america`s longest running music tour, the vans warped tour has

TEXT BY SHELBY STANGER
AMERICA’S LONGEST RUNNING MUSIC TOUR, THE VANS WARPED TOUR HAS TURNED
THE FORMULA OF LARGE-SCALE ROCK SHOWS ON ITS HEAD WITH FAN ACCESS TO
BANDS, REVERSE DAY CARE FOR KIDS WHO BRING THEIR PARENTS, AND A DOSE OF
SKATEBOARDING AMID THE CHAOS
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T
he Warped Tour is freedom and chaos. It’s running around in
dirt fields, listening to eighty bands in eight hours, and watching skateboarders, motocross riders and BMX athletes perform
amazing tricks. It’s getting in the middle of a moshpit, dying your hair with
Kool-Aid the night before, meeting your crush, and shaking the hands of
your favorite band members. It’s learning about social and environmental
causes, going against the norm or re-defining what normal is, being inspired
to start your own band, and meeting other fans just like you. It’s a backstage pass, a taste of punk rock, and the freedom to just be yourself. The
Warped Tour is Punk Rock Camp and it lasts all summer long.
Every summer for the past 14 years, the doors have opened and thousands of kids rush in, heading straight for a giant blow up set list to see
when and where their favorite bands will play, furiously scribbling stage
names and show times on hands, arms, and each other. Authentic punk
bands provide the main course, with hip-hop, reggae, ska and more recently,
even pop bands sprinkled liberally throughout the tour. There is always the
new wonder band about to explode onto the scene. In the past, Sum 41,
Blink 182, No Doubt and Good Charlotte who were all on tour on the cusp
of fame. Up and coming bands on the bill with groups like the Circle Jerks,
NOFX, Bad Religion, and Pennywise – bands with more roots and years
in punk rock than average age of the audience – are just part of why the
Warped Tour is the longest running music tour in US history.
The Warped Tour’s founder and mastermind is Kevin Lyman, a man
with limitless ambition who began his promotional entrepreneurship by
putting on huge parties for his friends. In college he would rent out frat
houses and hire local bands to play the party. When the beer ran out and
things got chaotic, he’d call the cops on his own events. Growing up in
Southern California, he was also a fan of action sports. He put together
events like Board Aid, the Swatch Impact Tour and the Vision Skate Escape
– events that combined snowboarding and skateboarding with music. These
events made him realize that having live music drew more fans to action
sports events.
KEVIN LYMAN
My idea with the Warped Tour was to make it feel like a
big backyard party. Growing up in Southern California culture, you would go to parties where a band would play in the
garage, and then you’d lean a piece of plywood up against the
wall and guys would be skating off of it. Everyone would hang
out and barbeque. It’s a little more complex now, but if you’re
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a kid and you wander in the Warped Tour, it’s kind of like a
giant playground. It’s like being the county fair of this culture
and it comes to your city once a year.
The first Warped Tour was in 1995. That first year, we had
groups like NOFX and Pennywise who wanted to come on
tour with me. People in the punk rock community embraced
the tour, however it was a tough situation financially and we
needed funding. My ex-partner convinced me Calvin Klein
would be a good sponsor so he went to New York to meet
with them. We even created these PowerPoint presentations
with big CKs on the ramp. There’s always timing to life. My
ex-partner got stuck in a blizzard in New York City and the
same day I got a phone call from someone at Vans saying they
wanted to meet with me about an amateur skate contest.
I’ll never forget that day. I had every intention going to that
meeting to talk to them about the Warped Tour.
“HAVING A COMPANY LIKE VANS THROW DOWN AND DO THE WARPED TOUR
SHOWS KIDS THAT THERE ARE A LOT OF PEOPLE JUST LIKE THEM AND VANS
ARE ONE OF THE ORIGINATORS OF THIS LIFESTYLE.”
