HeartSupport partners with Insomniac to bring hope to Warped Tour Orlando 2025
“Sweet angel, you have a whole festival of humans who are happy you are here on this planet. Sometimes our brains make us think silly things that aren’t true. Remember, there are people who share the same interests all over the world and the internet does this cool thing and connects us from ANYWHERE. You will find your people. Don’t stop dancing because those who find you will join the dance.”
This year, HeartSupport has gone back to its roots right alongside Warped Tour, present on the ground in D.C., Long Beach, and finally Orlando. HeartSupport partnered with Insomniac to bring our distinct model of peer-led mental health support to heal the scene alongside bands like A Day to Remember, August Burns Red, I Prevail, Killswitch Engage, and Lacey Sturm.
The community surrounding Warped Tour run deep, and that was immediately evident at Warped Tour Orlando.
“On day the first day, I had a girl walk up without talking, but I could tell she had something heavy on her heart. So I gestured towards the wall,” volunteer Erik recalls. “With a very sad look on her face, she shared on a red tile how she tried to overdose two weeks ago. It was so fresh, and so brave of her to write that.”
The supportive response from other attendees was immediate.
Erik continues, “Another girl walked up, a complete stranger. She saw her write that and hugged her. They started to cry. Then two guys walked up, saw the situation, and all four shared a hug and cried together. It was absolutely beautiful to see how supportive everyone was, totally unprompted.”
That was just the beginning of the weekend’s impact.
“One girl opened up about taking care of her father with Alzheimer’s and how it is taking over her whole life, while her sister doesn’t have the responsibility and could live a life of her own,” HeartSupport’s Bryce shares. “She immediately started tearing up after she wrote on the wall, and she was so thankful for the space to be open. She came back around many times within the next hour to see if people had responded to her, and when she saw the first response, she couldn’t believe the support. She kept saying, ‘I can’t believe someone responded to me!’ She was holding back tears, and we gave each other many hugs.”
Lindsay came up to the HeartSupport wall carrying a heavy burden as well: she shared that last year, she attempted suicide.
“I’m really glad I’m still here,” she wrote. After putting the tile up, she said, “I had people giving me hugs, they wrote me a lot of encouraging words and it felt good to get everything out in the open and know that other people are dealing with that too. It felt like I got a lot of weight lifted off my shoulders just by writing it down. It makes you feel like you’re part of something. Everything is not as big as it feels. Everything is going to be OK.”
Lindsay’s experience with HeartSupport moved her so much that she immediately volunteered to begin a HeartSupport chapter in her own community so that more music fans can have that experience of finding out that they’re not alone.
These two stories are just a snapshot of the weekend’s full impact. In total, HeartSupport’s staff and volunteers talked to over 800 individuals about the resources available to them through HeartSupport. 29 people just like Lindsay opened up on the wall. And 156 people responded with kindness, encouragement, and love.
HeartSupport's Impact at Warped Tour Orlando 2025
That’s exactly the kind of energy HeartSupport plans to carry into their final event of the year at Christmas Burns Red — and beyond that into 2026! Will you consider making an end-of-year gift that helps more people like Lindsay remember that their lives matter?
