The heat on the first day of the festival didn’t stop fans from showing up to one of the largest, most diverse festivals of the year.
The festival featured seven stages in total, with one being split in two to make it easier to setup and take down. This helped a lot with time constraints to get so many bands in and out. Most bands had a 20-35 minute timeslot except for headliners who had about an hour to an hour and a half.
This was the first year for the festival to return to North Texas so why not make it bigger and badder than most other festivals this year. The festival had a nice mixture of artists from locals, to reunion acts, to hip hop. It was all represented, very well, and attracted an eclectic crowd who were getting to see artists they generally wouldn’t get to see.
The day opened up with the typical first day problems – doors were late getting open and security had problems moving people through the entrance, but everyone was in good spirits about it.
When walking into the festival, you were greeted with the Local Stage that was sponsored by local band Bowling For Soup, and then on the backside of it was the Monster Energy Stage which housed some of the heavier/ hardcore bands other than a few of the pop-punk ones.
One of the first bands that played was Distant who is a Dutch deathcore band, the band showed Texas what was up with the kind of technical deathcore that they create. The crowd loved it with lots of hate moshing and circle pits. The band has a very modern down-tempo deathcore brutal sound to them that got the crowd riled up early in the day.
On the other side of the stage, SeeYouSpaceCowboy took to the stage. SeeYouSpaceCowboy is a hardcore punk band from San Diego California, the band got the name from the popular anime Cowboy Bebop. Frontwoman Connie Sgarbossa constantly reminded the crowd that they are here at a punk show so act like it, but if anyone falls, help them out because that is what it’s about, having each other’s backs and community. After a very long walk to The Hot Topic Music Stage, you go through all of the outdoor food trucks featuring local favorites, and also a Monster Energy booth that is giving out free Monster products. Shortly after the Monster booth, there was a crowd gathering for Dallas’s own Lil Lotus who was seen more than anyone at the festival, as he performed multiple times over all three days with different bands. The easiest way to describe Lil Lotus would be emo rap and it shows through his vocals and how much energy he puts into his stage presence. By that time, it was the hottest part of the day and there was zero breeze, but that didn’t stop fans from heading to the main stage inside the stadium itself, called the Stay Lit Stage, to see the New Jersey-based deathcore band Lorna Shore. The band took to the stage wearing all black and getting the very groove of it all in check. The band is very technical and tight-sounding. Lead singer Will Ramos stayed center stage for most of the performance giving it his all and never really moving, staying behind his signature curly long undercut. The next band that performed on the main Stay Lit Stage is Suicide Silence. The So-Cal deathcore band was in fine form that day with possibly one of the heaviest and best performances of the day which makes sense since they had the midday time slot when not many other things were going on. The band started off the set with “Unanswered” from the band’s very first album. During “F**k Everything,” Lead Singer Eddie Hermida made it clear that he wanted the biggest wall of death of the festival and that if anyone falls to save them and also keep the kid in the pit safe because he is the next generation of this. After all was said and done, Eddie made sure to remind everyone that if they need to get help, get it, and to also drink water, not beer but water since it was well over 100 degrees out that day. When facing the Stay Lit Stage, to the left of it is the Revolver Stage, so getting back and forth between the two stages inside the stadium made it easy for fans to see so many bands in such a small area. By that time of the day, everyone was sitting down in the stands under the shade trying to eat something and relax, but that doesn’t stop a few from gathering at the Revolver Stage for Attack Attack! The crab core was back with this band, getting down low and giving the fans the nostalgic feels they were needing at this point in the day by playing a medley of songs in a 20-minute timeslot. Down and around on the Hot Topic Music Stage, Sueco was up next. Sueco is a mixture of rap and pop-punk that is very catchy. He gained traction these past few years with TikTok and being super funny while doing all the trends. His shows are very high energy with lots of crowd participation and singing. Alabama natives Gideon took to the Monster Energy Stage around 7 pm for a fast and furious set that was over just as quick as it started. They took playing a Texas show to the extreme by wearing cowboy hats, boots, and old-style country merch shirts. Metalcore forefathers Bleeding Through showed Arlington that they still have it and can outdo most newer bands on the stage with a commanding stage presence that only a band of twenty-three years could pull off. You can check out our coverage of day two here and day three here.
