When All Your Friends Festival announced they would be putting on one of Canada’s largest Punk Festivals featuring some of Canada’s very own punk-rock and pop punk bands, it struck all our hearts like the piano G cord introduction to “Welcome To The Black Parade”. Taking place at the famous festival grounds of Burl’s Creek – famously known for their Boots & Hearts Festival which took place just 2 weeks prior – All Your Friends Festival designed the perfect Friday and Saturday to heal the hearts of the pop-punk kids who have grown up alongside the bands taking the stage. The only way to describe it would be 48 hours of pure nostalgia.
Billy Talent performing at All Your Friends Festival in Burls Creek; Photographed by JH
Taking over Burl’s Creek on August 23rd and 24th, AYF gathered people from far and wide, joined the forces of the elder emos and their offspring, and allowed those of us who were told “It’s just a phase” to freely scream “IT WAS NEVER A PHASE MOM!” This entire festival was the epitome of never growing up.
With festival goers passing out friendship bracelets to each other and the security and staff members of the venues, to literally hugging strangers and breaking down during some of our most nostalgic songs, these two days healed parts of us that we may or may not have known were hurting.
Let’s take a moment to relive some of the performances from Day 1:
FRIDAY – AUGUST 23 – DAY ONE
THHC performing at All Your Friends Festival in Burls Creek; Photographed by JH
With The Honest Heart Collective kicking off the Festival on the Tent Stage, this brother band from Thunder Bay, Ontario gave us all a taste of what to expect from this weekend. In what could only be described as a whirlwind of a day for these boys, we got the chance to sit down with them after their performance and chat about what it was like to not only be the first band to perform the very first year of the All Your Friends Festival, but also secretly release a brand new EP the very same day! The interview with Ryan and Nic MacDonald will be posted on our website and social media pages in the near future, so be sure to come back and check it out.
The Honest Heart Collective will be performing on Thursday September 19, 2024 at the Great Canadian Casino Resort in Toronto, supporting Frank Turner & the Sleeping Souls.
THHC performing at All Your Friends Festival in Burls Creek; Photographed by JH
LoLo performing at All Your Friends Festival in Burls Creek; Photographed by JH
Toronto native LoLo got to open the Main Stage for the first day of the festival, turning us all into “lo-lifes”. Calling all us girls out on our crappy choice of men in skinny jeans when we were teens, she connected with all our inner insecure teenaged-selves. She even got some of us to live out our cheerleading dreams when her crew threw out red and black pompoms to the crowd and got us to cheer while being Debby Downers.
Playing some of her popular songs including “Junkie”, “Deathwish”, “Kill The Girl”, “U Turn Me On (But U Give Me Depression)”, “Debbie Downer”, and one of my all time favourites, “OMG”, she even teased an unreleased song.
Prior to her show, LoLo (Lauren Mandel) sat down with myself and Jeff for a quick little chat on how surreal it feels to go from performing at local Toronto venues like the Horseshoe Tavern to playing shows with some of Canada’s largest names in Punk Rock and Pop Punk. A true reflection of an Artist is how they carry themselves off stage as well, and LoLo was just as fun and energetic off stage, and down to earth as could possibly be. Make sure to check out our interview when it comes out!
You can catch LoLo on her first headlining tour in the UK this fall as well as supporting fellow Canadian’s Mariana’s Trench this fall on their Canadian Tour.
LoLo performing at All Your Friends Festival in Burls Creek; Photographed by JH
Mayday Parade performing at All Your Friends Festival in Burls Creek; Photographed by JH
Mayday Parade took the Main Stage next and took us all back in time to our teenage heartbreaks for all of the feelings. Throwing our heads back and singing at the top of our lungs, embracing each other as the crowd chanted back the words, and reliving what we classify as the glory days. For many, it has been a couple years since we have been graced with the music of Mayday Parade up here in Canada. Watching Derek bounce around on stage like he did back in the Warped Tour days brought back a flood of memories from the original pop punk days.
Opening with songs “More Like A Crash”, “Oh Well, Oh Well”, and playing crowd favourites including “Jamie All Over”, Mayday Parade left us Canadian’s with happy little emo hearts and the desperate need to see them again soon.
You can catch Mayday Parade in Las Vegas, NV for the When We Were Young Festival October 19 – 20th.
Mayday Parade performing at All Your Friends Festival in Burls Creek; Photographed by JH
Lights performing at All Your Friends Festival in Burls Creek; Photographed by JH
Heading back to the Tent Stage, Lights brought one of the most energetic and crowd engaged performances of the weekend. There was some pretty amazing Drone work by local Toronto Drone company FPV Drone Productions during her set, as the drone flew around the Tent and onstage, getting some pretty awesome footage of just how energetic this crowd was. Lights even got in on it and jumped off stage to meet the crowd at the front barrier while performing.
She touched on every generation of her music, playing today’s hits like “Up We Go” and teased a new song to come, and playing older hits including “February Air” and “Ice”.
Lights performing at All Your Friends Festival in Burls Creek; Photographed by JH
All American Rejects performing at All Your Friends Festival in Burls Creek; Photographed by JH
We decided to stick around the Tent Stage to catch The All American Rejects perform all their hits from the early 2000’s – with some fun vocal takes from Tyson who was having the time of his life on stage. To be honest, there were points where the band was unable to be heard because the crowd was performing so much louder. It was a giant therapy session for many.
Singing all time favourites including “Swing, Swing”, “It End’s Tonight”, “Move Along” and “Gives You Hell” with thousands of others is a core memory moment for this concert goer, that’s for sure!
You can also catch The All American Rejects in Las Vegas with Mayday Parade at the When We Were Young Festival.
All American Rejects performing at All Your Friends Festival in Burls Creek; Photographed by JH
Billy Talent performing at All Your Friends Festival in Burls Creek; Photographed by JH
Closing out Night 1 of the Festival on the Main Stage was Mississauga’s very own beloved Billy Talent. From the second they took the stage, the crowd was losing their minds. The amazing light show alongside their songs during each performance was a spectacle in it’s own. The boys in Billy Talent brought everything they had to the stage and the fans gave it back tenfold. Chanting lyrics, crowd surfing, and even a complete chorus overtake just solidified the point of this music festival – We really were there with all our friends.
Billy Talent performing at All Your Friends Festival in Burls Creek; Photographed by JH
Billy Talent went on to perform an incredible 20 song set consisting of their best discography. Opening with “Devil in a Midnight Mass”, overwhelming crowd harmonies on “River Below” and “Northing to Lose”, screaming along to “Rusted From the Rain” followed by “Try Honesty”, and closing with all time favourites “Devil on My Shoulder”, “Red Flag” and “Fallen Leaves”, Billy Talent was a perfect act to close out and end the very first Night 1 of the All Your Friends Festival.
Billy Talent performing at All Your Friends Festival in Burls Creek; Photographed by JH
Some bands we missed, but you shouldn’t – Games We Play, GOB, Gym Class Heroes and Silverstein !
Check out some of our photos from Day 1 featuring The Honest Heart Collective, LoLo, We The Kings, Mayday Parade, Lights, The All American Rejects and Billy Talent:
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