| Location(s) | United States, Canada |
|---|---|
| Years active | 1995–present |
| Founded by | Kevin Lyman |
| Genre | Punk rock, ska, alternative rock, reggae, hip-hop, pop, metalcore |
| Website | vanswarpedtour.com |
The Warped Tour is a touring music and extreme sports festival. The tour is held in venues such as parking lots or fields upon which the stages and other structures are erected. The BMX/skateboarding shoe manufacturer Vans, among others, has sponsored the tour every year since 1995, and it is often referred to as the Vans Warped Tour. The tour started out as a showcase for punk rock music, but its more recent line-ups have featured a diversity of genres.
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As of the mid-2000s, the Warped Tour has featured as many as 100 bands per show. The bands play for up to 30 minutes over approximately 10 stages, although the biggest bands generally play the two main stages. Bands typically start at 11:00 a.m. and end around 9:00 p.m., with several bands playing at once. The individual band times and stages where each band play is marked on a large board usually centered in the middle of the venue. The stages are set up in various locations around the venue to ensure one band's music is not disrupted by the other bands performing at that time. Fans can vote online for the band they want to see play a longer set as the last band of the night.
Every year there is a "BBQ Band," which, in exchange for the privilege of playing on the tour, must prepare food for the bands and crew for the barbecue which is held most evenings. Past "BBQ Bands" have included Dropkick Murphys and "The Fabulous Rudies".[1] Similarly, one band, Animo (formerly DORK) has been permitted for the past four years to play on the tour in exchange for working on the setup crew.
The tour started as a skate punk and third wave ska tour, but later began to feature mostly post-hardcore, pop punk, and metalcore acts. There are also some hardcore and street punk bands, such as the Casualties, the Unseen and Anti-Flag, that still play Warped Tour, as well as older bands that have played the tour numerous times since its inception (Bad Religion, NOFX, etc.)
The Warped Tour was created in 1994 by Kevin Lyman, who got the idea while working on skateboarding shows such as the Vision Skate Escape and Holiday Havoc which included music with skateboarding contests. The Warped name comes from the short-lived Warp Magazine, published by Transworld, which covered surfing, skateboarding, snowboarding, and music.
In 1998, the tour went international, including venues in Australia, Japan, Europe, Canada, and the United States.
In 1999, the tour started off in New Zealand and Australia in the New Year. It then started up again in the United States for the northern hemisphere summer before ending up in Europe.
As well as music, this tour brings many attractions, including a half pipe for skaters and bikers. The tour also features many booths creating a flea market-like atmosphere, having tents for each of the bands to sell merchandise, independent record labels, magazine publishers, non-profit organizations, and sponsors looking to market their products to the tour's audience. Many of the bands will retreat to their tents after their performance in order to meet up with the fans and sign autographs.
In 2006 the tour started the Warped Eco Initiative” (WEI). Ways the tour has changed since 2006: Using Biodiesel to fuel the buses, since 2006 the tour has reduced petroleum by 30%. The tour has a solar stage that is run solely from solar power that host 8-10 performers per show. The catering on the warped has switched to use washable dishes, and silverware. They also use compostable corn, and potato-starch take out boxes. The tour gives out free prizes to kids who volunteer to help recycle.[2]
Starting in 2009, the two main stages will condense into one and bands will play 40 minute sets, as opposed to the traditional 30 minutes across the previous two stages.
While some people decry the tour's rampant commercialism and high concession prices, some defend the changes in the production of the tour through the years. "Warped Tour is a place for teenage kids to go and hear all their favourite bands in one day," says Rob Pasalic, guitarist for the Saint Alvia Cartel. “It wouldn’t make sense for it to be the same tour in 2007 as it was in 1997. These are the bands that kids like, and the tour is smart enough to grow and adapt to that. You still get bands like Bad Religion playing, so it’s not like it’s lost all its roots.”[3]
Joe Queer of The Queers stated that
"You play music because there’s something inside of you that says you have to play music. Now you get bands like Fall Out Boy that are basically created in the studio. The Warped Tour changed it. Fuck it. I just don’t like that shit. All the guys in the bands remind me of the jocks I hated in high school. To me a punk gig is a small sweaty club with the audience right in your face knocking over the mic stand and boogying off the energy."[4]
The band Propagandhi lashes out at the tour in their song "Rock for Sustainable Capitalism", which contains lyrics categorising the tour's bands as "shitty" and criticising the Vans sponsorship due to the Vans company's use of foreign labor.
Brendan Kelly of The Lawrence Arms said that it kills smaller concert venues, since all the big bands go on one tour together. The band alleges that this also caused The Lawrence Arms to get permanently banned from Warped Tour when Brendan Kelly said this on stage. On The Lawrence Arms' 2006 album Oh! Calcutta! there is a song entitled "Warped Summer Extravaganza (Major Excellent)," a reference to the band's experiences on the Warped Tour.
Keith Morris has stated "These kids that are on the Warped Tour, they should have no choice but to go into the military, and go off to some desert somewhere and spend some time in the desert, rather than having some big, ultra mega record company giving them lots of money and paying for their hotels and buses, making sure their hair is trendy, and that they are wearing the proper clothes that all the kids like and wear, and all that fun shit."[5] Morris' band the Circle Jerks would later appear on the 2007 edition of the tour.[6]
A few bands have left the tour due to conflicts they had with the tour or with other bands:
An official Warped Tour compilation CD is released annually by SideOneDummy Records to coincide with the start of the tour. Prior to 1998, the official releases were handled by Vans via Uni Distribution in 1996 and Epitaph Records in 1997 respectively. The compilation includes songs by numerous artists performing on the tour that year. The first few compilations had varying titles, but since 2001 the series has used a standard title with the format "Warped Tour <year> Tour Compilation." In 2002 the compilation expanded onto 2 CDs totalling 50 artists, a format which the series has followed in all subsequent years.
In addition, the digital music service Rhapsody.com has released a regular "Warped Tour Bootleg Series," with each entry focusing on a single artists performing on the tour. Past Bootleg Series artists have included Matchbook Romance, My Chemical Romance, Bedouin Soundclash, MxPx, The Starting Line, Millencolin, Avenged Sevenfold, Gogol Bordello, Motion City Soundtrack, The Casualties, Anti-Flag, Less Than Jake, Rise Against, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, Helmet, and The Academy Is...
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