Summer music tour season in North America is more crowded than ever before as bands and sponsors use tours to not only get the word out about who they are, but to create revenue through the sales of merch, tickets, and CDs. Some sponsorship programs, like on the Vans Warped Tour, offer up original activities to reach youth culture whereas others use a mix of sports and music such as the Zumiez Couch Tour, and others simply attract an audience based solely on the mix of the band line-up such as Ozzfest.

Here’s a quick round-up of who’s on what tours and the sponsors using music to reach the marketplace this summer:

Honda Civic Tour: Featuring Fall Out Boy, The Academy Is (two bands formerly from the Vans Warped Tour), 4x4, Paul Wall, among others. Having Paul Wall throws in an interesting mix to this tour which will attract a different type of crowd to the emo, punk rock line-up, and now rap/hip-hop. Sponsors include KROQ, tickets through Live Nation, Honda Civic Tour dates from May 11-July 2. Sponsorship programs include a sweepstakes to win a customized Fall Out Boy Civic Hybrid car. They also have a Long Song Contest where you create song titles, and a Lip Sinking contest. Honda is clearly the main sponsor and Fall Out Boy the main band featured.

Projekt Revolution: Multiple stages featuring Linkin Park, My Chemical Romance, Taking Back Sunday, HIM, Placebo, Julien-K, The Bled, among others. Most top bands were once top bands from the Vans Warped Tour. And many sponsors are or were from the Vans Warped Tour including Major League Baseball, Halo 3, and Monster. Other sponsors include Etnies which indicates a strong skate-influenced audience. Tickets are through Live Nation. Tour is from July 13-September 3.

Ozzfest: This tour has gotten a lot of hype because their tickets were free—but sold through sponsors’ websites. Two stages featuring the Monster Energy Drink main stage with Ozzy Osbourne, Lamb of God, Static X, and the 2^nd stage called Jagermusic.com stage with Hatebreed, Behemoth, In this Moment. The line-up means this is a metal fest and a slightly older crowd than the other tours. Tickets are through Live Nation and sponsors including Monster, Jagermusic, F.Y.E., JVC, Hustler Lingerie. Tour dates are July 12-August 30.

Family Values Tour: Started in 1998 by Korn and The Firm, this tour still highlights Korn, plus this year, Evanescence, Hellyeah, Atreyu, Flyleaf, among others. This is a hard rock tour running from July 20-September 2. Tickets through Live Nation. The tour mainly pushes merch and CD’s and the bands versus sponsor interaction.

Vans Warped Tour: In its Lucky 13^th year, this tour is the Mother of all summer tours featuring the largest line-up of bands, stages, and sponsors. It’s also the longest running from June 29-August 25^th with the least number of days off. Featured bands include As I Lay Dying, The Almost, Bad Religion, Circa Survive, Coheed & Cambria, Hawthorne Heights, Paramore, Meg and Dia, The Used, Yellowcard The Vandals, among others. Known for featuring new and up-and-coming bands, of which 2-3 become “break-out” bands of the summer and move on to major fame, such as in the past, No Doubt, Linkin Park, and My Chemical Romance. This tour attracts 13-20-year-olds mostly and fans of punk, emo, screamo, rock. Sponsor programs include:

• AT&T Mobility: Skip the Line passes at the gate if you flash your phone and are using AT&T; Special Updates and daily performance schedule (because the band line-ups change daily) via text messages; AT&T Signing Stage for top bands; Reverse Daycare Tent to drop off your parents
• Skullcandy Mix Tent: Customized headphones and ear caps on display and sold at the Customization Station with different earflaps featuring favorite bands.
• Guitar Hero II video game station with a Gibson-shaped X-Plorer guitar controller—this is with Xbox
• MySpace and SNOCAP Tent including: meet and greets with bands in the tent, featured artist with songs downloadable on site, raffles, and give-aways in the tent
• Fuse Warped Wednesdays with the latest dose of news and music from the tour
• Vans Amateur Mini-Ramp Skate Jam with Lost Energy Drink featuring 20-25 local hot pre-qualified skaters
• Comics including Jimmy Mar, Richie Stratton, Mustafa, Mack Lindsay
• All Girl Skate Jam at select dates featuring a skateboarding contest for girls
• Energizer Titanium Technology Encore Music Competition where a band gets chosen to perform 10 minutes longer
• Truth anti-smoking campaign with DJ’s and videos
• Guitar Center Web Lab for artists and journalists to get online and top guitar techs for the bands
• Alternative Press magazine for tour guides and band autograph signings
• Earth Echo with awareness tests
• Hurley Stage featuring a list of smaller up-and-coming bands—always a hot place to hang out and hear new music
• Hot Topic Kevin Says Stage featuring undiscovered bands
• Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands Stage in it’s 11^th year featuring slightly larger bands
• Girlz Garage tent with The Shoe Gallery of customized sneakers, The Chop Shop where fans can create their own T-shirts, Keep-a-Breast charity for increasing awareness about breast cancer and early detection
• Lucha Libre USA Mexican Wrestling
• Bros. Grim Side Show featuring novel entertainers and human oddities
• Smartpunk.com stage with up-and-coming punk bands
• Downloadpunk.com for fans to download music onsite
• Take Action! Tents featuring various non-profits
• T.J. Martell Foundation Charity Ticket Auction to raise funds for Leukemia, Cancer, and AIDS research
• Locker Box check in area for your stuff, including all the merch you buy on-site
• Band merch tents and various clothing tents—Warped has become a key shopping destination for many young people especially for unique T-shirts and accessories

Volcom Tour: They used to have a sponsored stage on the Vans Warped and still have some Volcom bands on Warped, but now have their own tour featuring their own bands such as Valient Thor, Riverboat Gamblers, ASG, and Totimoshi. Tour dates run from July 31-September 22. In addition, this summer Volcom also has their Crustaceous Surf tour for up-and-coming surfers and Volcomics featuring the launch of their comic books.

Zumiez Couth Tour: Featuring a massive skateboarding component as well as music line-up, this tour continues to gain momentum and sponsors predominately associated with skateboarding. Bands include Totimopshi, Senses Fail, The Bled, Saves the Day. Sponsors include Zumiez, Circa, Element, Emerica, Flip, Vans, Volcom, Boost Mobile, Jones Soda, Skull Candy, and Spy Optics, among others. Tour dates from June 2-June 30.