Fictional Festival Series: Metalcore Warped Tour 2

Two months after I debuted the Fictional Festival series, I have finally released the second 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 4th biggest act will get a 1 hour set, and the 5th and 6th 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 A Day to Remember, Bring Me the Horizon, and Mastodon.  I have the lineup, the schedule for this festival, and my thoughts about the different artists that I booked.  Enjoy!

Lineup

1. A Day to Remember
2. Bring Me the Horizon
3. Mastodon
4. Dirty Heads
5. Underoath
6. Beartooth
7. Black Veil Brides
8. Vince Staples
9. The Story So Far
10. Stormtroopers of Death (Reunion)
11. The Devil Wears Prada
12. Gwar
13. At the Gates
14. The Acacia Strain
15. Miss May I
16. Alexisonfire
17. Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
18. American Football
19. The Interrupters
20. Dying Fetus
21. Poppy
22. Pup
23. Of Mice & Men
24. The Hotelier
25. Agnostic Front
26. New Years Day
27. Crossfaith
28. Tha Alkaholiks
29. Trophy Eyes
30. Into It. Over It.
31. Sylar
32. Hyro the Hero
33. This Wild Life
34. Thrown into Exile

Schedule

My Thoughts

1. A Day to Remember and Bring Me the Horizon remain two of the biggest names in Warped Tour style music, so I think having them as co-headliners is a good idea.  I opted to include Mastodon despite them being a style of metal not commonly associated with Warped Tour music (typically progressive metal with some heavy metal and sludge metal thrown in) because I thought that would draw some other people in and I thought it could work.
2. The reason I have Mastodon in between ADTR and BMTH is mainly just to try to keep fans there later.  I figure that fans of BMTH are more likely to be fans of ADTR than fans of Mastodon would be, so I thought that maybe that would prevent people from leaving earlier than they would otherwise.
3. In this one, instead of having a definitive 4^th biggest name, I chose 3 artists who would maybe feel more natural as the 5^th biggest in Dirty Heads, Underoath, and Beartooth.  I had Dirty Heads performing last out of those artists to give a break in potential metalcore music on the main stage and to keep people who aren’t metal fans there longer.  I had Underoath after Beartooth since they’re a bit more popular.
4. Black Veil Brides is a good addition for this festival; even though they’re not necessarily the style of most typical Warped Tour bands, they always were a welcome addition and drew a big crowd at their Warped performances.  There is the case to be made that they should be performing after Beartooth as well.
5. I like the addition of Vince Staples here.  He’s an odd sort of hip hop artist stylistically but has found a solid following.  While he probably isn’t quite big enough yet to be on a later stage (I expect this will happen at some point though), he definitely can be on the main stage and will draw a crowd fairly early in the day.
6. The Story So Far is rapidly becoming one of the bigger bands in pop punk.  I truly believe they’re an album or two away the point where they could be one of the bigger bands if Warped Tour was resurrected.  On top of that, everything they release receives acclaim.
7. In this one, I included one reunion:  Stormtroopers of Death (stylized in italics in the list).  The controversial crossover thrash group has been gained a cult following over the years and is influential in crossover thrash and hardcore punk and would draw a crowd.  That said, it is unlikely that they reunite, as they said that their 2007 release would be the final of the group, but you never know.
8. I wanted to include a large number of established metal bands across genres, with a focus on metalcore.  In addition to some mentioned previously, the metalcore acts I thought would be fitting include The Devil Wears Prada, The Acacia Strain (who also straddles on the line of deathcore), Miss May I, Crossfaith (more electronicore), Sylar (kind of nu metalcore), and Of Mice and Men.  I also included metal acts At the Gates, Dying Fetus, Gwar, and Thrown Into Exile.
9. There are a lot of punk and emo-based acts in this lineup, which was a big stylistic focus of Warped Tour.  Beyond the acts I mentioned previously, Pup, Agnostic Front, and Trophy Eyes all fall under some subgenre of punk while Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, American Football, The Hotelier, Alexisonfire, Into It. Over It., and This Wild Life have been associated with emo music.
10. This lineup includes several acts that are on the rise.  While Vince Staples and Beartooth could continue to gain popularity, there is Pup, The Story So Far, Poppy, Trophy Eyes, This Wild Life, Syler, Hyro the Hero, The Hotelier, and The Interrupters who look like they could be on the rise; Thrown Into Exile might be as well.
11. This lineup includes an odd selection of groups that have obtained cult-like followings.  In addition to the aforementioned Stormtroopers of Death, this description likely includes Poppy, American Football, The Interrupters, The Hotelier, and Gwar.  The Acacia Strain is also massive among metalcore/deathcore fans in the northeast U.S.
12. It isn’t Warped Tour with some acts that previously had commercial success but haven’t in a few years, so I of course included a few of those.  While The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, New Years Day, Tha Alkaholiks, Crossfaith, Of Mice & Men, and Agnostic Front are likely not in their commercial prime, there will be people who are without a doubt interested in seeing them live.
13. I think this lineup is the closest I could come to emulating a Warped Tour lineup without actually stealing a Warped Tour or adding more bands.  While metalcore is a focus for this, it also includes other styles of metal, emo, and punk.  I also think this one has a nice blend of established acts, acts on the rise, and acts who might be past their commercial prime.  The only thing that might make this difficult would be budget for some acts and if S.O.D. would ever reunite (the main reason this will likely be a fictional lineup).

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