(Event Update)

Written by: Cody Denning

The rumors about Vans Warped Tour are true; early this week, news broke that the iconic tour would be making a return in 2025. This news all came about when Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman told Pollstar publication, “We have something cooking for 2025.”

Beginning in 1995, the legendary Warped Tour was created by Kevin Lyman and Ray Woodbury, creating a historical tour model. Bringing together the rock community, this tour would feature over 30 bands at most stops, a mobile skate ramp, and so much more musical madness. 1996 marked the first year Vans would sponsor the tour. After year one, Vans has held the spot as the core sponsor of Warped Tour. In 1997, the tour grew to an international level, including venues in Europe, Japan, Canada, and the United States.

By 1999, the tour had reached New Zealand, Australia, and even Hawaii. The format changed over the years and finally settled on the 35-minute set time for the main stage, packing a massive amount of entertainment into an event. Over the years, they developed a system of having multiple stages with multiple bands performing at the same time, something that had never been seen before. This put a boost on the rock music world. Hundreds of bands have performed at Vans Warped Tour, some even began their career on the local stage and grew into incredible acts.
On November 15th, 2017, Kevin Lyman announced that 2018 would be the final year for Vans Warped Tour. Lyman went on to thank the more than 1,700 bands who had performed over the years. Warped Tour did have a 25th-anniversary tour in 2019, with a notable three stops with a three-day event to end it in California.

The looming question of why something so brilliant as Warped Tour came to a sudden end? The answer is simple: division. From the beginning, the tour was about bringing together the bands, even bringing in other genres. When artists started to not get along, or decline invitations, Kevin Lyman felt that it was time to put a cap on the Warped Tour legacy. In a 2019 interview with KERRANG! Inside Track podcast, Lyman broke down the reasons why he declared an end to the tour. To quote,

"Ultimately, when I started to think about winding this down after 25 years, it was, ‘I think we’ve lost the sense of community.’"
"It took a community to make Warped Tour go," he added. "Some of that was self-inflicted... I thought you addressed the fans that complain on Twitter! I was addressing everyone and tried to keep that conversation going, but you realize that you can’t really negotiate, debate, or educate on social media!"

Kevin Lyman goes on to explain more about his decision to stop the tour and state his passion for rock music and his mission to keep it alive.

Fast forward to 2024, it has now been confirmed that Warped Tour will return in 2025; however, the YouTube channel Rock Feed reported, “The Rock Festival will now be overseen by Live Nation, although Festival Founder Kevin Lyman is said to be heavily involved.” Live Nation is owned by Liberty Media Corporation. They also own SiriusXM and a score of other companies. Will we be getting the Warped Tour we know back or something new? Who knows what change this will bring to the landscape of Vans Warped Tour, if any at all? We are excited to see the lineup and tour schedule.

Over the years, Vans Warped Tour has achieved many great accomplishments and provided great things to the community. To highlight some, “The Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands”, donations to countless foundations including $500,000 for relief efforts with Hurricane Katrina. This tour has done it all.

The return of this Vans Warped Tour is nothing shy of historic. We are very excited to see what comes next. We will be keeping a close eye on anything developing and keep you updated. Thank you for reading, stay tuned.

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