FYA Fest Moves to a New Venue Over the Previous Location’s Pro-Israel Stance

Earlier today, we reported on a situation where a band’s values and politics forced in a major change within an upcoming festival and it looks like something similar is happening with next year’s FYA Fest. Given the highly fraught and insanely deadly conflict going on involving Israel, Gaza, and whatever fronts the Israelis want to open up these days, the annual hardcore/metalcore event will be moving to the Orlando Amphitheater in Orlando, Florida.

Normally, the fest takes place at the Shanna and Bryan Glazer Jewish Community Center in Tampa, but the ongoing genocide in Gaza has caused people online to voice their concerns and disapproval. Given all that, organizers decided to leave the Jewish Community Center, which firmly supports Israel’s campaign.

As a result of fan concerns and backlash, organizers released the following statement to let people know they were changing things up for next year’s event:

“In light of recent information, we are in the process of finding a replacement venue. Because of this, tickets for the fest most likely will not be going up on Friday. We are waiting on confirmation from another venue before releasing tickets. We will be posting updates when we have them.”

This isn’t the first time a fest has been forced to make changes. Earlier this summer, Dying Wish, Ithaca, and other bands either threatened to or completely dropped out of this year’s Download over a controversial sponsor. Ultimately, that sponsor relented.

In addition to the venue change announcement, they shared that Stout, Fatal Realm, and Home Invasion were joining the lineup of bands. The following is what’s been confirmed for both days: