In July 2025, members of the FOB Archive Team and of the FOBAT Discord went to Hellphyra in Rutherford, NJ, a festival with critical importance to Fall Out Boy’s history. Here, four members of the staff recount their experiences.

Weapon: I passed that billboard like three times going back and forth to the hospital and the hotel, and I laughed every time.

Joey: When the whisperings of Hellfest started cropping up in the server, I honestly didn’t give it much thought at first. As much as I like hardcore, I have a very weird relationship with it compared to most. I didn’t get into hardcore because of the music, but instead I was interested in the history, so in that aspect I’m different than 99% of the hardcore populace. I felt that I might not exactly fit in with the crowd at a festival like Hellfest; sure, I can spout out facts upon historical facts upon any willing witness, but ask me to two-step, and I’ll fall on my ass before you can blink. However, the more people committing to spending their 4th of July in a mosh pit, the more I was inspired to try.

Kay: The first talks of Hellfest started WAY back in January 2025, when Trustkill made a channel for the Trustkill Instagram and posted a poll that said “Who do you want to see at the 25th anniversary of Hellfest in New Jersey?” and that sent us into thinking, “Is this actually happening? Holy shit”. And once it was fully announced that Hellfest was happening, most of us were on board, and we were going to make this happen. Hellfest is considered THE iconic hardcore festival that happened in the late 90s and early 2000s. 

Joey: The real push came when our buddy, a good friend of Pete’s that he met during his hardcore days, confirmed he was also planning to come. He doesn’t really want to be known publicly, so for the purposes of this blog, we’re all referring to him as “Weapon” going forward. 

Oliver: Initially a joke between friends, as the Hellfest posting from Trustkill ramped up, I started joking about fighting Josh from Trustkill Records himself. He took it to Twitter, and almost every single post I made mentioning Hellfest received a cryptic response from either the Hellfest, Trustkill, or BOTH accounts. 

I made a prediction list of bands that I thought would play. The lineup setlist leaked and was promptly taken down, then released officially shortly after. Some of my predictions were SPOT ON, and the Archive was STOKED. Legendary bands like Zao and Prayer for Cleansing alongside killer new acts like Start Today, Contention, Godskin Peeler, and Scarab? Sign me the FUCK up!

Joey: Of course, Weapon also enhanced the whole “Oli is going to fight Josh at Hellfest” thing with his connections to Josh himself and Hellfest.

Joey: So, it was set into motion. I, along with a crew of admins, mods, and friends, would traverse our way up to Rutherford, New Jersey, for my very first hardcore festival. Honestly, when it came to planning, I was willing to let my friends take the reins. I just wanted an experience, nothing specific. Besides, I was chugging along at our Chicago trip planning, which was a whole other experience in itself. So the date of Hellfest approached closer and closer, until it was just a week away before I realized I had very little idea of what the plan was at all. I scrambled to intake all of the information surrounding the plans my friends made, and before I knew it, Lizzie and I were leaving my house in Pittsburgh.

Oliver: I stayed up most of the night before my early morning flight into Newark. I got through airport security in record time. Every single flight I take has me going through the airport in the same manner, down to the clothes I wear: athletic shorts, an Against Me! shirt that is more hole than fabric at this point, and a hoodie. TSA hates to see me coming. Figuring out the airport’s rail system and then NJ Transit was confusing, but after asking around, I got to Hamilton, NJ.

Kay: I woke up at 1 AM early on July 4th to catch a 6 AM flight to my layover in Chicago, then sprinted across Midway Airport to catch my 10 AM flight to Philly. I landed at around 12:45 PM. It was a little confusing to find where the pickup area was, but I found Oliver, and we ran back to the car.

Oliver: After we picked Kay up, we drove into Philadelphia, and though it’s not the Midwest, it’s the most home I’ve felt in an environment in months. I’ve been essentially stranded in Florida for almost an entire year, and I absolutely despise it. The trees were recognizable, and everything was so, so green. I saw stacks of multicolored shipping containers littered amongst the sky-reaching industry. Buildings were brick and imperfect, which was such a welcome change from the flat, cookie-cutter monotony of South Florida. If I never see another white and teal shopping plaza in my life, it will be too soon. Suffice to say, I was ecstatic. 

Lizzie: We ended up getting into Philly, and Chili’s was great. We respectively tore up our meals. It was about 3 PM by the time we got back to South Street. We hit up the punk store, Crash Bang Boom, as well as South Street Art Mart; great local businesses. Some things were closed as this was July 4th.

