Fan projects were often something I heard about, but never really understood, let alone participated in, but now I’m learning more about them by experiencing it for myself!
When I heard there was a fan project for the upcoming Fall Out Boy tour and my tour date was included, I was immediately intrigued, and I joined pretty much immediately.
After talking with one of the for the project, Lizzy, and doing some individual research, here’s some of the things I learned about fan projects and how they work!
First, fan projects date back to pretty much the beginning of the history of concerts, so the concept isn’t new or unique to the alternative music scene.
However, there are specific types of fan projects that are considered a specialty of the alt scene, such as cut-out projects, in which fans hold up paper cut outs during a specific song or section of a concert en masse to create a large effect, gaining the attention of both other fans and (hopefully) the band.
Second, while larger projects like what Lizzy is organizing take copious amounts of planning and a team of individuals to organize, fan projects can also be smaller events that happen more organically within a single concert or tour.
Third, the So Much (For) Stardust Project is heavily based off of past fan projects, mostly taking inspiration from other cut-out projects, such as the Panic! At the Disco “hearts” project and the “Hearts for Parx” project for a Waterparks tour. Lizzy said the biggest inspiration for this project was the MANIA project, though (more on that below).
Fourth, this is not the first large-scale fan project to take place on a Fall Out Boy tour. During the MANIA tour (2017-2018), fans held up purple cutouts (inspired by the album cover) when the band played their song “Young and Menace.” This project was also heavily inspired by the Panic! hearts project, according to the project’s original Reddit post in the Fall Out Boy subreddit.
Fifth and finally, fan projects are all about community, and they offer a chance for fans of a band to bond over a special experience that only they can share because of the fleeting nature of tours and concerts. Some of it is to get the band’s attention, sure, but the majority of it is about interacting with other fans and being a part of something bigger.
Like I said earlier, this is my first time participating in a fan project, but I couldn’t be more excited to tap into the alternative music community in this way! In many ways, this is a way for me to live out some of the dreams I had when I was a kid, wondering if I’d ever be one of the cool emo girls I saw all over social media.
Okay, I may not be cool, but I’m out here participating!
If you’d like to find out more about the project, you can check out their Instagram, linked here! On their page, you can also find a link to join the Discord group for the project if you’re going to any of the participating So Much (For) Stardust tour dates and want to participate too!