Steve Van Doren, VP Of Promotions at Vans, gets along
well with Kevin because both are kids trapped inside men’s
bodies. Looking for a way to create new energy in skateboarding amid a sport and culture that had lost some steam in the
early 90s, Van Doren found the Warped Tour a perfect fit for
Vans.
STEVE VAN DOREN
I had the idea to have an amateur skate contest that went
all over the US and across the globe, but needed someone to
help me. We called Kevin since he had put on many other action sports events. It was in 1996. Kevin came into the office
and told us his idea of having a concert that went around the
country on many different levels. He thought we would draw
a lot more people to our skate event by having live music
as well. Within fifteen minutes we worked out a deal where
we would have Kevin’s concert, but also my amateur skateboarding to go along. We merged together to create the Vans
Warped Tour.
Kurt Soto, Vans’ Music Manager, has literally been to every stop of the
Vans Warped since 1996. He got his start at Vans selling shoes and doing
promotions when he was 15-years-old. Since then, he also managed to go
to at least four live music shows a week. His insight on Vans and the music
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industry has made him a vital part of the Vans Warped Tour.
KURT SOTO
The Vans Warped Tour and Vans was a perfect match because we all came from the same culture. It’s almost a culture
of outcasts. We were involved in skateboarding during a time
when nobody wanted anything to do with skateboarding. We
were involved with snowboarding at a time when nobody
wanted anything to do with snowboarding. We were involved
with all these things -- including punk rock and hip-hop and
music styles that nobody wanted anything to do with, and we
championed them.
KEVIN LYMAN
After that first year with Vans as the title sponsor, the
tour was so successful and other companies tried to make a
big deal and wanted to pay us more money to be a part of it.
But it was one of those things where you can’t just chase the
dollar. I was working with Vans because one, they stepped
up first, but also because of Steve Van Doren. I grew up with
Vans. Every summer, my mom took me to the LA County Fair
and I would buy two pairs of shoes for ten dollars. And the
Van Doren’s fit me for the shoes themselves.
KURT SOTO
The great thing about the tour is that the music is so eclectic. You can see punk, ska, reggae, hip-hop and even pop nowadays. There have been bands from Israel, Mexico, all over Europe and a ton of local acts you’d never know about. The tour
has also helped a ton of bands get huge. Sublime, No Doubt,
Black Eyed Peas, Eminem, Ice-T, Limp Bizkit, Kid Rock and
Good Charlotte were all on tour before they blew up. And the
cost is always about $30 a ticket.
For Tom Delonge, frontman for Angels and Airwaves and vocalist/guitarist for Blink 182, the Vans Warped Tour provided the perfect outlet for
his generation.
“I think that the Warped Tour really put together the first
cultural experiment of the post punker, alternative nation of
kids. Because of that it showed a bunch of individuals there’s
a world that exists only for them and it’s gotten bigger and
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bigger every year. I think this cultural circus is out here because Vans started it back in the day. I got my first pair of
slip-ons when I was a skater listening to punk music. Having
a company like Vans throw down and do the Warped Tour
shows kids that there are a lot of people just like them and
Vans are one of the originators of this lifestyle.”
Fletcher Dregee, the lead singer of Pennywise knows first hand what
makes the Vans Warped Tour unique. His band has played at seven USA
Vans Warped Tours, two in Australia, one in Europe and one in Japan.
“Besides being like summer camp for dysfunctional punk
rockers, athletes and like-minded people, the Vans Warped
Tour is one of the few festivals in town where you can interact
with fans. It’s not some full-locked down tour like the Redding Festival in Europe or the OZ Fest where you can’t even
get back stage. At the Warped Tour, kids are constantly finagling their way back stage, and it always feel like a big party
with adults and kids hanging out together. Every day we’d
wake up in a parking lot, but there was always a new experience to be had.”
The Vans Warped tour depends on big-name bands to draw in crowds,
but it also serves as a launch pad for small acts that will do anything it
takes to play one stop. Andy Williams, the guitarist from Every Time I Die,
has experienced the tour on all fronts – as a fan, a band member just getting
started, and as a tour headliner.