Kay: It was my first time going up north, and being in Philly- seeing all the historic brick buildings and architecture of the city was amazing. Being with my friends in a city that I have never been to was special to me.

Oliver: We hit up a few record and art stores, met up with Sera and Possum, and then went and hit up a few more record stores. We scrapped in the parking garage, and then I spent the entire rest of the Philly trip making increasingly raunchy remarks about Sera’s dad’s “side gig at the corner”. 

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Oliver: We left shortly after and hit up Wawa for a piss break and to grab snacks. I spent like 5 bucks on a bag of eggs, some spicy pickles, and a massive pretzel. Definitely not top of my list for snack options. We crammed the 7 of us in the car and drove back to Lizzie’s house. We introduced Possum to Fall Out Boy by blasting Thriller as fireworks exploded through the trees behind us. I think that’s as good of an introduction as any. 

Kay: The next morning, all of us got ready and prepared for the 2-hour drive up to New Jersey from Lizzie’s house. We picked up Rachel on the way since she lives not too far from the border of Philly, and stopped at a Wawa to get a quick breakfast. The most fascinating thing we saw when pulling up to a gas pump was someone coming up to the window asking about how much gas to put in. Sera, Possum, Oliver, and I were in total shock because we had no idea that was a real thing that happened in New Jersey.

Oliver: We rocked up to Hellfest at around 9 AM, but we missed the first few bands while we were standing in line. To pass the time, we X’d each other up, and I continued insulting Sera’s father. Sera did mine, and even her father was straighter than her lines!

Joey: When we first walked in past security and could hear the music blasting from the theater, it finally hit that this was really happening. So much planning went into making this work, and the effort was about to pay off. The events of the first day, up until near the end, are mostly a blur of going back and forth between the various rooms and exploring, interspersed between notable activities. After we entered, Oli and Sera immediately entered the pit to go apeshit. 

Oliver: We saw Cross of Disbelief, who were awesome. Start Today was probably the most highly anticipated band of the morning, and they were fantastic. Youth Crew revival-revival was back in full swing with their high-energy set and a cover of Hardcore Pride by Ten Yard Fight. Some of the best kids currently doing it, covering some of the best to ever do it. I definitely lost my shit. According to a friend of mine from their local scene, Start Today doesn’t play that cover very often, so that experience was awesome. 

Joey: I floated around some of the merch stands and observed before entering and finding Kay. I think the band I saw for a bit with her was Godskin Peeler. They were alright, but we moved on quickly, and I checked out the downstairs. As cool as seeing the bands and merch was, one of my favorite parts of the whole trip was people-watching. I live in a hick suburb, so getting to see the diversity and expression in everyone there was such a treat for my eyes.

Kay: When I entered, there were two stages, a big stage on the left and a smaller stage on the right. I learned pretty quickly that each of the bands set alternated between stages. This led to people quickly moving to the next stage, like in a wave. I saw the ending set of Start Today, and right when their set ended, Godskin Peeler started their set on the smaller stage. Their set was crazy, I left a little bit in the middle of the set to find the others. I was in and out during some of the sets. 

Oliver: There were vendors and bands set up outside, on the upper floor, and in the basement. I made it my mission to bother everyone in a 7A7P shirt, and this led me to Hamartia’s table. Hamartia is made up of some Connecticut hardcore legends who went on to form bands such as Bury Your Dead and With Honor, the latter of which happens to be one of my all-time favorite bands. As my reputation stands, I’m THE Milwaukee hardcore guy, and wouldn’t you know it, you can also EASILY tie 2000s Connecticut hardcore back to the Milwaukee scene. This makes it all the more embarrassing that it took me at least 5 minutes to realise I was talking to Jay Aust. 

Kay: Right in between sets, we decided to go to a diner not far from the venue and get lunch. I got a turkey panini; most of us got some sort of brunch. Oliver ordered two plates of vegan breakfast and hounded down both of them. All of us were shocked by how fast he ate both of those plates of food.

We headed back to the venue, and we looked around the Smartpunk booth for a bit. We were jokingly talking about when Oliver is gonna fight Josh. One of the guys helping run the booth, Alex, overheard us and was confused. So we explained that it was a joking beef that Oliver had with Josh and that he was gonna fight him at Hellfest. Alex then proceeded to say, “Let’s do it right now, let’s go talk to him!” All of us collectively went inside, and Alex started explaining the whole thing. I was the one to say, “This is Oliver, Weapon told you about him!” and it clicked in Josh’s brain who he was. It took him a second to figure out where he knew Oliver from. Once we mentioned Discord, it clicked. 

