Sad Summer Fest 2022

With the loss of Warped Tour back in 2019, Sad Summer Fest has swooped in to keep the punk in summer.

Ah yes, Sad Summer Fest. The music festival that has, in my opinion, replaced Warped Tour. I mean, both concert festivals are sponsored by Journeys and both happen in the summer. While Sad Summer does not have over 40 bands playing around the country, they have popular bands playing in different regions.

Many bands are playing on this year's Sad Summer lineup such as Waterparks, Mayday Parade, State Champs, Neck Deep, Hot Mulligan, The Summer Set, LøLø, Magnolia Park, Hot Milk, and Games we Play.

Waterparks is a multiple-genre band made up of the four best Houston Boys: Awsten Knight (lead singer, rhythm guitar, bass guitar), Geoff Wigington (lead guitar), Otto Wood (drums), and Jawn Rocha (photographer). In my mind, Jawn is a part of the band.

Waterparks first formed in 2011, releasing their debut EP Airplane Conversations in 2012. Since then, the band has toured the world and released two more EPs and four studio albums. The trait of this band that distinguishes them from other bands in the scene is that their EPs and albums are in alphabetical order; Airplane Conversations, BlackLight, Cluster, Double Dare, Entertainment, Fandom, and most recent Greatest Hits. The band also recently signed with Fueled by Ramen.

Waterparks recently released a song, Funeral Grey, which has settled itself as their third most streamed song on Spotify with over three million streams.

Mayday Parade is an emo kid’s comfort band that established itself in 2005. The band consists of Derek Sanders (lead vocals and piano), Alex Garcia (lead guitar), Brooks Betts (rhythm guitar), Jeremy Lenzo (bass guitar), and Jake Bundrick (drums).

Their most popular (and most recognizable) song, Jamie All Over, is from their popular album A Lesson in Romantics and their #1 song on Spotify with almost 100 million streams.

Mayday Parade recently released a track, Losing my Mind, back in May 2022. The beginning of the song, respectfully, reminds me of Alec Benjamin, but as the song goes on, it sounds like it belongs on their Sunnyland album.

State Champs is a band from upstate New York holding a position underneath Pure Noise Records. The group consists of Derek DiScanio (lead vocals), Tyler Szalkowski (lead guitar, backing vocals, and rhythm guitar (2020–present), Ryan Scott Graham (bass, backing vocals), Evan Ambrosio (drums), along with their touring member Cameron Hurley (rhythm and lead guitar.)

Their album from 2016, Around the World and Back, landed itself at spot #4 on the Alternative Press “10 Essential Records of 2015” list. Despite how popular this album is and how popular their song Secrets is, their #1 song on Spotify is their cover of Stitches by Shawn Mendes from Punk goes Pop Vol. 7.

They recently released an album called Kings of the New Age, which holds a suspected popular song of this tour Everybody but You featuring Ben Barlow from Neck Deep. This may be the only chance for State Champs and Neck Deep fans to hear this song live the way it was originally recorded.

Neck Deep is the band from over the Atlantic on this year’s lineup. The band formed in 2012 in Wrexham, Wales; members include Ben Barlow (lead vocals), Matt West (rhythm guitar), Sam Bowden (lead guitar, backing vocals), Seb Barlow (bass guitar, backing vocals) as well as touring members Hannah Greenwood (backing vocals), Saxl Rose (saxophone), and Matt Powels (drums).

The band really hit it off in the beginning with their EP Wishful Thinking back in 2014. The EP was released back when the band was only a “part-time” gig. After the massive success, the members at the time quit their jobs and/or dropped out of university to take their music position seriously. Their most popular and beloved album by fans, Life’s Not out to Get You, was released in 2015 and received loads of approval from their fanbase.

As I’ve scrolled through the archives of different Neck Deep media platforms, I’ve come across the common phrase of “nothing they release will ever be as good as Life’s Not out to Get You.” While I think that is a fair claim, Peace and the Panic along with All Distortions are Intentional are amazing albums as well. For those who want to stay in the Life’s Not out to Get You phase, their most recent song, STFU, sounds like they went back to their beginning sound. I guess they “can kick up the roots.”

Hot Mulligan is a post-emo band from Michigan connected with No Sleep Records. The members include Nathan “Tades” Sanville (lead vocals), Chris Freeman (rhythm guitar, backing vocals, drums), Ryan “Spicy” Malisci (lead guitar), Brandon Blakeley (drums), and their touring member David Daignault (bass).