ANDY WILLIAMS
The very first Warped Tour in 1995 came to my tiny
city outside of Buffalo, New York when I was 16 years old.
I skated over to see Quicksand, who was one of my favorite
bands play, and Steve Alba, one of my favorite skaters who
was skateboarding the vert ramp. It was awesome, and at the
time, I had just picked up the guitar and had no aspirations
of ever playing the Warped Tour. Two years later, I went again
as a fan, but knew someone who got me on stage and saw IceT, Suicidal Tendencies, and Sick of it All play, and I was just
blown away and so excited to see those three bands play in
one day.
Then, in 2002, Every Time I Die was more established
we played ten stops on the tour. The first day, we played in
Milwaukee, and the stage was a small little stage right in the
middle of the concession area. Every night, we drove ourselves to the next show. We weren’t a big band so didn’t have
a tour bus with our own bus driver, and we never had proper
info or directions to where the next show was. It was like a
wild goose chase just finding the next show. I also remember
it being so funny because this was the time when Yoohoo was
one of the main sponsors. I remember playing all day and being dehydrated as hell and there was nothing to drink so I just
drank this chocolaty Yoohoo drink all day, and it tasted like
the best thing ever because I was so thirsty. Even though we
were just a small band on a small stage, that year on the tour
really opened doors for us. We met some many people on that
ten-day stretch that we still talk to today.
If you are a headliner and have paid your dues, you will at least have
your own bus and driver to get you to shows. But being a startup band on
the Vans Warped Tour requires a little extra effort that can reap immense
rewards later on. Brandon Ball, the lead singer from a local Los Angeles
Band called Eudora, won a contest that got his band on a tour stop. Going
from a screaming fan to an actual participant of the tour is the epitome of
the ultimate Vans Warped Tour experiences.
BRANDON BALL, EUDORA
I went to my first Warped Tour when I was 15 years old
and going to this festival with all these different bands was
a whirlwind. I remember vividly watching the reaction of the
other kids around me being so stoked and screaming at the
musicians, and I just knew I wanted to have the same effect on
kids. In 2005, I was 21 and we won an online contest to play
the Ernie Ball Stage. Just finding out we got to play one stop
at the tour was the most insane new. Then, this past year we
were asked to play ten stops and we really got to see how the
tour works and how much everyone works their asses off to
make it happen. Being on the tour is such an amazing opportunity because there are thousands of kids who are there to
hear music so you can reach out to so many people. We didn’t
have a tour bus, or a driver so every day we’d have to drive
an RV that gets 6 miles/gallon to the next stop. Some nights
we would have a 12 hour-long drive and we’d have to stay up
all night, then set up our booth, which was usually a quarter
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mile a way from where we parked, as soon as we arrived. But
it was so worth it to hear thousands of kids screaming and a
few hundred fans watching your band. That feeling is such an
adrenaline rush.
The hardest part was paying for gas, so every day before
we would play, we would meet as many fans as possible at
our merch booth and try to get kids to listen to us play and
buy CDs and our merch, bartering with them and throwing
in extra swag every now and then. It’s like being a used car
salesmen, except you are selling your band and the kids are
so stoked to talk to you. Then, we got Steve Van Doren to give
us a box of Vans tees, purses, stickers and wallets and I just
wrote on the box one day, “IF YOU WANT FREE STUFF, FOLLOW ME. IT’S IN THIS BOX.” The first day I did this right before we played, and I waited five minutes to see if it worked.
There were fifteen kids behind me. Five more minutes passed
and we had almost 100 kids and I walked straight to my stage
and threw out the swag while we played. Kids went nuts for
free Vans shit, and it totally worked. Then, every night we’d
hustle and pack up and drive to the next city, maybe eat food,
maybe not; maybe sleep, maybe not.. but fuck it,.. it’s like living the dream.
