The Warped Tour is back this year, after being gone for more than five years, but it could be BACK back, “maybe,” according to founder Kevin Lyman.
During a recent episode of the Late for Load In podcast, Lyman was discussing the Warped Tour 30th anniversary shows, which will take place later this year in Washington, D.C., Long Beach, California, and Orlando, Florida. Regarding whether or not the Warped Tour could come back in a more extensive capacity beyond these three shows, Lyman did not rule anything out.
“I think we’ll end up doing, you know, people are pretty excited [that] ‘Warped’ is coming back as a brand right now. Will it go on? We think so, maybe, who knows? But you know what? It’s been fun to come back and kind of show that I can do it this way, and hopefully we give everyone a great show,” Lyman said. “And I think we are, I mean, you look at that lineup, and right when it comes out, it’s piece[meal]… I like how we roll it out, you gotta have a strong will to do that, you know.
He went on to add: “And then the people I’m working with even were like, ‘Oh my God, you know, you [are getting] negative comments.’ I go, ‘Well, if you don’t get a negative comment in our world, then you’re not successful.’ And then as that lineup started coalescing, as we were announcing more bands, and then I’m in the background watching those videos getting viewed.
“And you could take the smallest band on that lineup, and, you know, I’m just they’re not the smallest, but there was a young girl named Megg who’s playing in Long Beach,” Lyman continued, noting that this version of Warped Tour will feature some completely unknown artists. “She basically was funny. She was sending me these videos about why she should be on ‘Warped Tour’. I listened to her music. She’s got no manager, she got no record label. I put her on.”
“She’s gonna put on a great show,” Lyman then offered. “But I watched her video, and it has 171,000 views for her announcement. I can’t think that if there’s 171,000 views, she’s probably gonna have 500 or a thousand people watching her in Long Beach. That could kick off her career. Pulling all those numbers on those [artist announce] videos, just, they’ve been viewed like 25 million dimes or something.”
Personally, I hope the Warped Tour shows are enough of a success to make it worth Lyman and his team cultivating more fests next year, and/or maybe even do a mini-touring run. I think with two of the shows already selling out (Orlando tickets are still available), plus how successful the When We Were Young and Sick New World festivals have been the past few years, it feels like people are desperate for these kinds of throwback emo/punk/metal concert experiences.
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