the Las Vegas Festival Grounds. The event was first announced on January 18, 2022, as a one-day event on October 22, 2022, headlined by My Chemical Romance and Paramore. Tickets sold out quickly, leading to the addition of second and third dates on October 23 and 29, 2022. Matt Skiba of Alkaline Trio asserts that the festival lineup was announced before bands were committed but that all bands would agree to play.
The first day was canceled due to weather. The band Car Seat Headrest was scheduled to play as part of the 2022 lineup but pulled out due to health issues.
On October 11, 2022, the festival announced it was returning for a second year in 2023, with Blink-182 and Green Day as headliners. The event also moved from a three-day festival to a two-day weekend festival, a format that was also used for the 2024 festival.
On November 13, 2023, after a lineup was leaked, all artists officially announced the lineup for 2024, set to be headlined by Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance. As opposed to previous years, in 2024, nearly all of the performing bands are set to play sets that consist of one of their albums played in its entirety. The All-American Rejects dropped out a week before the festival; lead singer Tyson Ritter said that the band never agreed to play their self-titled debut album in full despite it being advertised as such, and wanted to play a "greatest hits" set instead. On October 15, 2024, The Distillers also announced that they are no longer playing at the 2024 event. The festival was criticized for misspelling eight band names across its official merchandise items.
On October 29, 2024, the 2025 edition was announced, with Blink-182 returning to headline alongside Panic! at the Disco, marking the band's first one-off reunion following their 2023 dissolution and in honor of the 20th anniversary of their album A Fever You Can't Sweat Out, which they will perform in full. The event took place on October 18 and 19, 2025. On September 12, 2025, Christofer Drew, lead vocalist of Never Shout Never, dropped out from the festival due to a "mouth infection". Then, when the schedules were announced for the festival, Sleeping with Sirens also dropped out from the festival. In their place was Chiodos and Drain.

Lineups

List of official festival lineup in alphabetical order by year; headliners in bold: