Festivals
Vans Warped Tour D.C. 2026 – Day 1 Recap & Photos
I would like to start this review off by giving a special shout-out to the entire Warped Tour staff for creating one of the most enjoyable, safe, and well-run festivals in the world. I have been attending music festivals across the country for over 10 years, and this year’s Warped Tour had some of the best staff and logistics I have ever seen at any major festival.
For decades, the Vans Warped Tour served as a rite of passage for music fans across the country. The festival’s return last year was one of the most celebrated moments in the scene, and now, for the second straight year, Warped Tour has kicked off in the Nation’s Capital. Tens of thousands of fans descended upon Washington, D.C. on Saturday, June 13th, for Day One of Warped Tour, bringing with them an exuberant energy that set the stage for a memorable weekend.
This year’s festival faced an unusual competing event that brought even more people into DC. Just a few miles away from the RFK Fields, fight fans packed into Ellipse for UFC Freedom 250, creating one of the more unique weekends Washington has hosted in recent memory. Throughout the city, it felt like a guessing game of who was embracing their inner emo and heading to Warped Tour or who was heading to the fights. The city’s museums and Metro stations became an unlikely crossroads of cultures.
Fortunately, there proved to be more than enough room in Washington for both crowds. While UFC fans prepared for a night of fights, Warped Tour attendees gathered for something equally intense in its own way. A full day of circle pits, crowd surfers, singalongs, and unforgettable performances spread across six stages. The atmosphere throughout the grounds was exactly what longtime fans have come to expect from Warped Tour. Veterans of the festival exchanged stories about past summers while younger fans experienced their first taste of an event that has helped shape music culture for generations.
The day started off as it always does at Warped with fans rushing the inflatable set time list, trying to figure out where they would spend the next 11 hours of their day. Not knowing the set times until the gates open is something extremely unique to Warped Tour and adds to the atmosphere.
The Off the Wall stage kicked off the music for the day with DMV locals, Hue, taking the reins. The band blends Djent, R&B, and Trap for an extremely unique sound that doesn’t seem like it would work on paper but absolutely electrifies a crowd in person. The Vans stage, immediately adjacent to the Off the Wall stage, hosted Nashville Emo band Free Throw next while the Beatbox stage enjoyed the stylings of Beauty School Dropout. The stages were close enough that fans could walk a short way every other song and enjoy the amazing sets from both bands. BSD was a highlight of the day, with a massive crowd and a lot of participation.
The Wrecks and Girlfriends duoed the Vans and Off the Wall stages next. Both bands delivered solid sets that kept the momentum moving. Both bands are young and will continue to make an impact on the scene for years to come. The midday portion of music hosted a lot of competing sets that made it hard to choose where to go. The Home Team, Suicidal Tendencies, Elijah, and Teen Mortgage all played amazing sets scattered across the festival grounds. The energy from ST was extremely unexpected given the younger crowd and the fact that the band has been around for almost 50 years. The crowd was bumping along with Tye Trujillo’s bass and singing along to every word with Mike Muir.
The next highlight of the day came from Warped Tour veterans Hawthorne Heights. The Ohio natives played to a filled crowd at the Vans stage, with numerous hit songs playing up the nostalgia factor to elder emos who grew up with the band. The almighty GWAR took to the Beatbox stage next with gallons of fake blood spraying over fans. The set featured power metal, a fight with a dragon, and an appearance from an incredibly accurate caricature of President Trump. Florida Rockers Fame on Fire joined the foray playing the Verizon stage. The band, known for pop covers early in their career, have developed a heavier style over the years that played well to the Warped Tour crowd.
The Eagle stage was another bright spot in the middle of the day with Drop Dead, Gorgeous and Upon a Burning Body playing back-to-back and absolutely destroying the crowd. Drop Dead, who made their return in late 2024, have been on a tear recently. They signed with the also recently reformed Artery Foundation, released their first new music in a decade, and have been playing a steady stream of shows across the country. UABB, hailing from San Antonio, put their Texas metalcore style on full display. Danny Leal, the lead singer, jumped across the stage to scream in the face of every fan. Although the band is heavier than the typical Warped Tour act, it worked well and was one of the best sets of the weekend.
Sleeping With Sirens and Underoath took to the Vans and Off the Wall stages, respectively, to start the back half of the day. Spencer Chamberlain jumped down to the crowd during Underoath’s set and the crowd erupted with crowd surfers toppling across trying to meet Chamberlain at the barricade. The band played a set of old and new songs with an assortment of fans that were also old and new. The Sleeping With Sirens crowd was also filled with Warped Tour veterans and newbies. Fresh off their new album i, Kellin Quinn and co. made easy work of getting fans excited. SWS has always put on great shows, and with a catalog spanning almost 20 years, it is hard for them to put together a setlist without leaving off a few crowd favorites.
