The first day of All Your Friends Fest featured largely inaudible vocals, copious cursing and aggressive circle pits.
That and a whole lot of love.
The two-day pop-punk festival kicked off Friday afternoon at Burl’s Creek, filling into a throng of more than 10,000 strong by the time headliners Billy Talent closed out the main stage.
As much as emo and pop punk can skew to a radio-friendly sound, its genesis is often found in anger, being it at societal conditions or any number of miserable relationships.
But even in the most violent of mosh pits, you would be hard-pressed to find genuine discord among the crowd. They were a community of like-minded music lovers, shouting back the lyrics of their favourite songs to the ever-appreciative musicians on stage.
That spirit started in the campground before many even made it into the concert bowl. Alongside their entry wristbands, many attendees picked up friendship bracelets from Camp Stardust and Dakota Tevis.
Tevis had a table set up outside her SUV offering free menstrual products for those in need and free friendship bracelets, featuring some of the bands performing at All Your Friends Fest and lyrics from her beloved Fall Out Boy.
It’s an idea borrowed from one of the more fervent fan bases in music.
“I like to say the Taylor girlies walked so everyone could run,” she said. “They went out and said ‘We’re going to go out there and have fun. We’re going to dress up and make bracelets to trade with people.’”
Saturday’s set will mark Tevis’ eighth Fall Out Boy show this year. At the previous seven shows, she has made 100 bracelets to give away to any fan who wants one. Attached to them was a laminated pink piece of paper for fans to hold up to their phone flashlight during Fake Out to show love to the band toward the end of its set.
By early Friday afternoon, dozens had taken her up on the free offer, while others traded their own bracelets featuring the names of their favourite bands, forging a bond between strangers and strengthening the community.
It’s something Tavis does online on a regular basis, as a moderator for the official Fall Out Boy Discord. The bracelets are a way to bring that community into the real world, a challenging prospect post-pandemic.
“What I try to do with Camp Stardust is Disney magic but for emo adults,” Tavis said. “It’s just like anything you can do to give anyone that hit of dopamine or whatever…. Even if it just makes a couple of people’s day, that’s all you need.”
Tavis has been a fan of Fall Out Boy for nearly 20 years and is amazed by the wide breadth of ages she interacts with online.
The same can be said for many of the bands making up the All Your Friends bill, based on the demographics of the crowd throughout Burl’s Creek on Friday.
As much as All Your Friends Fest has been marketed as a nostalgia festival — such as Best Friends Festival or When We Were Young — there were more than enough new acts, and more than enough young people, to represent a new generation of punk fans.
Well-known among Simcoe County punk circles for more than two decades, Johnny Six Blocks bought tickets for the festival as soon as they went on sale, drawn in by the legacy acts he grew up.
Full disclosure: They’re the acts we grew up with, as he and I grew up in Bradford together.
“I think it’s really important they have a lot of stuff for the older people like us. It’s cool to see Gob; I grew up on Gob. Silverstein, Fall Out Boy and stuff like that,” he said. “When they came out, you kind of knew about them, opening for the other stuff that you liked. Now they’re at that level of those big bands.”
But he was just as excited to check out some of the lesser-known bands making up the undercard.
“Then there are other bands that I sort of heard of, but never listened to,” he continued. “It’s nice that there’s new big-ish artists coming out that are going to be the next ones in line. So, like in 15-16 years they’ll be the ones headlining. It’s not just a purely nostalgia festival. There’s some new stuff coming along.”
Those bands on Friday did not disappoint. The crowd for Lolo loved her take on lousy relationships and owning the trauma they cause and We The Kings had several thousand packing the tent stage before their mid-afternoon set, complete with crowd surfing inflatable aliens and a genuine appreciation from band to fans not seen in many other situations.
Six Blocks had his worries coming into the weekend, not knowing if the organizers would be able to embrace punk values and make the festival too mainstream. His first impressions were solid.
“I haven’t been to a festival since 2014, but I’ve been to tons of festivals, tons of Warped Tours growing up and it’s very similar to Warped Tour, with the two stages going back and forth,” he said. “It’s been pretty chill. It’s been nice. It’s been a lot of fun.”
One aspect from Warped Tour he wished All Your Friends Fest borrowed is one that could have benefited his band and many others from the area.
Six Block is currently in Hey Slugger, who play Sept. 22 at the Rec Room in Barrie. But on April Fool’s Day, for a brief period, many of their followers thought they had been added to the bill for All Your Friends. A fun prank, but not one that turned into a showcase.
“It would have been cool maybe to reach out to one of the local promoters who does like Barrie shows and get like a mini stage like they used to do at Warped Tour,” he said.
“The first time I remember seeing Sum 41 was at the 1999 Warped Tour at the Docks. There were the big stages: Eminem, Black Eyed Peas (before Fergie), Pennywise, Blink 182, Ice-T. And then on this tiny stage that looked like a trailer, Sum 41. And now I’m going to see their last show at Scotiabank Arena in January.”
Even if no Simcoe County punk bands were on the bill, the 905 was well-represented by headliner Billy Talent, who formed in Streetsville in the mid-1990s.
All Your Friends Fest concludes Saturday with Fall Out Boy headlining, alongside Jimmy Eat World, Dashboard Confessional and scores of others.
