Best Friends Forever 2025 lineup: Texas Is The Reason, Rilo Kiley, Minus The Bear, Jawbreaker, Empire! Empire!, Marietta & more
The second & fourth wave emo-centric fest is stacked once again, also including Mineral, Knapsack, Elliott, Cursive, Bear vs Shark, Snowing, Pity Sex, and much more.
Last week, Vegas’ second-wave-emo-centric fest Best Friends Forever teased that the lineup for their second edition would feature a number of artists that about 70% of survey respondents had on their BFF wishlists, and now the lineup is here and it very much seems like it delivers on that promise. It’s stacked with rare sets from ’90s-era emo veterans–including reunions, album plays, and a bittersweet farewell show–plus rare/reunion sets from the late 2000s/early 2010s emo revival era, and a handful of great newer bands that are keeping the torch lit.
The big names include the first-announced reunion show from Minus The Bear (playing Menos El Oso in full and more), Jawbreaker, Rilo Kiley (billed as a “very special guest”), and one TBA headliner. The fest also includes a farewell show from Mineral, the highly-anticipated return of Texas Is The Reason (sans Norman Brannon), full-album sets from Cursive (playing Domestica and The Ugly Organ) and Bear vs Shark (playing Terrorhawk), a 30th anniversary set from Pedro the Lion, and more.
Other rare ’90s/early ’00s-era sets come from Pretty Girls Make Graves, Rival Schools, Knapsack, Hey Mercedes, J. Robbins doing a Burning Airlines set, Elliott, These Arms Are Snakes, and Kind of Like Spitting.
On the emo revival/fourth wave emo front, the lineup includes the first-announced reunion sets from Empire! Empire! (I Was A Lonely Estate) (and the Lions didn’t even win the Super Bowl!) (update: here’s more on that) and Marietta, plus rare/reunion sets from Snowing, Pity Sex, and Oakwood (who also announced other tour dates today).
Also on the lineup are lifer bands Superchunk, Tigers Jaw, The Appleseed Cast, Mates of State, Speedy Ortiz, and Ozma. Right up there in the bigger font with those veterans are newer bands Wednesday and Narrow Head, and the small font has more newer bands shaping the next generations of emo/screamo (awakebutstillinbed, February, Knumears, Crochet, Tiger Bike) and heavy shoegaze (Midrift, Prize Horse). And in addition to that TBA headliner, there’s one other TBA act.
Some fun facts: awakebutstillinbed’s Shannon Taylor was also in attendance last year and guested with Home Is Where. At least three bands also have members who played last year’s edition: J. Robbins (Jawbox), Hey Mercedes (Braid), and Pretty Girls Make Graves (The Murder City Devils). Pretty Girls Make Graves themselves were also in Vegas last year one week later for When We Were Young.
As previously promised, there will be some logistical changes to BFF this year too, including free water refill stations, re-entry for all 3-day passholders, improved viewing areas for those with accessibility needs, and more food & drink options.
BFF 2025 goes down October 10-12 at the Downtown Las Vegas Events Center. Tickets go on sale Wednesday (3/5) at 10 AM PT (1 PM ET).
On BFF being Mineral’s farewell show, they say:
Come serenade with us one last time before the end.
Feels like an eternity ago we ambled onto a stage at The Vatican in Houston, Texas in 1994, dressed in drag to amuse our friends and take the pressure off of ourselves for our first public show as four friends who already felt immortal.
Four friends who were looking for something more, and willing to give more than they could afford to a dream. Four friends with no back up plans or insurance schemes, who knew they would never be okay with anything short of everything.
Four friends who could not have known then, but surely sensed, what the ravages of time and space might take away the universe would repay a thousand fold.
Here’s to one last dance, in the enchanted land of all night wedding chapels and 24hr buffets.
Here’s hoping what happens in Vegas doesn’t stay in Vegas, but will live on in our hearts forever.
