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 over 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 12:00 noon. and end at 9:00 p.m. with around four bands playing at once. A clever venue set-up generally prevents music from other stages 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 has branched out to include alternative rock, metalcore, and hip hop.

History

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 half pipes and ramps for skaters and bikers, though the amounts of half-pipes and extreme sports have declined over the years, and in 2006, there is only one half-pipe. The primary event now is the music. 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 and magazine publishers, 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 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 $60 Reading Festival or $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 and out-performing similar tours like the Ozzfest. On top of selling out venues, a DVD about the Warped Tour experience, Wake Up Screaming^{^*}, was created after the 2005 tour. An earlier DVD, Punk Rock Holocaust, a slasher picture, was filmed principally at the 2003 Warped Tour.

Despite the chaotic atmosphere, the Tour is actually very well organized by Lyman as Tour Producer--as might be expected when a large tour involving hundreds of people runs for two months, moving up to 500 miles a night in a large convoy of buses, trucks, and other vehicles.

Random Notes and Facts

Every year there is a "BBQ Band," where in exchange of letting the band play, they have to cook everyone food for the bands at night.^{^*} Such bands are compensated by mandatory daily "tips". 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 felt the indoor venue and high price for refreshments were unfair.^{^*} Guttermouth was "kicked off" in the middle of the 2004 tour for repeatedly antagonizing and making fun of Warped and the bands playing it. Some fans called foul, since Warped favorites like The Vandals and NOFX do that all the time as well, albeit not as harshly. It was later stated on Guttermouth's website by the singer Mark Adkins (the one who informed the public that they were "kicked off") that the band actually departed the tour of their own free will due to personal reasons and apologized to Kevin Lyman. ^{^*}

On the 2005 Calgary date, the singer of Calentura alleged that she had been raped.^{^*}. No charges were brought.

Following the San Diego show in 2006, Scary Kids Scaring Kids was suspended from the tour for one show for lending their laminate passes to friends.

The unsigned band Dork has been permitted to play on the tours in 2004 through 2006 by agreeing to work on the setup crew, setting up the stages. The Warped Tour web site has made it clear this deal is not open to other bands.

Bands on the 2006 Warped Tour

Further reference

Warped Book: Tales of Freedom & Psychotic Ambition by Heidi Siegmund Cuda ISBN 0972112707

External links

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Warped Tour

History

Random Notes and Facts

Bands on the 2006 Warped Tour

Further reference

External links