The VANS WARPED TOUR, America’s premier music and lifestyle festival now in its 19th year, kicked-off highlights for what to expect this summer at their official press conference and kick-off bash at Club Nokia in downtown Los Angeles March 28, 2013.
If the event was any indication, this tour will once again be the premiere youth culture festival featuring breaking up-and-coming indie talent as well as well as a variety of lifestyle attractions at its traditionally low ticket price.
This year’s theme, the “Best Day Ever” offers up a diverse tour line-up featuring Sleeping With Sirens, We Came As Romans, Motion City Soundtrack, The Wonder Years, Bring Me The Horizon, Reel Big Fish, Crown The Empire, The Story So Far and many more. In addition, festival go-ers will get to experience an expanded Acoustic Basement, which features established and up-and-coming acoustic artists, such as William Beckett, Allison Weiss and The American Scene.
The kick-off party, hosted by comedian Grant Cotter, included performances from Chiodos, Gin Wigmore, New Beat Fund, Big Chocolate, MC Lars, Echosmith, as well as acoustic sets from Craig Owens and Brian Marquis. In addition, fans were treated to very special surprise performances from VANS WARPED TOUR alums Dia Frampton, Juliet Simms and Charlotte Sometimes, who gained success on the NBC hit TV show “The Voice.”
“As I do every year, I really strived to help create lifelong memories and make the Vans Warped Tour the best day of summer for everyone that attends,” said tour founder Kevin Lyman.
In keeping with this theme of the “Best Day Ever,” the VANS WARPED TOUR will once again be a music lovers playground with artists from all genres: rock, punk, pop, hip-hop, folk-punk and reggae. New to the tour this summer is the Spotify Stage, which will showcase such EDM and hip-hop artists as Crizzly, Outasight, Wallpaper, and Stephan Jacobs, to name a few.
What’s so unique about the Vans Warped Tour is that it’s cemented its place in history by bringing punk rock/skate/action sports culture from the underground to the forefront of global youth culture, while at the same time helping those in need and being the first tour to consistently use groundbreaking environmental concepts every year on the road. The Warped Eco Initiatives (WEI) focus on making the tour more environmentally friendly whether it is through eco conscious catering for the artists and crew courtesy of Tada Catering or a solar-powered sound system on the Kevin Says Stage. In addition, the website showcases public transportation options for every tour date and carpool social media apps as well as exotic eco travel contests.
The Warped Tour has undeniably become youth culture’s rite-of-passage in the United States, and it’s on its way to global expansion with Warped Europe announced to commence in November, 2013 with shows in Holland, Austrian, Germany, Switzerland, the UK, and Australia.
In the United States, the 40-date VANS WARPED TOUR 2013 will begin on June 15 in Auburn, WA and finish on August 4 in Houston, TX.
