Students Experience Vans Warped Tour Before Summer Ends
With music blaring and hundreds of people crowding around them, fans of all ages sang along with their favorite bands on July 27 at Vans Warped Tour at the Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre in Maryland Heights, Missouri.
Doors for the outdoor concert opened at 11 a.m, and the music did not end until 9 p.m. Bands from all over the country toured in cities all across America as part of the tour. Not every band performed for the entire tour; however, the Maryland Heights show hosted bands such as Falling in Reverse, 3OH!3, Sleeping with Sirens, Ghost Town, Good Charlotte, Knuckle Puck, Mayday Parade, Real Friends, State Champs, Yellowcard, The Story So Far, and We The Kings. Many of these bands fall into the genre of punk or alternative rock.
“My favorite set was Yellowcard because they are my favorite band of all time, and it was their last tour as a band, which is very sad,” said Parkway North senior Paige Ferguson, who attended the festival.
The concert is large and has seven different stages, so that multiple bands can perform at one time. “The bands get really involved with the crowds because, with all the different stages going on at once, the people in front of a certain stage are truly there for that band,” said Ferguson. “You can totally tell how much the band appreciates and truly loves their fans.”
What makes Warped Tour different from other festivals is the way they run the specifics of their festival. They do not sell backstage passes, which can only be obtained through donations to charity and donating blood through Music Saves Lives fundraisers. Warped Tour also has free water, provided by CoolGear, for people attending, and a Slip and Slide to help cool down guests, as well as shaded tents.
Warped Tour has lots of sponsors, such as Journeys, Monster Energy, CoolGear, PETA, Twix, Lyft, and more. Many of the sponsors had tents with free samples and prizes for attendees to visit in between shows. The tents also housed meet and greets and acoustic performances with bands throughout the day. To keep track of all of the events going on, attendees downloaded the Vans Warped Tour app to help them stay updated.
“Warped Tour [has] a very accepting community and everyone is pretty much your best friend for the day,” said Ferguson. “Other concert festivals are varied with the genres they play, but Warped Tour is all alternative [or] punk rock music, so everyone who goes is super into that music style.”
This year was Warped Tour’s 21st anniversary, since it was started by Kevin Lyman in 1995. On average, the tour attracts around 750,000 people every year and is the longest running North American festival concert tour. Warped Tour has been credited to bringing many unknown bands and artists into the spotlight, such as Blink-182, Paramore, Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, and Katy Perry.
by Lauren Sparks, editor-in-chief