Get Warped!

Ahh springtime again! And what comes after spring? Hopefully, you recognize summer as the next step in the process, which brings me to today's topic, one of my favorite and highly anticipated summer music festivals, Warped Tour.

Warped tour is a summer festival featuring a wonderful mixture of genres such as post-hardcore, ska, alternative, metalcore, reggae, hip hop, electronicore, and pop-rock. It was dreamed up and founded in 1994 by Kevin Lyman, SideOneDummy Records partner and producer of the Taste of Chaos
 and Mayhem Tours. Originally the tour was created as a skate punk/ska tour, but in more recent years they have been letting a multitude of genres on the tour. Other than music, the tour features some extreme sports and is and has been sponsored by, but not limited to, the skateboarding and shoe company Vans. People shorten the name to Warped Tour, but technically it is called the Vans Warped Tour (tomato, tomato, right?).  It is also flea market-esque, with all of the bands and other vendors selling anything from food to instruments.

Going to Warped Tour is something that must be prepared for. It is a gritty, sweaty, and extremely hot all day event (11am-9pm), usually featuring 100+ bands across 10 or so stages. Everyone plays at once since there are so many acts and only 10 stages, so it's always a tough choice to pick who you want to see, especially if they're playing at the same time. Trust me, getting from one stage to another can be a battle! But the beauty of it is, you can pretty much see all of your favorite bands in one day.

Like I said, Warped Tour has been one of my favorite events since I started going in 2005. My best friend and I make it a yearly tradition, although we did miss last years tour due to an unimpressive lineup, in our opinion. But this year, I am more pleased with the bands, and the lineup isn't even complete yet! I am going to make it a point to see 3OH!3, Attack Attack!, Family Force 5, Foxy Shazam, I Set My Friends on Fire, and The Devil Wears Prada. The full tour schedule can be found here. Don't be scared off by the heat and the hoards of hardcore kids, Warped Tour is a must for your summer!