Jinjer and Taking Back Sunday were the next pair to take over the festival grounds. Ukrainian metal band Jinjer brought their progressive and technical style to the Ghost stage, showcasing the unique sound that has helped them build a dedicated following around the world. Frontwoman Tatiana Shmailyuk’s ability to transition between powerful clean vocals and brutal screams was one of the highlights of the set, proving why Jinjer has become one of the most respected names in modern metal. Taking Back Sunday followed on the Off the Wall stage, bringing nearly 25 years of emo and alternative rock history with them.
As the day wound down, the Beatbox stage hosted one of the heaviest bands on the festival’s line up, The Ghost Inside. The SoCal metalcore band has been on a tear over the last couple of years with two new albums, dozens of festival appearances, and touring with some of the biggest names in rock and metal music. Their set was among the best of the day and weekend and brought a level of intensity that perfectly matched the late-day atmosphere and gave fans one final surge of energy before the festival’s closing sets.
The backside of the festival was headlined by Norma Jean and Meet Me at the Altar on the Verizon and Eagle stages. Norma Jean delivered their signature metalcore sound and melted faces. Their set was extremely energetic and provided a balanced contrast with some of the lighter pop-punk bands that had played on that side of the festival throughout the day.
Dance Gavin Dance, hailing from Sacramento, CA, headlined the Beatbox stage. The band has gone through a series of member changes over the years, with a different line up every time they have played Warped Tour. The majority of the night’s setlist came from the 2025 album Pantheon. Something unfortunately felt like it was missing from the band’s performance with their set not feeling like a true stage closing performance.
Although Rise Against was not the last band of the night when they closed out the Vans stage, they felt like the true headliner to Day One. The Chicago-based Punk band have been putting on amazing shows for almost three decades now, and their Warped Tour set was no different. In the Nation’s Capital and in an era of extreme political discourse, lead singer Tim McIlrath was not afraid to speak his mind through his lyrics. The set opened with a trio of Rise Against classics, “Re-Education,” “Under the Knife,” and “Satellite.” There was not a still body or silent mouth in the crowd. Through an 11-song set, the band proved why they deserve to be a headliner. Even though DDG and Norma Jean were playing at the same time, a majority of the crowd were at Rise Against from the beginning through the end. And when the final note of “Savior” rang out, a roar of cheers could be heard throughout the entire festival grounds. The band embodied Warped Tour culture and gave every fan a night to remember.
If Day One proved anything, it is that Warped Tour’s comeback is no longer a novelty. One year after its long-awaited return, the festival feels right at home once again. And for a scene built on community, passion, and live music, there could be few better places to begin another summer than Washington, D.C. The weekend continued with Day Two and a review will be coming soon.
Check out our favorite photos of Day One below or head to our Facebook page for the full gallery!
RISE AGAINST
NORMA JEAN
THE GHOST INSIDE
JINJER
SLEEPING WITH SIRENS
UPON A BURNING BODY
DROP DEAD, GORGEOUS
GWAR
FAME ON FIRE
THE WRECKS
SUICIDAL TENDENCIES
BEAUTY SCHOOL DROPOUT
FANS
All Photo Credit: Ryan Renger
Festivals
Boots And Hearts Music Festival 2026 – Recap & Photos
Three Days at Boots and Hearts 2026
Boots and Hearts turned 15 this year, and it celebrated the milestone by doing something it had never done before: handing the Friday night headline slot to a pop-rock band. Over three days at Burl’s Creek Event Grounds in Oro-Medonte, the bill ran from a Canada’s own Brett Kissel, to Kevin, Joe, and Nick Jonas closing it out and the festival’s willingness to stretch its own definition of “country” made for one of the more interesting lineups Boots and Hearts has put together.
The Emerging Artist Showcase: Leah Holtom Takes the Crown
Every Boots and Hearts weekend starts the same way: with the artists on the verge of making their breakthrough. The Emerging Artist Showcase has been a launching pad for Canadian country talent since 2012, with alumni like Josh Ross, Owen Riegling, and The Reklaws all having come through its ranks, and this year’s crop of eight finalists, Landon Bedor, Connor Eller, Leah Holtom, Taylor Jensen, Laila, The Mainlanders, Jackson Klippenstein, and YASSiN & Sean Terrio, was picked from a nationwide field.
Leah Holtom, a singer-songwriter from Brampton, Ontario, took the title, earning the showcase’s grand prize: a $10,000 cash award, a single release through Universal Music Canada, artist development sessions with RLive Management, a Gibson J-45 guitar and VIP trip to the Gibson Garage in Nashville, and a guaranteed slot on the 2027 Boots and Hearts bill.