The band started with their first EP, Fenton, which they released independently. Soon after, they re-released the EP under Save Your Generation Records and also released Honest & Cunning, Split, and Opportunities. If you have seen the TikTok trend about Midwest Emo music, this band takes that trend to a whole new level.

Hot Mulligan recently worked with Noah Finnce on his EP My Brain After Therapy for the song After Therapy. Hot Mulligan also released their single, Drink Milk and Run, last month, which is now their most popular song on Spotify.

The Summer Set is a rock band from Arizona currently signed to lab records. The band consists of Brian Logan Dales (lead vocals), John Gomez (guitar), Stephen Gomez (bass), and Jess Bowen (drums). Their music style has typically been considered pop-rock or pop-punk.

A song that would pop up in your head when you hear their name would probably be Chelsea from their album Love Like This in 2009. Their 2013 album, Legendary, features their #1 song on Spotify Boomerang. In 2016 they released an album called Stories For Monday, in which they played songs from at a Bernie Sanders rally in Wisconsin with 3OH!3.

The band went on hiatus in 2017, and Dales worked on another project, DALES, with Matt Beckley. This project released five singles, and Dales showed up at random Emo Nites in Los Angeles. The band returned from hiatus in 2021 with the release of Street Lightning and Back Together. This past June, they released a song called Teenagers with Against the Current.

Hot Milk is a band formed recently from Manchester, and they're rocking the stages without a label. The band consists of the duo Han Mee (vocals/guitar) and Jim Shaw (vocals/guitar), along with their touring members Tom Paton (bass) and Harry Deller (drums). The band was nominated for the “2020 Heavy Music Awards Best UK Breakthrough Band” award.

Since the band formed not long ago, they only have two EPs released called Are You Feeling Alive? and I Just Wanna Know What Happens When I’m Dead. Despite this, they have released some singles such as Glass Spiders, Teenage Runaways and Bad Influence.

Magnolia Park is a pop-punk band that I only know exists because of TikTok. The repetitive “another day, another breakdown, my bank accounts got me stressed out” from my fyp is etched into my brain. The band includes Joshua Roberts (lead vocals), Tristan Torres (guitar), Freddie Criales (guitar), Jared Kay (bass), and Joe Horsham (drums).

While on TikTok they did the basic thing other musicians have been doing by claiming they “wrote the song of the summer,” they actually wrote what could be considered the song of the summer. The song has over four million streams, so other people seem to agree as well. Magnolia Park is considered Alternative, but I would also put them under the pop-punk genre because of their song 10 for 10, as it sounds like a mix of stereotypical pop lyrics and progressions with a punk sound.

LØLØ is another artist that established her popularity on the TikTok platform. LØLØ is a music artist from Canada known for making “reimagined” versions of popular music, which has gained over four million views on YouTube.

LØLØ’s first TikTok cover, in 2019, was I Can’t Help Falling in Love by Elvis. Since then, her TikTok has taken off with over 60 thousand followers and her YouTube with 15 thousand subscribers. Her latest song, Floor is Lava, has a lot of TikTok promotion, which has contributed to the song having over 400 thousand streams on Spotify.

Games we Play is an artist I discovered through Sad Summer, and I am super excited to share this artist with all of you. Games we Play (or Emmyn) started releasing music under this name in 2018 with his EP Senior Year. The funny thing about this album title is that Emmyn dropped out of school when he was 14 to write music in a band, so he never actually reached his senior year.

Games we Play has recently signed to Fueled by Ramen and released a track under the label called St. Girlfriend, which should be played on repeat for at least a week.

Something cool about Sad Summer is that they partner with nonprofits throughout the year. This year they have partnered with Reverb, Headcount, and OUR MUSIC MY BODY.

Reverb is “leading the green music movement” by partnering with musicians, festivals, and venues to make the environment more social and cleaner. They “reduce concert and tour footprints” by offering zero-waste food and water throughout the shows.

Headcount works with the “power of music” to get the people of America to register to vote and play an active part in American democracy.

OUR MUSIC MY BODY is working to raise awareness about sexual harassment in the music scene. It doesn't matter what show you go to or what you wear. Everyone deserves to feel comfortable and have a good time.

Sad Summer fest is featuring amazing artists this year and partnering with nonprofits to make the world a better place. Who are you most excited to see?

Find a city near you and buy tickets here:

https://www.sadsummerfest.com/tickets