When you think about it, it's crazy that the Warped Tour was still happening. The traveling festival tour has crossed North America every summer since 1995. It's been there for the explosions of '90s pop-punk and ska-punk and '00s MySpace emo, and it's been an early proving ground for eventual superstars like Blink-182, Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, Eminem, and Katy Perry. But next summer, the Warped Tour will cross America for the final time. Festival founder Kevin Lyman made the announcement on Twitter.
FOREVER WARPED :: 2018 will be the final, full cross-country run of the Vans Warped Tour.
ℹ️ https://t.co/yfY8C1XxFo#foreverwarped #vanswarpedtour #warpedtour pic.twitter.com/oWboCWVhWr— Vans Warped Tour (@VansWarpedTour) November 15, 2017
Billboard reports that "an evolving summer festival industry, a shrinking pool of bands, and declining ticket sales amongst its teenage demographic" all helped lead to the end of the tour. Lyman also tells the magazine, "I'm just tired."
The Warped Tour was a formative early concert experience for a lot of people, myself included. (I think I went to three of them, starting in 1996, the festival's second year.) It's led to a lot of great experiences. It's also arguably been a poisonous influence. Among musicians, the Warped Tour is infamous for being a low-paying gig. And in recent years, it's been in the news for troubling things like artists accused of sexual misconduct and letting a pro-life organization set up a tent.
