FYA Fest looking for new venue after Israel-related backlash

Tampa hardcore festival FYA Fest announced its 2025 lineup yesterday and promptly received backlash on social media because of its venue, the Shanna and Bryan Glazer Jewish Community Center. It’s the same venue that FYA was held at for multiple years in a row–the brightly lit room full of moshers that go viral on social media each January–but, following Israel’s ongoing attack on Gaza, vocal support for Palestine and calls for anti-Zionism from all around the world have drastically increased. The hardcore scene has been especially vocal about it, with several bands in the scene recently boycotting events with (direct or indirect) ties to Israel, and yesterday multiple hardcore fans on social media accused the JCC of Zionism and of financially supporting the IDF. Now, FYA organizers have announced that, “in light of recent information,” they’re looking for a new venue and holding back the ticket on-sale until they confirm one. (Tickets were originally supposed to go on sale this Friday.) Their full statement reads:

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.

Stay tuned for updates. FYA’s 2025 lineup includes reunions from Foundation, The Mongoloids, Kids Like Us, and Blistered, as well as Nails, Terror, Mindforce, Death Threat, Fury, Torture, Balmora, Big Boy, and more. See the full lineup on the poster below.