United Blood 2025 Recap!

The first United Blood festival since 2019 had a fantastic turnout! Mutual friends shared their favorite memories of the popular Hardcore Festival with me in the days leading up to the event. Showing me just how vital festivals like UB and FYA are. These festivals give many people in the Hardcore community a space to spend time with their friends (both local and long-distance/online) and enjoy the music together. When I attended FYA back in January, there were moments when seeing people I knew felt like a family reunion.

I wasn't very familiar with Richmond's scene, so it was great to catch a glimpse of how they do Hardcore! The vocalist of the Richmond band NAYSAYER explained why UB means so much to the Richmond Hardcore community. The first-ever United Blood Fest took place in 2007, lasted for a decade, and was then cancelled in May 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Festival was dormant for 6 years, and its 2025 comeback was announced in December 2024. It is told that once the tickets went on sale, they sold out in almost an hour.

Highlights from the Fest!

It was great to see BACKLASH representing DC hardcore! Shouts to Richmond for showing some DMV solidarity. Detroit's very own NEVER ENDING GAME opened the floor up and allowed the crowd to get their stylish moshing points up in traditional Hardcore fashion. And it was amazing to see the iconic Baltimore band TRAPPED UNDER ICE for the very first time! Hearing Pleased to Meet You live for the first time was truly an experience.

But my biggest highlight was being able to stand side stage (for the first time!) during END IT's fun set! I want to thank END IT vocalist Akil for allowing me to be a part of this. The view of the whole room is so much clearer from the stage, it's unbelievable! Before every END IT set, Akil takes the time to sing a song, and this time he chose to sing "Pieces of Me" by Ashlee Simpson. He made it very clear, though, that the specific version he was singing was from DC Gogo Band's RARE ESSENCE.