Friday: Redefining a Country Music Headliner
Once the showcase wrapped, Friday’s card kept climbing. School House, last year’s Emerging Artist Showcase winners, played an early tent set that doubled as a nice piece of festival continuity, a reminder of what a showcase win can turn into twelve months later. The group leaned into each other mid-riff, all matching earthy-toned outfits and genuine grins, the kind of loose, unchoreographed chemistry that only shows up once a band has actually logged real stage time together.
Dasha, backlit against a clear afternoon sky in a metallic mesh top, mic in one hand, arms thrown wide, hair catching the wind on nearly every chorus, was the first to take the main stage. It was a performance built for spectacle, and the crowd around the rail thickened visibly between her first song and her last.
Emily Ann Roberts hit the Front Porch Stage in a ruffled pink dress, at one point swinging a hand-painted acoustic overhead mid-song, an unscripted, joyful moment that summed up her set well.
Brett Kissel kept the homegrown-Canadian thread running and brought the most physical energy of the day’s tent sets, leaping mid-air with his acoustic strapped on, hat staying perfectly in place, fiddle player and full band filling out the stage behind him through a haze of backlit smoke.
By the time Russell Dickerson took the main stage as the sun started to drop, the production had scaled up to match the evening slot: smoke jets framing him on both sides of the stage, a massive LED screen behind reading “RUSSLEMANIA,” and a crowd already thick with raised phones and cowboy hats.
Then came the Jonas Brothers, marking their first-ever country festival booking and the clearest sign yet of how far Boots and Hearts was willing to push the definition of “country” for the festival’s 15th anniversary. The walk-out alone was a highlight: Kevin, Joe, and Nick emerging as three backlit silhouettes inside a single spotlight before a note played, all denim and sunglasses, letting the crowd’s reaction build on its own. From there the set leaned hard into nostalgia and full arena-scale staging, Nick working the runway in a denim jacket and red bandana, one arm thrown out to the crowd mid-line; Kevin mid-kick further down the stage in a camel blazer, white Gibson Les Paul in hand. “Burnin’ Up,” “S.O.S.,” “Sucker,” “Lovebug,” and “Cool” all made the cut, punctuated by a hometown-storytelling interlude from each brother that slowed the pace just enough to reset the field before the next run of hits.
What made the set work wasn’t just the hits, though, it was the crowd. Cowboy hats and boy-band-era t-shirts sharing the same frame is not a combination Boots and Hearts sees often, and the contrast between the afternoon’s Kissel sing-alongs and the Jonas Brothers‘ shriek-along choruses said more about the festival’s evolving audience than any lineup announcement did.
Saturday: Rising Names and a Country Institution
Saturday was about pedigree, the festival shifting back toward its traditional base with a lineup that built from developing acts into a genuine legacy headliner. The day opened with The Jack Wharff Band, and Thelma & James, the duo of Jake Etheridge and MacKenzie Porter, whose harmonies gave the smaller afternoon crowd something worth arriving early for.
The afternoon’s real momentum came from the pairing of Waylon Wyatt and Sam Barber, both still building their national profiles but drawing crowds that had clearly done their homework, a noticeably younger cluster near the pit for both sets, phones out for the newer material rather than the deep cuts. Barber’s set in particular had a rawer, more stripped-down energy that stood in contrast to almost everything else on the day’s bill.
Jessie Murph took the back half of the evening and brought the energy up a full register. Her distinct voice, genre bending style of country, pop and rap had the crowd wanting more.
The Chicks closed out the day, a booking that needed no explaining to anyone. A genuinely generation-spanning crowd sang along to a catalogue that predates most of the rest of the weekend’s bill, a different atmosphere than the night before: fewer collective shrieks, more quiet, full-throated reverence, and a crowd that seemed to know instinctively when to go loud and when to just listen.
Sunday: Rascal Flatts Closes the Weekend
By the third day, the physical toll of the weekend was visible but it did not stop the party. Sunday’s undercard kept building steadily through the afternoon: Mitch Zorn and Savannah Jade opened things up early on the Front Porch Stage, part of the same wave of rising Canadian names spotlighted all weekend.
James Barker Band then made their long-awaited return to the Main Stage. Kaitlin Butts and Ashley Cooke carried the mid-afternoon, each pulling a noticeably engaged crowd despite the heat. Max McNown and Tucker Wetmore closed out the support slots as everyone prepared for the closer.
Rascal Flatts brought the weekend full circle, closing the festival the way it opened, with a name synonymous with a specific era of country music. The set leaned on the hits, and this was a crowd that already knew every word before the first chorus landed. The late setting sun gave way to a stage lit for a true arena-scale finale, a fitting bookend to a festival that had spent three days proving it could scale up in either direction, pop or legacy country, without losing its own identity.
A crowd that had given the festival three full days and had just enough left for one last singalong before the walk back to the campground.
