Fifteen years ago, in ye olden days, being an emo (or, more broadly, an “alt”) was fairly simple. You just scraped your fringe to the side, changed your MSN screen name to some From First To Last or Taking Back Sunday lyrics or whatever and spent all your time on Myspace, uploading digital photos taken from above. Weekends consisted of drinking Monster energy drink mixed with stolen supermarket vodka (until uni or work, that is, which is when most people hang up their emo coats for good, aside from dyeing their hair light pink or something and landing a creative-adjacent job).
Today’s young alts, however, are simultaneously completely different but also exactly the same. The clothes and bands haven’t changed that much (the kids still stan Gerard Way, despite the fact he’s older than their dads now). But they’re a lot more wholesome maybe – choosing TikTok over alcohol poisoning and hopefully less into lyrics about, idk, how girls are evil and mean.
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That said, a love of festivals persists across generations. Over the weekend, all the baby alts gathered at 2000trees Festival, in Cheltenham, to watch bands like Jimmy Eat World, Thrice, You Me At Six, Creeper and more. With that in mind, we sent VICE photographer Chris Bethell down to capture some Gen Z emos and alt kids living their best lives. There were a lot of cargo shorts.
Scroll below if you wish to warm up your cold hearts.