Oliver: Next up was Onelinedrawing, during which our friend “Weapon” snuck up on several members of the archive. He found Sera right after Azshara’s set, then me, and he stood directly next to Kay for a good portion of Onelinedrawing – it took her forever to notice. 

Kay: While in the middle of watching the Onelinedrawing set, Oliver came up to me to talk about Azshara’s set. Without my knowledge, Weapon was here and was standing next to me. It took me so long to notice he was there because Oliver was talking to me. I turned around to look for Sera and saw him, and I was like “OH MY GOD.” Weapon tried hiding behind Oliver jokingly. 

Joey: Meeting Weapon was definitely the highlight of the entire trip. Kay was the first to let me know that he had arrived while I happened to be downstairs. Lizzie and I rushed upstairs to grab my supplies: a black ski mask and an orange gift bag. Weapon was a huge influence on Pete Wentz, but also the hardcore scene as a whole. He taught Pete how to mosh, apparently. Something else he did was influence the scene with his clothing brand, Cabal, which is forever tied to New Jersey hardcore. I saw plenty of Cabal-branded jerseys in the pit, in my local hardcore record store, and of course, on Pete at FOB shows. 

Something else he helped spread throughout the scene was wearing different varieties of masks and bandanas. Hey, look, even Pete got in on it as a kid!

So of course, I had to show up in a ski mask of my own to show him whose boss. Kay said he was at the merch table, so I slipped the mask on and marched my way over. It was perfect timing, because he was looking downward at his phone. I slammed my hands on the table, his head popping up, and yelled, “WHAT’S UP FUCKER?” It was perfect, like a movie. You don’t get many moments like that in life. I try to savor them. Weapon was happy to meet us all and gave us big hugs. He liked all his gifts a lot, too.

Kay: I walked out and went over to the Trustkill merch booth and saw that Joey had given Weapon our gifts that we made for him. He was very excited, and he loved what we gave him. I also gave him some friendship bracelets that I made MONTHS ago, leading up to Hellfest. 

Lizzie: I got to hold the original picture of Pete from ‘99 with his locs, lying in bed, which has been passed around the internet for god knows how long. Weapon also had a Polaroid strip with him and Pete. He let me have his gay This Is Hardcore 2024 shirt, which I changed into. He gave the rest of us Fuck City stickers! 

The photos you may have seen online:

The hard copies of those photos, kept by Weapon all these years later!:

Joey: Alright, enough beating around the bush, let’s get into the catastrophe. Some time in the second half of the first day, when Missing Link ended their set, and On Broken Wings began setting up, all hell broke loose, fitting, considering it was Hellfest. I, along with everyone but Lizzie and Oli, had made our way out of the pit to relax. When the bands switched, Oli was seemingly pummeled by someone, passed out, and was taken away in an ambulance.

Lizzie: I am spamming the group chat like, “WTF?? ??? Guys??? Have you seen Oli??? ??? Hello???” And then everyone else collectively is like, “Oh shit.” Meanwhile, I’m still looking for him in the Haywire pit, and Weapon is about to shit his pants because he thinks I might die. I don’t remember what he told us specifically, but he heard something about hospitals and had a gut feeling something was wrong. We were all freaking out.

Oliver: I’m pretty sure we left to take a break and get water during Drawing Last Breath, and then came back toward the end of Final Resting Place. Missing Link played an absolutely brutal set, and this is where it gets crazy for me. It’s important to note the layout and timing of the sets during Hellphyra: all sets were back-to-back, and played on opposite ends of the room with less than 5 minutes between them. At the end of every set, there’d be a wave of people entering, exiting, and shifting drastically from one side to the other. I remember shifting sides after Missing Link’s set, during which I was separated from my entire group. I do not remember On Broken Wings starting their set.

