Warped Tour Future Tour

I was listing to Los Angeles sports radio this afternoon (AM570) and the radio show was broadcasting from Van's HQ in Costa Mesa. They had the head of Van's Steve Van Dorn on the show talking about wrapping up Warped Tour and such. He mentioned that while this year was the last cross country tour, it isn't the end of Warped.

He said that next year Van's is gonna do one big Warped Festival on the West Coast and one on the East Coast.

Never saw this written or talked about anywhere else so thought it was a cool nugget of info

 

I remember Warped’s Facebook mentioning that they were gonna do one last festival next year. I’m very into this. It’d be a fun way to celebrate the 25th anniversary.

Also, if it’s just a single-day thing, I think they have a much better chance of booking older bands that wouldn’t do a full Warped Tour again

 

They've always been very specific in saying "last cross-country tour." From people I've talked to that have an idea of what Kevin thinks like they described the future as "closer to what Punk in Drublic is doing."

 

It would be smart for them to just hit a couple of the bigger vacation type cities on west and east coast that people go go anyways and would plan around the fest (i.e. LA, Las Vegas, NYC, etc.). I know there was plenty of people who planned a trip down to Vegas this year around Warped.

 

I live in NC. I'd probably be willing to travel to Atlanta, Philadelphia, Camden, or Baltimore in terms of big enough places. Probably wouldn't go to NYC or Miami or Orlando. Those are cities I would think Kevin is looking at. My best guess is they do about 8 dates in the span of 3 weeks in July/August.

 

Interesting, this is what I was expecting but I can't wait to hear more.

 

Wonder if a Texas date could be an option

 

Chicago should most def be an option

 

Would be an easier sell if Riot Fest didn't book the same bands.

 

There is very rarely a overlap and with how riot fest is going this year with the roll out there might not be a next year

 

Maybe not band overlap, but def fan overlap. I can def see why they wouldn’t do Chicago.

 

Ok but riot is in September if the Do Chicago they would def have a good turn out Chicago has always been one of the highest selling dates for a long as I remember and this year is on pace to sell out

 

Of course there's an overlap with artists. Looking at the lineup this year, there are like, two dozen acts a slimmed-down Warped Tour would attempt to book.

 

i mean it's pretty obvious they're going to turn it into like a Not Dead Yet or riot fest kind of deal, no?

 

I just hope they run somewhere other than Pomona for SoCal.

 

I've been hoping they just maybe a west coast and east coast mini run, maybe they could have slightly bigger bands that way too.

I never got to come over for Warped (I was meant to go to the Pomona date this year but stuff happened so I couldn't) but I'm possibly gonna be around in the NYC/Philly areas next summer so it would be great to go.

 

I imagine it’ll be at the San Manuel Ampitheater

 

You're probably right. That place is massive, it's just kind of far from most people in LA/OC. Holding out hope they use the new LAFC stadium complex (or take it back to Stubhub Center in Carson).

 

i'd be surprised if they take it outside of the LA area

 

Saw this one coming a while back, given how specific they were about it being the "cross-country trek." If they do it, and it works pretty well, it'd be great to see it keep going.

A few thoughts:

1.) I hope it's a multi-day festival (3 days). This would allow for more bands, but also longer sets.

2.) I'm guessing the line-up will focus on all "eras" of the Warped Tour, but I can see it skewing slightly older than what the tour looked like the last few years. I doubt they'll abandon all of the younger bands, but I can see it looking a lot more like It's Not Dead or Punk in Drublic.

3.) There's a massive hole in the market for something like this. Outside of Riot Fest, I can't really think of any major festival that has a bunch of Warped Tour style acts. And realistically... There's no major rock-oriented festival in the northeast, period. Not sure what east coast market it would wind up in, but I'd be really into this hitting up Massachusetts somewhere.

 

Given the success of some markets when aligned with weekend dates, I think it would be cool if they just did like a collection of 2-day weekend dates across the A-markets -- take a core "tour" set of bands that plays all of the weekend dates, book a few unique 1-off bigger name headliners for each of the weekends to pad the draw, possibly broaden the general festival offerings a bit (maybe an eSports presence, like an updated Nintendo Fusion tour of sorts). Let the core bands do various packages in the smaller markets in between the weekend dates on Mon-Fri.

 

I could see Kevin reproducing what he's done with It's Not Dead but skewing towards Warped bands. A multi-day festival in a handful of major cities would be interesting but it wouldn't surprise me to see him start out with baby steps and do the one day festival.

With Montebello Rockfest filing for bankruptcy protection the day after the 2018 festival and Riot Fest pulling out of Toronto, I'm unsure what demand there is for the multi-day large-scale rock festival in the northeast. Or maybe these are Canada-specific issues. Fat Mike also announced Punk in Drublic shows coming a few Canadian cities (including Toronto) so it will be interesting to see how they do.

 

As I understand it, Rockfest overspent in 2017 and simply didn't make enough money to cover it. But that festival is on the bigger side. Or it was, anyway. I feel like they scaled waaaay back this year. For obvious reasons.

I think there's a demand for it, but I obviously wouldn't anticipate anything much bigger than what Warped Tour is, anyway, in terms of the overall "size" of the bands that would headline. Bigger than the bands they could get for the traveling festival the last few years but not by much. If they put together a unique, special bill over multiple days that appeals to a core audience and offers up more than just a smattering of "scene" bands that are regularly on tour, anyway? I can see it being something people travel to.

It really would have the advantage of being the only festival like it in the U.S.

 

I hope they don't do a multi-day festival. What is most unique about warped is how it is an entire day (but just one day) of bands playing 30 minute sets. I don't want warped to just be another festival like Riot Fest or something of the likes.

What they should do is do a tour of 8-10 dates in the places that have consistently sold the most tickets and you know there is an interest for. Do what you usually do but maybe have some surprises thrown in. No need to make this a 3 day festival or anything like that, we have plenty of those.

 

If they would do san manuel..i'd imagine they'd opt for Five points ampitheater in Irvine instead.