HeartSupport celebrates on-the-ground support in 2025 by sharing how you can keep it going in 2026
HeartSupport is celebrating a massive year of on-the-ground support that they were able to provide in 2025, blowing past their goals by activating at 13 festivals and 21 tour dates.
The only reason why they were able to heal the scene on such a massive scale is because of ordinary people who volunteered their time and who donated the financial resources needed to show up in person and provide often life-changing, life-saving support. HeartSupport has even bigger plans for 2026, and as this year draws to a close, you’re invited to be a part of healing the scene by making a tax-deductible donation before the end of 2025.
Exactly how many people are represented by showing up at over 30 events? Here are just a few of the numbers:
HeartSupport's 2025 Impact
Several thousand more accepted encouraging lyric temporary tattoos and were engaged in one-on-one conversations at events, both across the country’s largest rock and metal festivals, various club shows with bands like Asking Alexandria, Imminence, and more, and through Citizen Soldier’s HeartSupport tour.
Everywhere HeartSupport was present on-the-ground in 2025
Ongoing support
Perhaps most vitally, many of those conversations led to long-term peer mentorship through the Support Calls program. Over 70 intentionally matched, supportive friends connected through Support Calls this year, blowing past the year’s starting number of just 15 pairings.
This incredible impact represents HeartSupport’s fully evidence-driven approach to providing sustainable support that roots deeper than ever before. This was a significant pivot back to being in front of people face-to-face, not just in their online spaces.
Digital outreach
Even with that being the case, the online HeartSupport community continues to thrive as its own entity: in an average 90-day period, HeartSupport’s encouraging Instagram content receives 6.6 million views. Their one-of-a-kind YouTube content received over 35 million views throughout the year.
Many of those views were generated through significant partnerships with artists who have boldly stepped forward to say they want to play their part in healing the scene, too. Some of the many artists who partnered with HeartSupport through content and live events this year included:
Many more
More than numbers: personal impact
Any number listed here matters for one reason only: every number represents a person. And every person has a story, often one that intersected with HeartSupport at exactly the right moment.
Here are just a few of the things real people who wrote on HeartSupport’s Support Wall at live events have said this year.
“I’ve had a lot of encouraging things that I’m going to carry with me. The willingness that people showed by taking the time to write this stuff to me really means a lot.”
“I’m learning — I’m going to keep sharing this experience that I’ve been going through and inviting people that if they have something inside, it’s OK to be vulnerable.”
“What helped me to open up today was that everyone at HeartSupport was smiling. I felt a lot of love. It felt like an individual hug from everybody.”
“It’s beautiful that random people that I don’t even know are sitting here and replying to something that I went through. The love and support is beautiful.”
We need you to heal the scene
Throughout 2025, music listeners found support through struggles ranging from suicidal ideation to grief to substance abuse to self-harm to chronic health struggles to assault. No matter what someone placed on a red tile on the Support Wall, there were others ready and willing to open up.
2025 was a year of clarifying for HeartSupport, a year of renewed commitment to the true power of being present in the commitment to heal the scene — which means showing up for the scene.
That’s why one of HeartSupport’s focuses for 2026 will be allowing anyone to fundraise to bring their own inflatable Support Wall to their local venue, tour, or event. With a few successful volunteer-led activations in 2025, HeartSupport knows that the future of supporting music fans and healing the scenes is exactly where it’s always been: in your hands.
Whether you’re ready to commit to a full Support Wall or want to pay it forward and make it possible for others to keep having the transformative moments that people like Christian, Renan, Diana, and Kaylee had, HeartSupport needs you. Will you give today to support HeartSupport’s final event of 2025 — Christmas Burns Red — and to make 2026 an even bigger year of providing mental health support for heavy music fans?
Whether this was your first or your tenth year as part of the HeartSupport community: thank you for being the only reason this works. Thank you for healing the scene through telling your stories, offering support, and donating funds that immediately become real, tangible support for those who are struggling right now.
