Sad Summer Festival is Bringing an Emo Lineup to Nearby Worcester

Mayday Parade. Photo by Bridget Craig.

Is the majority of your wardrobe black, are you rocking a blue or pink streak in your hair, or do you still like to dabble in black nail polish and thick, black eyeliner? Then skip this weekend’s Newport Jazz Festival and hop over the Massachusetts border to nearby Worcester for the emo-embracing Sad Summer Festival, taking place on Saturday, Aug. 3 at the Palladium. This is the outdoor music festival’s five-year anniversary. It was originally launched in 2019 by some of the artists and industry folks who missed the Vans Warped Tour, and decided to create their own rendition that focused on emo and alternative music. This year’s festival lineup includes founders Mayday Parade and The Maine along with The Wonder Years, We The Kings, Real Friends, Knuckle Puck and Daisy Grenade on all dates with support coming from The Summer Set, Hot Milk, Diva Bleach, and Like Roses on select shows.

“It also serves as a unifying force in our music scene, a place for every emo kid to gather around, connect with fellow fans, and truly be themselves,” says Alex Garcia of Mayday Parade. “With this in mind, it is a deep honor to close Sad Summer; the music we’ve poured our hearts and souls into becoming an indelible part of those warm summer nights, where friends and memories are made.”

We did a q-and-a with Mayday Parade band member Brooks Betts to find out the details on this year’s lineup and to get the band update.

Sad Summer Festival at the Worcester Palladium. Photo by Salma Bustos.

Jamie: What are you most excited for about this year’s Sad Summer Festival?

Brooks: Summer music festivals are always a very cool experience no matter the genre or where the shows are. We’ve always been a part of the Warped Tour through the years. That was a cool experience. It’s hot, there are a lot of aspects that you don’t love about summer touring, just because you are stuck in it for a month or two, but it’s like nothing else. We’re so used to venue touring, so when you go into mostly outdoor setups, it’s all about summer vibes, and everyone is in a good mood. No one is down and depressed because of seasonal depression with the weather; it’s all good. 

J: It’s nice to be outdoors! I know you have one stage, rather than multiple stages, and you keep all the acts on there. What is the reason for one stage and a more intimate type of environment like that?

B: It gives you room to have a concise bill, where you aren’t overdoing it. You don’t have too many bands. You are not splitting fans between stages, having to split their decision-making on who they want to see. With two stages, you could end up having your two favorite bands playing at the same time. I think being concise with a lineup helps focus the attention, helps focus the ticket buyer, and who they want to come and see. When you are able to experience every band, you are going to watch more bands, even if you came for the top two headliners, or top three bands. It gives you new music to watch all day and you are not stuck walking back and forth between stages at a huge venue. 

J: Have you been to Rhode Island? It’s a great city and music town. There is a great love for emo in Providence. Some bars do emo nights. I know this festival is in Worcester, but hopefully you can pop over. 

B: Providence is so close to Boston that unfortunately, it gets overlooked for a lot of tours. It’s so hard to play Boston, then come down to Rhode Island. The same people drive to both shows, except you get more people in Boston shows. I apologize that Rhode Island gets looked over but it’s a beautiful place when we have driven through and played shows in the past a long time ago. 

J: What do you think about the status of emo music? I see a great resurgence with people going back to the hits they loved in the early 2000s. Why do you think that resurgence has come about?

B: There are a couple things that go into that and it happens with all genres. I didn’t think it was going to happen with emo, but I am so glad it did, obviously because we are part of it. It seems like every twenty years, you have a cycle that happens, where whatever is retro or whatever, it comes back around. I was excited when ‘90s music came back around and alternative ‘90s rock, because I was such a big fan of that growing up. I never thought that would happen with emo, but it did. It’s funny to see it just happens with all popular music. It just comes back around like clothing cycling in and out of fashion. But also, on top of that, maybe the biggest reason that happens even with all music, is because people go from spending their parents money, being super young and going to shows and buying albums, to having their own money, and saying you know what, I’m going to go relive my experience with more money. On top of that, what’s great is people are starting to have kids, and their kids are growing up in it, and enjoying the music too. We always kept a young fan base. It’s not like it’s just an older crowd that comes out. It’s always been that way, which we are very lucky and thankful for. 

Fans with giant inflatable version of the tour mascot “Saddington.” Photo by Salma Bustos.

J: People have so many memories tied to the music too. So it’s nice to go and listen to the bands and concerts in person. It just brings back memories. Obviously, all of your songs are about relationships. Can you tell us more about the inspiration behind your latest song – I just listened to the one you just released, “Pretty Good to Feel Something”— is every song about a bad breakup, or what goes through your mind when you are writing the songs?

B: I am sitting here thinking of the working title, because we just got out of the studio with that. I had to go back. We had a vote of three or four different song titles for that one. That’s a song Derek wrote. I don’t want to speak for him too much, but we’ve all gone in and out of a lot of relationships and everyone knows most of them are not good, until one is good. Right? So you have a pretty high chance of having some good story material. Without speaking too much about it on his part, it obviously has to do with past relationships, and his current position of enjoying friends more. “Pretty good to feel something,” being more along the lines of everything else is rough around me, but being out and having a good time with my friends is better than that.

J: And also the lyric “The party’s all over.” I feel that. The party is not really over, it’s only over when you say it’s over, so you just keep going. 

B: As far as instrumentalization goes, that song does a really great job of feeling a bit like an Oasis-type feeling at times. It has a lot of current vibes to it as well, where it feels like a pop punk revival-type track, in a way. It’s a tough thing for a band of our age to stay relevant and be in the genre and be with the times, and do something that’s not 100 percent like what we’ve done before, but we dabble with our original style and repertoire. It’s great to experiment and push the envelope a little bit when we make our records and move into new territory. Giving our listeners something we haven’t done before, but can execute just as well. It goes to show that older bands like ourselves are influenced by the new music that’s coming out. 

J: So I’ve never had a song written about me, but then I listened to “Jamie All Over,” and I was like oh wait, this song was written about me. Did you guys work on that together, or is there a story behind that song? 

B: That song was written by an older member, Jason, who was in the band for a time. He wrote that song for the most part with Jake, our drummer. They were in a separate band before Mayday Parade. That was one of the songs that they brought with them to Mayday Parade. It’s such a great song.

J: Is there one song that you’ve written that you feel most connected to?

B: It’s very difficult to say if I had to pick one, but it would be “Hold onto Me.” That would be the one that I feel most connected to personally, and reflective of me and where I was at that moment. It’s been a long time. The storyline is very much back and forth, a relationship type thing, but that’s more of a vessel of how to deliver the lyrics, or a technique of delivering the lyrics with more interest. Because what’s really being spoken about is mostly just myself. 

J: I think there are songs that everyone can relate to with things they’ve been through and experiences, and it just feels like the songs are speaking to you when you’re listening in the car. Is there anything else you’d like to add?

B: No, I’m just really excited to get out on the road for Sad Summer, and I’m very excited that we’ve been working in the studio a lot. We have plans to continue working in the studio towards the new record. We’re happy to still be doing it after all these years and have people like you doing interviews, putting our music out there and promoting it with us. Thank you so much. 

J: You have a lot of great bands on the lineup, so I’ll make sure we mention some of them. I am sure you have handpicked everyone for a reason and we’re excited. 

B: I am excited for The Maine, We the Kings, Knuckle Puck and everyone else who’s on there.

Buy tickets here!

The Maine. Photo by Jacob Moniz.