In it’s 12th year, American’s largest and longest running music tour, the Vans Warped Tour, created by promoter genius Kevin Lyman (who was a recent keynote speaker at the IGN Sponsorship Conference), has just announced it’s line-up of bands for this summer’s tour. Starting June 14, 02006, in Columbia, Maryland, and ending August 13, in Montreal, more than 40 bands will play on 6 stages within an 8-hour time period throughout 48 dates. This summer’s line-up includes Thursday, Joan Jett and the Black Hearts, Senses Fail, AFI, Bad Religion, Bouncing Souls, Less than Jake NOFX, Motion City Soundtrack, Rise Against, The Academy Is, Underoath, Valiant Thorr, AntiFlag, plus 30 more.
To give you an indication of just how massive and influential this tour is on American youth culture, last year more than 750,000, 13-25-year-olds came to Warped. It was the most successful and biggest tour of the year. And it is often a band that’s featured on this tour, that, through word-of-mouth, fan input to warpedtour.com, and MySpace, blow-up within a few months of touring. Great examples include My Chemical Romance, Hawthorne Heights, and Fall-Out Boy. Previously this list has included Blink 182, Green Day, Pennywise, Rancid, 311, and Bad Religion. And in certain markets in the past, the Warped Tour has also hosted performances by No Doubt, Eminem, and the Deftones—all helping to get these artists in front of the new generation of listeners at the time.
Even if you haven’t heard of the bands on tour this year, it’s worth introducing yourself to them by checking them out online, and tracking the news associated with them, because many will also be influencing not only new music sounds, but also street fashion trends, hairstyles, accessories, and attitudes in the near future. It’s inevitable when you have a tour with as passionate of followers as the Vans Warped Tour. As in years past, Label Networks will be reporting from the tour with the latest Warped updates from across the country this summer so stay tuned for more insider info.
Top sponsors for the Vans Warped Tour 02006 include, presenting sponsor Cingular, Vans, Monster Energy Drink, Hasbro, Volcom, Fuse TV, Hurley, Guitar Center, Alternative Press, The Truth, Playstation, MySpace, Major League Baseball, Energizer, Hot Topic, ElleGirl, Ernie Ball, and Circuit City.
