Picture this. It’s the middle of July, and the sun is beating down on you. A long line snakes around the venue. As soon as gates open at 11 a.m., the line turns into a race to the entrance. The aroma of sunscreen fills your lungs. A sea of people with tattoos, dyed hair, tank tops, and Chucks-even some crazily dressed in jeans, hoodies, or head to toe in black- litter the venue grounds. Welcome to the Vans Warped Tour, an all day concert featuring nearly a hundred bands and artists of multiple genres. Let’s begin with a brief history on how this annual event came about.
The Vans Warped Tour has been around since 1995. Kevin Lyman had an idea to make a national event that put both skateboarding and live music performances together. The skater shoe company, Vans, liked the idea enough to sponsor it. Back then, it was more than just musical performances. Many different types of extreme sporting events ranging from BMX biking, skateboarding, and wrestling. Now, it’s mainly about music. The summer of 2015 marked the 20th anniversary for the Vans Warped Tour.
Warped Tour is a huge music festival for all ages that occurs every summer in the US and, since 1998, there are even international dates. What started out as a showcase of punk and alternative rock music has now branched out to a variety of genres including rock, pop, punk, death metal, folk, EDM, post-hardcore, rap, ska, reggae, electronica, and even acoustic performances. Many people assume it’s just a music festival for the goth, scene, emo, and punk kids, but they’re wrong.
Anyone ever wondered how Katy Perry got her big break in the music industry? It was at Warped Tour. She was one of the minor filler acts at the 2008 tour. The same thing happened for the Black Eyed Peas at the 1999 tour. Eminem, Machine Gun Kelly, Yelawolf, Skrillex, No Doubt, Sublime, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Green Day, and Blink 182 are more familiar names.
With the world changing each year, Warped Tour has gotten slightly stricter with their policies. Each year something new comes up.
Being mainly a rock show, moshing, walls of death, and crowd surfing occurs very frequently. But in the past few years, all the above are “prohibited” at Warped Tour due to a young teenager getting injured. Despite the many signs up around the venue, it still occurs and nothing happens unless it’s much TOO wild.
To cut down on people passing out from dehydration, Warped Tour has started having free water bottle refill stations around each venue. Dehydration is a big recurring problem. Every entrant is allowed one sealed bottle of water which they can conveniently refill throughout the day, now.
Also, Lyman makes sure there are plenty of shady places and even equips venues with a slip and slide as well as a misting station in order to cool down anyone who needs to be refreshed.
Since Warped is for people of all ages, Lyman has incorporated a “Reverse Day Care” for kids whose parents have to accompany them there. With each general admission ticket purchased, there’s an option to kids under the age of 18 to have a complimentary ticket for their guardian who must be over 28. This entitles the parent to the Reverse Day Care where all parents can just chill out with refreshments and air conditioning while their child/teen has fun roaming the venue.
Warped Tour also gives back to the community. People ages 16 and older are given the opportunity to donate blood in order to obtain backstage passes. Scattered around the venue, among the band merch tents, are a multitude of non-profit organization tents such as Invisible Children, To Write Love On Her Arms, Echo Earth, Shirts For A Cure, and much more. Many bands touring at Warped also offer music lessons; some are free while others require a fee.
To bring this full circle, Warped Tour, brought about by Kevin Lyman, has been around for 21 years and counting. It started out as a combination of extreme sports and live music, but ended up revolving more around music now since extreme sports aren't as popular now. This tour isn’t just for the punk/goth/and scene crowd, it includes an eclectic variety of genres having over 100 artists and bands on tour. These genres vary from pop to rap to metal even to EDM. He makes sure there’s water and cool areas as well as medical tents to prevent dehydration and other heat-induced illness. Many non-profit organizations also are represented around the venue. The Vans Warped Tour is just a fantastic event to attend where music lovers of all types can attend and have a fun day together, all gathered for the same reason: to jam out to their favorite musical performers. It’s definitely a day you’ll never forget or regret.
In just three weeks, the tour is kicking off yet again with bands such as Sum 41, Yellowcard, 3OH!3, Sleeping With Sirens, Issues, Secrets, Ghost Town, Good Charlotte, Crown The Empire, Atreyu, Bullet For My Valentine, Falling In Reverse, I See Stars, Mayday Parade, Whitechapel, and even Waka Flaka will be there. Will you? I sure hope so! See you in the pit.