Joey: As much as I can look back at this and giggle about it, it was genuinely terrifying in the moment. This trip was my first time truly feeling the freedoms of being an adult. This was my chance to prove myself capable of actually being a competent adult, and the way I went about that was by taking care of the group. Throughout the trip, I made sure everyone was hydrated, fed, and generally taking care of themselves. In this moment, I felt like I slipped up big time, and now one of my best friends was in the hospital, possibly seriously injured. I didn’t let myself panic, but instead directed the “OH FUCK” energy to actually being productive. Sera, Kay, and I rushed out of the venue, over to the Preserving Records tent. Kay called Weapon, Sera looked up the hospital name, and I texted the group chat the news, and to meet us at the tent. It was tense, trying to figure out what to do. Sera was by far the most upset; she and Oli have been friends the longest. Weapon ended up driving Sera to the hospital, while our friend’s mom picked the rest of us up to rest for the night. Within that time, we did learn that he was not in any seriously critical condition, but would be in the hospital overnight. In the end, he had a brain bleed and a stroke. His brain bounced against his skull. We still don’t know who exactly hit him, nor how he was hit, but whatever it was, it was a move powerful enough to do that. That night, we went to bed, pits in our stomachs out of concern for our friend. Someone outside of our group pointed out to me that we could have gone back to the festival still, to which I just laughed. I wouldn’t even think to do that when we were so worried.

Oliver: From my perspective, Missing Link ended, and the next thing I remember is waking up in a hospital bed with my friend Sera standing next to me. I was in some sort of neck brace. The first thing I asked Seraphina was whether or not I had hardcore cred now. The general verdict was yes, being brutally knocked out at Hellphyra and getting hauled out in an ambulance is hardcore as fuck. The second was about hockey – whether the Edmonton Oilers had gotten rid of Jeff Skinner yet. My third question was whether anyone had found my Ten Yard Fight hat, to which the answer was no. Despite being literally in the ER, I was definitely the most upset about losing my Ten Yard Fight hat. What can I say? I have my priorities in order. 

Kay: I woke up pretty early the next morning, around 6 AM. I got dressed and ready for the day, and I waited for Possum and Sera to wake up around 7:30 AM. Possum was up and got ready, and they and I went down for a quick breakfast from the mini breakfast bar that the hotel had.

Lizzie: The next day, we go to the SXE hangout, minus Oli. We all think he’s not being discharged until Monday. At the SXE hangout, we talked to Josh, and I played a bit of kickball. We met a kid, Aidan, from South Jersey, who graciously gifted me one of the vinyls that he won. We brought back a ton of free CDs for Oli, such as Earth Crisis and Tooth And Claw.

Kay: I got a text from Weapon around 8 AM. He said that he got a call from the hospital, but missed it since his phone was on silent, and tried calling back. It was most likely Oliver trying to call him, but Joey was the second person that Oliver called, and Joey picked up. 

Joey: Oli was in stable condition and doing well, and could even be discharged that day! Weapon was hanging out with him at the hospital… Apparently, he slept in his car the night before. I also got to talk extensively with Josh about all things FOBAT and archiving, which proved super useful in answering a couple of questions I had. We had a blast playing games and drinking root beer, but eventually, it was time to go meet Oliver at the hospital.

Sera, Lizzie, and I went to check in on Oli at the hospital nearby while Weapon was getting him discharged. I wasn’t expecting him to be so jovial when we entered; it was like nothing had happened at all. I felt a lot of relief then. Kay Facetimed, so we all chatted and caught each other up on anything important. Eventually, Oli got discharged, and we got out of the hospital. 

Oliver: After looking at my MyChart, I learned that they had labeled my religion as “Christian” and my sexuality as “Gay/lesbian”. For the record, I’m neither, but I guess getting knocked out in a 7A7P shirt gets you labeled as a gay Christian. Take that, Matt Matera? I was discharged the afternoon after I was admitted and put on anti-seizure medication for a week. Weapon left, my squad and I went to pick up my medication at the pharmacy, and we went straight back to Hellfest around 2 or 3 PM.  

Lizzie: He was going back to the fest under the condition that he was sitting on the VIP balcony, which is super sweet of Josh. 

Kay: I texted the group chat saying we were at the venue, and we chilled around outside for a bit, waiting for them to get here. We went downstairs, where the ice cream parlor was, to cool off for a bit. After a while, we went back outside and actually found Weapon hanging near the booths. We went over to him and talked for a bit. I was confused where the others were, but we kept talking until I looked in the group chat that they were here. I looked around and didn’t see them. I told them I was with Weapon. After a few more minutes, I walked around the corner and found them, and to my surprise, Oliver was there! Weapon came over and told us that he was good enough to be discharged from the hospital. Which was great to hear, but all of us had to keep an eye on him. I was with Sera and Oliver most of the time, at one point Weapon took them both upstairs by the balcony to watch the few sets they wanted to see, and watched with them. 

