Summer: the time of barbecues, beaches and music festivals. Music Festivals are one of the many things that I look forward to each and every summer. My favorite Summer Music Festival hands down has to be the Vans Warped Tour which is a travelling summer tour for alternative rock music.
This summer is the 22nd consecutive year that the Vans Warped Tour has been running. The tour runs from Friday, June 24 all the way to Saturday, August 13, and with a total of 87 bands on the lineup this year it looks to be an exciting time on the tour if you decide to attend one of the dates.
There are a couple of old bands making a reappearance on this tour such as Good Charlotte, New Found Glory, Reel Big Fish among many others. While there are old timers there are also some fresh faces to the tour such as YouTube stars Against the Current from upstate New York.
At Warped Tour, seeing as there are 87 bands playing there is really no way that you will be able to see them all, so what I suggest is that you make a list of 10 or so bands that you absolutely NEED to see that way you can plan your day when you get there. Another thing about warped the lineup doesn't get posted until the morning of and there is a giant blowup of the set times in the middle of the venue called the warped wall. I would suggest that the first thing that you do is to go to the warped wall and take a picture of it so that you are able to schedule your day. Also you may want to make a playlist of bands that you are planning on seeing and add a few others you don't know well and you're going to end up liking them.
Warped Tour is hot! I don't mean in the "oh it's a little humid outside" way I mean it is hot make sure that you drink lots and lots of water throughout the day. There is a free water refilling station for your convenience.
My favorite thing about Warped Tour is that when you're watching your favorite bands play live you get to go absolutely ballistic, and I really do mean that. If you want to croudsurf, go for it, you want to go in the mosh pits and have a grand ol' time knock yourself out just remember to be aware of those around you.
My second favorite thing about Warped Tour is that you have the opportunity to meet your favorite artists!! So when you first get in to the venue go ahead and scope out their merch tents and find out if and when they're signing and you might be able to get a picture with most of them. Last year I got a picture with Patty Walters from As It Is and Ash Costello from New Year’s Day!!
The best piece of advise that I can give you is to have fun. I know, I know its super cheesy and cliche but it's true have fun and I promise you that you'll have one of the best days of your entire summer.