Skateboarder Mike Frazier has spent 12 summers skateboarding the
vert ramp at the Vans Warped Tour. As an athlete, he experienced the tour
as a professional working, and as a fan getting to hang out with his friends
and watching his favorite bands play all day long.
MIKE FRAZIER
Skating the Warped Tour is a lot different than skating
at an event like X-Games. Doing demos at the Warped Tour
allows us to skate in front of a lot of people who aren’t necessarily exposed to skateboarding. We did demos at a lot of
po-dunk towns in states like Idaho—places where there are
no skateparks or pro skaters, and we were able show a lot of
kids what the sport is all about.
For me, skating on tour has always been my way of giving
back to the sport. That’s how I was exposed to it. I saw it on
TV when I was 12 years-old, and thought it looked so fun,
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that I went out and bought a skateboard. Sometimes there
would be 8,000 kids just watching us at a show, and I am sure
there are some who decided to learn to skate after seeing us.
On a personal level, the Warped Tour is always fun for me
because every summer you skate and hang out with all your
friends who you wouldn’t see all year long. I always looked
forward to seeing guys like Steve Caballero, Neal Hendrix,
and the guys from Pennywise, NOFX and Rancid. There were
a lot of really cool people on tour. Even our bus driver, Ted,
who retired this year at about 70 years old, was amazing. He
drove Jackson Five when they were big, Iced Cube, Rolling
Stone, and all kinds of country bands. He’s done everything
- worked at NASA, drove busses, flew planes, and he’s an insane mechanic. There’s been times when we broke down at 2
am and he grabs a wrench and goes out and fixes whatever is
wrong. When anyone’s bus broke down, they’d call Ted.
Most of the times we skated, we were right in front of one
of the main stages. So, you’d take a run, stop, check the pit
from the top of the 12-foot vert ramp and see 20,000 kids
moshing while watching your favorite bands play. One time,
there were 8,000 kids just watching us skate. Another time,
Kevin arranged it so that the motocross guys launched over
us. And the sports (skating, BMX and motocross) went hand
in hand with the music. I got into punk rock music is by skating backyard ramps and listening to music, so skating on tour
always felt like one of our backyard sessions and the crowd
was always stoked.”
I also got to see a lot funny things happen during shows.
I remember when Eminem was on tour and no one knew he
was. We were in Montreal and people were throwing water
bottles at him. He got up to the microphone and said, “If anyone throws another water bottle, I’m out!” One person threw
another bottle at him, and he just walked off the stage. The
next year he was so big, there was no way anyone could get
him to play Warped Tour. Another year, I remember watching
Sublime play when no one knew who they were either. I also
remember seeing No Doubt on tour when then were small
and now they are untouchable. It was cool to see bands go
from nothing to something that big.”
When the Tour comes to town, the circus unfolds. Instead of bearded
woman and flying trapeze artists, there are musicians, athletes, roadies and
lots of tattoos and hair gel. Everyday life on tour means 650 people travel
on 63 busses, while their equipment and catering rolls in on 17 semi-trucks
and dozens of RVs that follow them. It is called “controlled chaos” because
every day tour organizers take down and set up 10 stages, a vert and miniramp, booths for sponsors and non-profits, and merchandise tents and
equipment for all the bands. Every night, they sleep on bunk beds while bus
drivers or weary band mates drive 500 miles to the next city. Like Groundhog’s Day, the cycle starts all over the next time the sun rises, beginning at
6:00am so they can be set up and ready to open the doors for fans to come
in at noon.
STEVE VAN DOREN
It’s a freak show traveling at nighttime. We’re the circus
and the circus packs up at night and goes 500 miles or so to
the next stop. One of the best parts, though, is everybody
in the pack hangs out until busses leave. The other night,
Fletcher from Pennywise and all these bands hung out after
the show under the new stadium lights in Las Cruces, New
Mexico. We made so much money the year before on that
show, that Kevin bought lights for the stadium area and they
turned them on for us. Kevin bought 60 pounds of chicken
and ribs, and everyone barbequed and hung out until we had
to drive to the next stop.
