Fictional Festival Series: Metalcore Warped Tour 1

After a couple months of teasing, I have finally released the first post in the Fictional Festival series!  For more information about the series in general, please see my introduction post about this series.

This festival is similar to Warped Tour in structure (a lot of acts on several different stages) and style (i.e., pop punk/emo/metalcore), but I am focusing more on metalcore stylistically.  That said, I still am including other styles of music (pop punk, emo, ska punk, hip hop/rap, death metal, etc.) to entice more fans and in case metalcore does not have a sustainable enough following to organize a festival around the genre.  The scheduling of the festival is different than how Warped Tour did it; while Warped Tour typically had each act performing for around 30 minutes, I instead set it up as a traditional festival where bigger artists got longer sets; the 3 biggest acts will get 1-2 hour sets, the 4^th biggest act will get a 1 hour set, and the 5^th and 6^th biggest acts will get 45 minute sets while the others get 30 minutes (in this lineup, the 3 biggest acts received 1.5 hour sets each).  It is a one-day festival with 34 acts performing across 6 stages.  While Warped Tour was a touring festival, I treated it as a stationary festival due to my lack of knowledge regarding how booking artists differs with a touring festival; that said, I don’t consider this lineup necessarily unfeasible for a touring festival.

This festival is co-headlined by Killswitch Engage, All Time Low, and August Burns Red.  I have the lineup, the schedule for this festival, and my thoughts about the different artists that I booked.  Enjoy!

 

Lineup

1. Killswitch Engage
2. All Time Low
3. August Burns Red
4. I Prevail
5. Motionless in White
6. Flatbush Zombies
7. State Champs
8. Saosin
9. Wolf Parade
10. NOFX
11. Arch Enemy
12. Code Orange
13. Idles
14. Cannibal Corpse
15. Fever 333
16. Napalm Death
17. Suicide Silence
18. Light the Torch
19. We the Kings
20. Cane Hill
21. MewithoutYou
22. Del tha Funkee Homosapien
23. Melvins
24. Anti-Flag
25. Emmure
26. Aaron West and the Roaring Twenties
27. Our Last Night
28. Big D and the Kids Table
29. White Lung
30. Jinjer
31. The Atlas Moth
32. Petal
33. Trappist
34. Blind Tiger

 

Schedule

My thoughts

1. I thought Killswitch Engage would be a good big name metalcore act to have as one of the headliners for a first one.  While they aren’t as popular as other metal bands, they have been commercially successful for many years and are a popular metalcore band.
2. While my mindset was to have it be a more metalcore version of Warped Tour, I thought it was important to have one big name act that wasn’t a metal artist so it could attract fans of other genres at Warped, which is why All Time Low is so important in this case.  They have a big following and would draw a crowd.
3. August Burns Red could also have been given an hour spot instead, but I opted for a 90-minute slot because they are a good live band and are popular enough to be there.
4. I Prevail could have been in the place of August Burns Red, but I don’t think they have enough music yet.  Give them another album and you could slide them into that spot.
5. Motionless in White was a staple at Warped Tour and is still booked for a bunch of hard rock/metal festivals.  While their last album was less metalcore than some of their early work, they are still easily justifiable.
6. I wanted to include 3 hip hop/rap artists in this one.  I thought Flatbush Zombies was a strong one to choose since they are a rising group and have some crossover following.  Del tha Funkee Homosapien was chosen because I like choosing at least one that’s been around for a little longer.  While more associated with rapcore, I chose Fever 333 since they are rising and sought after by festivals.
7. I thought it was good to choose other Warped genres in case metalcore were to fade a bit.  In particular, pop punk/emo/post-hardcore were still targeted in this festival.  I chose State Champs, a pop punk group who is rising like crazy in popularity.
8. Saosin and Wolf Parade were odd choices, but I think they would work.  Saosin is a post-hardcore group and Wolf Parade is an indie group, and both have solid followings.
9. I wanted to book a combination of acts who frequently performed Warped and metal festivals like Mayhem.  I thought it couldn’t be related to Warped if it didn’t have We the Kings and NOFX; I chose Arch Enemy, Cannibal Corpse, Napalm Death, and Suicide Silence as metal bands who have been around for a while and have a solid audience.
10. There are several acts that are on the rise that were chosen for this one.  In particular, I think Idles, Code Orange, Fever 333, Cane Hill, Jinjer, and maybe White Lung fall under that.
11. I think the unsung hero of this lineup is Light the Torch.  By having them and Killswitch Engage at the same festival, I have practically guaranteed that current Light the Torch and former Killswitch Engage vocalist Howard Jones will join Killswitch Engage for part of their set.
12. Melvins are an odd selection for it due to their experimental nature, but they do have a following that will see them.  Mewithoutyou is another that is odd but might work.
13. There are a few controversial selections here.  Cannibal Corpse have generated controversy in the past over their lyrics, but it has died down a bit in recent years.  Emmure has also faced controversy, but booking them as a smaller act would make it more possible to drop them if they do something stupid or if enough acts don’t like the choice.  Fever 333 and Anti-Flag have both been politically active which could rub some the wrong way, but I don’t care about that.
14. I wanted an act performing early that could have fans come earlier than they would have otherwise; I have Our Last Night as one of the main stage acts early since they have a following and seem to keep making a name for themselves with their covers.

 

What do you think about this lineup?  Let me know in the comments!