Warped Tour
Warped Tour is a touring music and
extreme sports festival. The skateboarding shoe manufacturer
Vans has sponsored the tour every year since 1995 and is often referred to as the
Vans Warped Tour.
In recent years, the Warped Tour has featured as many as 100 bands per show. The venue size ranges from 10,000 to 30,000. The bands play for 30 minutes over approximately 10 different stages, although the biggest bands play the two "Main" stages. A typical day would have bands starting at 11:00am and end at 9:00 p.m. with several bands playing at once. The area is set up to prevent music from one stage disrupting other active stages. One band, by fan vote, is allowed to play ten extra minutes at each show.
The tour started as a
punk rock and
ska tour, but in recent years has featured mostly
Pop punk and
alternative rock acts.
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—it tried to combine surfing, skateboarding, snowboarding, and music into one glossy package.
In
1998, the tour went international—including venues in
Australia,
Japan,
Europe, and the
United States.
The
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 , though the focus on extreme sports has declined over the years. 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.
Sponsors are a vital part of the Vans Warped Tour as the revenue they provide subsidizes many of the tour's expenses—allowing ticket prices to be kept relatively low when compared to similar tours. The average ticket price is $25, considerably lower than the average $45
Ozzfest ticket.
As one of the most successful North American concert tours, The Vans Warped Tour continues to prosper selling over 500,000 tickets a year. A DVD about the Warped Tour experience,
Wake Up Screaming[1], was created after the 2005 tour. Also
Punk Rock Holocaust, a slasher picture, was filmed at the 2003 Warped Tour.
*
Warped Book: Tales of Freedom & Psychotic Ambition by Heidi Siegmund Cuda ISBN 0972112707
*Every year there is a "BBQ Band," where in exchange of letting the band play, they have to cook food for the bands at night.
[2] *At the
Houston, Texas show in
1998, members of
NOFX threw the money they made from the show ($5,000) in one dollar bills into the crowd because they didn't like the sound in the venue.
[3]*On the 2005
Calgary date, the singer of Calentura alleged that she had been raped.
[4]. No arrests have resulted.* Warped Tour
* Warped Tour Guide, Comprehensive guide to the Warped tour. Also known as Warped2006.com
* Warped Tour Lens on Squidoo
* Unofficial Warped Tour Page
* Unofficial Parent's Guide to Warped Tour
* Wake Up Screaming
* Fan pics from 2006