Oliver: I sat in the theater in the basement and ate lemon ice, then moved up to the VIP balcony with Sera. It was really nice of everyone to let us sit up there. I wasn’t able to mosh, on account of nearly dying, and I was incredibly out of it the entire time. I refused to take acetaminophen for most of the day. I finally caved when ‘Weapon’ walked to the Walgreens a few blocks away and brought me some. I still waited another hour or so to take any. 

Going up and down the stairs was a hellacious process, and the venue felt twice as crowded as the day prior. Half of our crew was practically babysitting me to make sure I didn’t fall down the stairs or attempt to get back in the pit. Sera fucked up her foot and couldn’t mosh anyway, so she hung out with me and made sure I didn’t accidentally kill myself. I had a few people ask me why I came back – including the security guy I signed to in ASL who helped haul me to the ambulance the previous day. I’m sure I looked insane when I responded, “Hardcore, dude!” 

Joey: He wandered around aimlessly a lot, sunglasses and headphones on, hood up, mumbling about his head hurting. He’d go from doing really well to not, back and forth pretty frequently. I don’t think any of us were upset about having to become “babysitters” for the rest of the trip. I was more concerned with making sure he was doing okay. Some other fun things I did and saw included eating really good blackberry ice cream, watching one of the bands play Tech-Deck on an unused merch table, and seeing I Promised The World. They were great; by far the favorite band that I saw. I have a weird relationship with hardcore: as much as I love it, I’m more interested in hardcore history than I am the music itself. There aren’t a lot of bands that are sonically my favorites. I Promised The World is an exception to that.

Kay: The last set for today was Eighteen Visions, they would be playing the entire album Until The Ink Runs Out front to back. Oliver and Sera went back up onto the balcony to watch the set. There was a funny thing that happened right before Eighteen Visions started. The set before was Disembodied, and almost everyone was in that room for Disembodied. Right after that set ended, everyone in that room left. Mind you, there was no re-entry after 9 PM. So it was lucky for us that the room was actually a little bit empty.

Joey: The rest of the day was a back and forth between seeing bands, buying merch, and eating. Finally, at the end, we saw Eighteen Visions. They’re not my absolute favorite, but James is super nice and puts on a great show.

After the show, we met up outside, saying our goodbyes to Weapon. I appreciate him so much. He didn’t have to come to this festival for us, but he did. He didn’t have to drive Sera to the hospital, but he did. He put in a lot of effort to make sure we were as safe as possible. We’re all adults, sure, but this was a situation beyond us, and I’m so grateful that someone was there to step in and help. After some final sweaty hugs, we headed back to our respective beds for the night, marking an end to Hellfest 2025. 

Oliver: We began the journey up to Beacon, NY, to visit Muttley, who is everyone’s homie and also my girlfriend. I spent most of the ride teasing Sera for her obvious crush on Rachel, who was sitting in the backseat. I got Joey and Lizzie to play some wedding music for them. They sat back there and talked Star Wars and other nerd shit, and I knew they were gonna be together by the time Sera went home. I remember being worried about my head injury and elevation changes. I made a shitty sandwich in the park; it was dry as fuck. I was mostly suffering and dodging the sun because the light sensitivity was brutal. I think I stood on a picnic table at one point. I was trying to watch Sera and Rachel through the trees; they went down to the Hudson River, presumably to confess their undying lesbian love for one another. Sure enough, they were together by that Tuesday.

Lizzie: All in all, Hellfest was scary. Not to get sappy, but I never realized what friendship looked like until one of my friends ended up in the hospital. I’ve never seen a group of people care about each other so deeply as I did that weekend. It was really scary, we had no clue what happened to Oli for a good few hours. Also, Weapon was so nice, and I could not explain just how grateful I am that he was there for us. He really is our hardcore dad.

Joey: In a personal way, this trip meant a lot to me and taught me more than I was expecting. Despite the intense stress, I wouldn’t go back and change my decision to go to the festival. I got to test my skills in managing things on my own, something I don’t always get to do as someone who grew up disabled. I learned that I love to do this; do things on my own and lead a group. And I had even more of that to look forward to later in the month!

Lizzie: I really love this group of people that I met on this trip. I know we are bonded forever. I’m glad Oli is getting better. Long live the Straight Edge Shield!

Click below to read each individual perspective in full: