The Warped Tour will make its last cross-country trek in 2019.
The next Van Warped Tour will be the last.
More specifically, it will be the “final, full cross-country run” for the tour, which began in 1995, founder Kevin Lyman posted today on vanswarpedtour.com.
But it looks like there will be some kind of event — maybe a single-city festival, or a few of them? — in 2019, as Lyman also posted that “I … look forward to what’s to come as we commemorate the tour’s historic 25th anniversary in 2019.”
Warped has also announced its 2018 dates, which will include July 13 at the BB&T Pavilion in Camden, July 14 at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, and July 28 at the Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater in Wantagh, N.Y. Ticket information is not yet available.
Lyman also wrote on the web site that he feels “The Vans Warped Tour has become the community I had always hoped for,” and said more than 1,700 bands have performed at various shows.
He also took the opportunity to praise many of the bands individually, writing:
I have been proud to work with so many artists who have grown to be some of the largest stars in the world. Countless bands have played in hot parking lots and through summer storms for you at some point.
Bands like Quicksand, Sublime, L7, No Use for A Name and No Doubt jumped on in the very first year.
Touring many summers with my friends and peers like – Pennywise, Social Distortion, NOFX, Bad Religion, The Descendents, Less Than Jake, Dropkick Murphy’s, The Bouncing Souls, Rancid, Flogging Molly, Anti-Flag and The Offspring are just some of my fondest memories. More include, having Blink-182 travel on my bus in 1997 when the world opened up to them and made them the superstars they are today.
The Vans Warped Tour was the platform to witness the rise of pop punk with Sum 41, Simple Plan, MXPX, New Found Glory and Good Charlotte.
The birth of Emo – with bands like Thrice, Thursday, The Used, Taking Back Sunday, The Starting Line, Motion City Soundtrack and Jimmy Eat World.
Fast-forward to the summer in 2005 when TRL and Warped Tour helped launch the careers of Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance and Avenged Sevenfold.
I witnessed Warped alumni like The Black Eyed Peas, Katy Perry, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, No Doubt and even Kid Rock play the Super Bowl. I’ve even had the pleasure of seeing Green Day play the Rose Bowl.
