Van's Warped Tour plays their 50th annual festival this Summer, and last Wednesday I went to their Mansfield, MA concert at the Xfinity Center. It was an incredibly hot day, made worse by constant exposure to the sun for nine hours straight. Everyone was sweating, shedding layers of clothes as time passed, and herding around the Cool Gear tent, which was refilling water bottles. Despite the extreme heat and huge crowds of people merging together in one sweaty mass, the energy and anticipation was high.

Crowds of people swarmed around the numerous stages set up throughout the Xfinity Center, breaking out into brief mosh pits and pouring water and $13 beers over the crowd. Bands like Mayday Parade, We The Kings, Big Reel Fish, Yellowcard, and Sum 41 kept the atmosphere excited, fans screaming along the lyrics and constantly climbing over people and crowd surfing to the front. Tents were set up everywhere, selling band gear, sponsor gear, and anything anyone could possibly be looking for at the concert. Almost as exciting as the actual bands performing, was the free stuff passed out by the sponsors and various groups. The Vegans, as I'm going to refer to the vegan and animal activism groups, wasted no time in offering free stuff and even money for people to pay attention to their cause and be briefly traumatized by a four-minute video on animal cruelty in the food industry. Countless artists walked around offering their "fire mixtapes" and demos of their songs, hoping to get some recognition and a following from the fans, as Mayday did ten years ago when they followed Warped Tour across the country.

Warped Tour was a great environment for people of all walks of life, regardless of age, ethnicity, or sexual orientation, to come together and appreciate life and music together as one. From nine year old kids with their parents to Deadpool and Spider-Man walking around and crowd surfing, everyone came together from a common love of rock music, celebrating, living, and making occasionally stops to catch a Pokémon. Warped Tour was a great experience, even taking my uneven sunburn into account. Not only the music, but the atmosphere, the energy, and the sense of unity emerging from each individual at the festival left you with more than just the ringing in your ears from maxed out speakers. Take a moment to experience it one year, with no judgement on the music or people who are attending, just with an open mind and heart.