The Bigger Picture
What stood out most across the weekend wasn’t any single set, it was how deliberately Boots and Hearts used its 15th anniversary to widen its own lane. Celebrating a rookie showcase winner like Leah Holtom with an established crossover act like the Jonas Brothers, on the same three-day bill as The Chicks and Rascal Flatts, made for a festival that is a statement about where country music’s audience actually lives now.
Head to our Facebook page for the full galleries of Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3!
All Photo Credit: Kieran Delport
Festivals
KATSEYE, XG, Dabin.Kr and More Perform at Head In The Clouds Music Festival 2026
Fans Brave High Temps to Catch KATSEYE, XG and More at Head In The Clouds Music Festival
88 Rising’s Head in the Clouds returned to Pasadena’s Brookside at the Rose Bowl on August 8, 2026. The festival, a celebration of Asian music, brought global superstars XG, KATSEYE, rapper Dabin.Kr, Indonesian pop group no na, K-pop group LNGSHOT and more to the Los Angeles stage.
The festival, beginning in 2018, and spanning across Los Angeles, New York and Indonesia has made some changes over the years, this year’s bringing a stark contrast to years prior. Normally a two day Los Angeles festival, its usual large stages including catwalks with three dimensional stage design (usually featuring their mascot CLO), and large photo op installations were now condensed to one day, a rather barren main stage and a lonely bus as a photo op. As most people packed tightly toward the main stage, it left much of the festival grounds uncovered. The Music Den stage lay tucked away in a corner, where if you didn’t know it was there you could easily miss it.
As doors opened at 1PM, fans raced across the festival grounds to secure a spot at the barricade. Japanese boy group ONE OR EIGHT opened the festival, also promptly at 1PM, leaving many who were there to see the group either miss their ten-minute set entirely or arrive late to the stage. The group, consisting of Souma, Mizuki, Tsubasa, Reia, Ryota, Takeru, Yuga, and Neo rode full speed into hit hip-hop track “TOKYO DRIFT,” and their latest release “YANKEE SQUAT.”
Get on the angok! With another vehicular hit, Indonesian girl group no na hyped the crowd with dance-pop “honk!” off their upcoming full length album, island girl. LNGSHOT made their way through the crowd, exciting fans who had been waiting all day to see them – many sporting hand made signs and curated outfits dedicated to their favorite members. Though just rookies, the four member group, produced by Jay Park, has taken global audiences by storm with tracks like “Moonwalkin” and “Saucin’.”
With high anticipation, Dabin.Kr, previously known as DPR Live, took the stage. “Tonight, you’re meeting Dabin.Kr” he told the crowd. Just as the sun was beginning to set, Dabin opened up to the audience about the struggles he has faced the last several years and his journey of starting over, stating “a lot of us here right now, are still trying to figure ourselves out.”
“Who’s still sleeping on XG?” asks the global group before launching into their hit track “WOKE UP.” Seven member Japanese group XG turned HITC into their very own mini concert. Appearing atop a large scaffolding set and accompanied by a full band, the group performed songs like dance track “GALA,” and slower hip-hop number “PS118” before closing with a rock-infused version of “SHOOTING STAR.”
Who knew HITC was for kids? Many children filled the audience, their parents bringing them to risk heat stroke to catch a glimpse of their favorite girl group KATSEYE. With scorching temperatures and packed crowds, (the festival needed to provide free water to attendees, many stationed in large ice buckets just to keep it cool) along with people passing out left and right, this seemed like a less than ideal space for children. Many parents took off like Olympic sprinters, children in tow, to sardine themselves into the already tightly stuffed crowd as soon as XG left the stage. Many fans were visibly frustrated as parents tossed their children up on their shoulders, blocking the view of fans who had waited all day in the blazing sun to secure their spot earlier in the day.
KATSEYE, performing as four, opened with upbeat “Pinky Up!” before launching into 2024 debut release “Debut.” It’s hard to believe the group has only been around for two years, as they’ve amassed a worldwide fandom and have become a household name in a short time. Marking their second time as festival headliners were members Lara, Yoonchae, Megan and Daniela. Just several days prior, Sophia announced she would be on hiatus from the group to focus on mental health. The announcement follows Manon’s announced hiatus from the group back in February. Will she ever come back? We may honestly never know.
KATSEYE closed out the festival with viral sensation “GNARLY,” full dance break included.
A day full of music, art and culture concluded on an explosive high. With a diverse lineup, audiences were left adding new songs to their queues and left singing some of their favorites. Packed exits and lengthy chaotic parking lines left fans with plenty of time to relive the memories they made throughout the day.
Check out our favourite photos of the day below or head to our Facebook page for the full gallery!
KATSEYE
XG
DABIN.KR
LNGSHOT
TIFFANY DAY
KIIKII
NO NA
WARREN HUE
BE:FIRST
FESTIVAL
All Photo Credit: Rebecca Rowe / @rowetookthese