Four Year Strong Turns 25 — and Throws Worcester a Party

Twenty-five years ago, a couple of Worcester kids started a band in a basement. Tomorrow, Saturday, July 11, that band headlines a full-day festival on the Palladium's outdoor lot with their name on the marquee and half of pop-punk's extended family on the bill. If you were going to script a hometown victory lap, it would look a lot like the inaugural Seven Hills Music Festival.

Four Year Strong — the Wormtown-bred pop-punk institution — is celebrating a quarter-century by playing their 2007 breakthrough Rise or Die Trying front to back, plus fan favorites, on home turf. That record is the one that put them on the national map, and hearing it in full, outdoors, in the city that made them is the sort of thing that turns grown adults in old band tees into puddles.

They didn't do it alone, either. The lineup reads like a genre summit: Silverstein, Knuckle Puck, Origami Angel, One Step Closer, A Loss For Words, Worry Club, Spaced, Hard Target and Haywire are all confirmed to join, an all-day, multi-band affair at the Palladium Outdoors (261 Main St.).

The band framed the whole thing as a thank-you note to the 508. "It's hard to believe this band started in Dan's basement 25 years ago," Four Year Strong wrote in announcing the fest. "We owe everything to the city of Worcester and especially to all of our fans. To celebrate, we're proud to host SEVEN HILLS FESTIVAL – an all-day event with an incredible lineup of bands and friends."

That's the part worth sitting with. Plenty of bands leave a mid-size city the second they can afford the U-Haul and never look back. Four Year Strong built a career, aged into elder-statesman status, and chose to plant a flag back home — literally naming the festival after Worcester's seven hills. In a scene that too often treats this city as a tour stop between Boston and Hartford, that's a statement.

Logistics: it's an outdoor, all-day event, so dress for the sun and the eventual sunburn you'll deny getting. Pace your water. Wear shoes you don't love, because the pit for a Rise or Die Trying run-through is not going to be a polite affair. Doors and set times are worth confirming on the Palladium's ticketing page before you head down, and pre-sale packages have been running ahead of general admission.

The Palladium has spent 2026 leaning harder into its outdoor footprint, and a festival of this size is the clearest sign yet that the lot behind Main South is becoming a genuine summer amphitheater in its own right. Seven Hills isn't just a big show; it's a proof point for what this room can be.

Twenty-five years from a basement to a festival with your name on it, in the city that raised you. Worcester doesn't get a lot of fairy tales. Go watch this one out loud.

Sources: Seven Hills Festival — ThePRP; Four Year Strong announce Seven Hills — New England Sounds; Seven Hills Music Festival — Do617