The after-show barbeque is one of the more infamous Vans Warped Tour
traditions. Every night, after the last band plays, before the busses go to the
next city, a barbeque is set up for the entire crew. It’s a chance for anyone
with a “Sticky” pass or VIP laminate to go hang out with all the athletes,
musicians, sponsors and crew, and for those who missed catering, to get
a decent meal. Fletcher from Pennywise started barbequing after shows.
Soon Fletcher’s informal barbeque grew bigger, and then other bands followed suit. Lagwagon was the first official BBQ band and there has been a
different band every year since. It’s a ton of work for the band to barbeque
for the entire 650 people crew and their guests, but it is also huge chance
for them to be in the spotlight every night in front of all the other bands and
VIPs who are on tour. For those who get
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to go to the barbeque, it’s also the best backstage pass in music and action
sports.
STEVE VAN DOREN
Normally a band will bug Kevin all year long to be able to
get on the tour. If he likes them enough and they bug him
enough, he’ll hire them as the barbeque band. It’s always a
band that has never had a break. In order for them to play
every day, they have to tow behind a giant barbeque and
then fire it up at 7:30pm or 8:00 o’clock at night so it’s ready
at 8:30pm until 11:00pm when the busses leave. They cook
hamburgers, hotdogs, veggie burgers and chicken or whatever else they decide to buy. Kevin gives them a budget to buy
food, but they also have a tip jar where people can pitch in so
there’s even better food the next day. Every night during the
barbeque, a different band plays and sometimes a bunch of
bands will just jam together. There’s often some C-lo or card
or gambling game going on between the athletes and musicians or something crazy like the other night when we had
a Sumo wresting tournament. There’s been motocross riders who decide to ride their 50s and jump over the fire pit
and there’s always somebody with a sticky pass who makes a
scene.
The Vans Warped Tour is different from all other tours because it is driven by youth culture. A ticket to Vans Warped Tour is like getting a backstage
pass. Every year, there’s always a handful of kids with a lot of ambition
behind a good cause whether it be their band, punk ‘zine or button making
company that are always welcomed to jump on tour. Fans share notes via
social networks online before actual tour dates. Athletes get on stage and
sing sets with their favorite musicians. Bands invite fans from the audience
to come backstage. Vice Presidents, lead singers and roadies all eat the same
food. And everyone stands in line to use a shower at the end of the day.
lose that connection with their fans very quickly, especially
when they don’t have that hit record. But if a band member
signs something or shakes some kid’s hand, that kid is more
likely to say, ‘Hey, I wanna’ go back and see Tom from Blink
when they come back through town or whomever because I
met him. I met him in 1996.”
FLETCHER
There’s been so many crazy times on Warped Tour. It’s a
wild ride and it never gets old. What’s cool is the founder,
Kevin, is like the Uncle that will float you a beer every now
and then. He is always there to control the chaos, but he’s
one of the boys dancing on stage, barbequing and having a
good time. You’ll never see him crunching numbers. And with
Steve, he’s the guy who’s never going to grow up. He and Kurt
are so supportive. You’ll always see Steve flipping burgers for
fans or doing something off the wall, like buying me a four
foot long lobster in Maine and bringing it to me with a name
tag that says my name on it. He and Kevin are the guys who
bought food and beer when I wanted to reenact a scene from
an old Sex Pistols movie by renting a boat on the Sydney Harbor and cramming it with 180 Warped Tour people, causing
complete mayhem and having the cops show up. The Vans
Warped Tour is unparalleled and more unmatched than any
other festival out there. There is nothing as cool or as fun as
it anywhere. End of story.
KEVIN LYMAN
“When there’s no personal connection, there’s no success.
And that’s where Vans came from -- the personal connection
of a guy (Steve Van Doren) who ran out and barbequed at
skate parks, put on skate demos at schools or just went out of
the way when there were natural disasters to make sure people had shoes. For the bands, if they are not careful, they’ll
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