Warped Tour, also known as Vans Warped Tour - Vans being the festival's main sponsor - is reportedly set to make a comeback in 2025, after a hiatus since 2019, when the last edition was held. The news was first announced on the YouTube rock news channel Rock Feed, which is quoted below from Forbes here:
"According to multiple sources familiar with the matter, Warped Tour will celebrate its anniversary with a series of festivals next year when Warped Tour returns in 2025. The rock festival will now be overseen by Live Nation, although Festival founder Kevin Lyman is said to be heavily involved. A request for comment from Live Nation was not returned."
No further information has been made available regarding the reported comeback so far. The touring festival was considered to be the largest touring festival in the US when it was last held.
Warped Tour history and downfall
The festival was founded in 1995 and quickly established itself as a touring festival of note, attracting attention of the shoemaker Vans, who became their main sponsor. The festival started expanding from 1997, when it visited venues across Europe, Japan and more.
From 1999, the festival visited Australia, New Zealand and the US State of Hawaii. They would continue to visit Australia till 2002, when the festival became domestic only again. It was only in 2012 that the festival would again visit an international venue, visiting London that year and in 2015 as well.
Throughout its history, the festival featured artists such as Bad Rabbits, Chelsea Grin, T.S.O.L., Bebe Rexha, Sleeping with Sirens, and Limp Bizkit, among many others.The festival released an official compilation album each year from 1996 to 2018, usually titled the Warped Tour 2001 Tour Compilation and so on. In the early years, these albums were also called Vans Warped Music Sampler 1996, Vans Warped Tour '97 Presents Punk-O-Rama Vol. 2.1, A Compilation of Warped Music, A Compilation of Warped Music II, and World Warped III Live.
Kevin Lymans, the founder of the festival, elaborated on the closure of the festival in 2019 in an interview with Kerrang!, here quoted from the Metal Injection article published on September 12, 2024:
"It got very frustrating around 2017. I was challenged by the fractured fan base, the fractured band base, the sense of community and what I got involved in this for, and what brought me into punk rock that I said 'you know, if it's changed this much, maybe it's time for me to wind this thing down."
The founder and manager continued:
"2017, no matter who I put up, it was like 'F that band, F that band, where's this band?' It was just like, what happened to the acceptance of music and that love of music? And I realized that we had pushed the audience down to a young level. Warped got known as a young [tour.] But I did that because I wanted young people to get exposed to this music, to maybe support independent music for a longer time."
The festival is recognized for being a springboard for up and coming artists. Some of the artists who would later become world famous started gaining traction after performing in a Warped Tour edition. These artists include Katy Perry, Sum 41, The Black Eyed Peas and more.
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