This past summer, longtime punk and hardcore music fans said goodbye to Warped Tour being a cross-country traveling festival, after entertaining crowds across the nation for 24 summers in a row. However, founder Kevin Lyman never shut down the idea of the festival living on with different principles.
According to The PRP, Lyman has revealed that three cities will host Warped Tour festivals in 2019 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the legendary traveling festival. Lyman posted in a tweet mentioning, “Plans are coming together for @VansWarpedTour 25th – only thing I can say for now since many need to hold vacations dates are June 8 Cleveland, June 29-30 eastcoast, July 20-21 westcoast.”
Though this post doesn’t provide much information, fans can start preparing for a one day festival in Cleveland, along with two-day festivals in unspecified areas within the East Coast and West Coast. For this past Warped Tour, many fans went on social media to complain about Warped Tour not going fully nostalgic in their lineup, to which the Warped Tour responding its difficult to hand-pick the bands requested due to scheduling and other common errors. Since this upcoming festival will be the 25th anniversary, it will be interesting to see if bands make themselves readily available to give the fans what they wanted.
Warped Tour began as a celebration of all things punk and hardcore for a teenage demographic, with the introduction of other genres and subgenres over the years. The cross-country festival helped a lot of bands break out into wider audiences, serving as a first concert/festival experience for many fans while providing a diverse pool music for every attendee. However, in recent years, the festival began to suffer with the demographics shifting into an older and different crowd turnout, leaving behind the young demographic that drove them to financial success. Alongside that, the festival had a shrinkage of bands to choose from, and the summer festival industry shifting from traveling destinations to unique destinations.
As of right now, there is no information on band lineups or specific venues where the festival will be hosted, but hopefully, we receive that information within a few weeks notice. If the festival finds success in the new year, hopefully, Lyman will continue hosting the festival in the upcoming years, just in a few locations.
UPDATE (1/30): Warped Tour has just revealed the venue and location details for the five shows set to celebrate the tour’s 25th anniversary this summer. In a tweet, the official Vans Warped Tour account announced the first show will be at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio on June 8th. Warped Tour will then stop by the east coast in Atlantic City, NJ to perform at Atlantic City Beach on June 29th and 30th, and lastly, the tour will end on the west coast in Mountain View, CA, performing at the Shoreline AMP on July 20th and 21st. For the fans that aren’t concerned with the lineup and just want to celebrate the last (?) Warped Tour, pre-sale tickets go on sale on February 25th. The full lineup and regular sale tickets will be live on March 1st.
In response to a tweet about the stage setup, the official account replied back saying, “Mountain View & Atlantic City will be same Warped Tour vibe, multiple stages, extreme sports, sponsor activations, non profits, etc. Cleveland will be scaled back since it’s a more limited / intimate event – it will be outdoors and have a Warped feel, but with 1 stage.” The Cleveland show will be more intimate as that show will feature a one-time exhibit called “Forever Warped: 25 Years of Vans Warped Tour,” which will celebrate the tour’s history, according to the PRP. The west and east coast stops will have over 50 bands expected to rock out on stage.
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