Warped Tour
Warped Tour is a touring punk music and extreme sports festival. The skateboarding shoe manufacturer Vans has sponsored the tour every year since 1995, so it is often referred to as the Vans Warped Tour.
In recent years, The Warped Tour has featured over 100 bands per show, each playing for only 30 minutes over approximately ten different stages.
History
The Warped Tour was created in 1994 by Kevin Lyman. Lyman 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. It tried to combine surfing, skateboarding, snowboarding, and music into one glossy package.
In 1998, the tour went international including venues in Australia, Japan and Europe as well as the United States.
The 1999 tour started off in New Zealand and Australia in the New Year. Then starting up again in the USA for the northern hemisphere summer before ending up in Europe.
As well as music, this tour brings many attractions including half pipes and ramps for skating and bikers. The tour also features many booths creating a flea-market like atmosphere, with a tent from each band (to sell their own merchandise) along with independent record labels, non-profit organizations, and sponsors looking to market their products and brands to the tour's audience.
Sponsors are a vital part of the Vans Warped Tour as the cash infusion they provide subsidizes many of the tours expenses, allowing ticket prices to be kept relatively low when compared to similar tours.
As one of the most successful North American concert tours, The Vans Warped Tour continues to prosper, selling over 500,000 tickets a year and out-performing similar tours like the Ozzfest.
Bands on the 2006 Warped Tour
- The Academy Is...
- Against Me!
- Aiden
- Amber Pacific
- Anti-Flag
- Armor For Sleep
- TheAudition
- Billy Talent
- Bouncing Souls
- boysetsfire
- The Casualties
- Chiodos
- The Classic Crime
- Comeback Kid
- The Confession
- Eighteen Visions
- Emery
- Every Time I Die
- From First To Last
- The Fully Down
- Gatsby's American Dream
- Greeley Estates
- He Is Legend
- hellogoodbye
- I Am The Avalanche
- It Dies Today
- Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
- June
- Less Than Jake
- The Living End
- Misery Signals
- Motion City Soundtrack
- NOFX
- Over It
- Paramore
- The Pink Spiders
- Pistolita
- Plain White T's
- Reggie and the Full Effect
- Remembering Never
- Rise Against
- Riverboat Gamblers
- Saves The Day
- Senses Fail
- Silverstein
- So They Say
- The Stiletto Formal
- Thursday
- Underoath
- Valient Thorr
Further reference
- Warped Book: Tales of Freedom & Psychotic Ambition by Heidi Siegmund Cuda ISBN 0972112707