It appears that 2025 may see the return of the ‘Vans Warped Tour‘. That once annual touring festival previously served as the launching pad for numerous stars in the world of music, in particular among the punk and pop-punk scenes. Citing “multiple sources familiar with the matter”, Rock Feed are reporting that the fest will be resurrected in 2025. Rumors of the fest making a comeback as a limited series of bicoastal destination festivals have sprung up several times over the years, though they have yet to be realized.
Rock Feed report that Live Nation will be overseeing the return of the festival, with ‘Warped Tour‘ founder Kevin Lyman said to actively be involved. Those hoping for a full-fledged return to the festival’s previous traveling incarnation will likely be left disappointed though, as the current costs associated with touring and putting on an event of that scale are largely financially unfeasible in the present day.
When the festival originally closed up shop back in 2018, Lyman commented at length on why he decided to bring the festival to an end after over two decades. According to Lyman, a fractured culture of elitism regarding the festival began to take hold not only among bands, but also through concertgoers attending the festival. Lyman also cited his missteps in booking YouTubers in a bid to entice younger fans to attend in also taking a toll on the festival at the time.
As Lyman told Kerrang! in 2019:
“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.’
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 to young people to get exposed to this music, to maybe support independent music for a longer time.”
He ultimately added:
“Everyone looked at me like ‘He stopped ‘Warped Tour” and in our business we always look at it as money. First thing they go to: money. ‘He’s not making any money.’ And that was not it. That was not it. ‘Warped Tour‘ was not feeding my soul and my heart as much as you put in. Because ‘Warped Tour‘ was 90% about the community and 10% about the money, it really was.
And some people I’m sure will say bullshit, but it’s true. I built that because I wanted to keep people coming to see live music. I wanted to build a community… And I’d lost that, that spirit was taken out of me for multiple reasons.”
While 2018 saw the traveling incarnation of the ‘Warped Tour‘ come to an end, 2019 saw the festival take place in a trio of cities (Atlantic City, Cleveland & Mountain View) in celebration of the festival’s 25th anniversary. Since then, that once prominent summer institution has lain dormant.
