After 24 years, Warped Tour announced that it’ll be calling it quits at the end of 2018.
According to Billboard, numerous factors — including a shrinking pool of bands and declining ticket sales — have led festival founder Kevin Lyman to declare the tour’s 24th year its last.
Lyman released a statement earlier today:
“I have been a very lucky person to have traveled across the country and sometimes around the world as one of the founders and producers of the Vans Warped Tour. Today, with many mixed feelings, I am here to announce that next year will be the final, full cross-country run of the Vans Warped Tour. I sit here reflecting on the tour’s incredible history, what the final run means for our community, and look forward to what’s to come as we commemorate the tour’s historic 25th anniversary in 2019.
In 1995, I had already worked many years in the music business, including spending four summers on the Lollapalooza tour, and I thought, ‘for one summer I would like go out and put on my own show’ mixing music and action sports. With the support of so many people, I have now spent the last 23 summers bringing that show to a city near you. We have brought that show to over 11 million people around the world and watched that same world change while doing so.
I have been proud to work with so many artists who have grown to be some of the largest stars in the world. Countless bands have played in hot parking lots and through summer storms for you at some point.
Bands like Quicksand, Sublime, L7, No Use for A Name and No Doubt jumped on in the very first year.
Touring many summers with my friends and peers like – Pennywise, Social Distortion, NOFX, Bad Religion, The Descendents, Less Than Jake, Dropkick Murphy’s, The Bouncing Souls, Rancid, Flogging Molly, Anti-Flag and The Offspring are just some of my fondest memories. More include, having Blink-182 travel on my bus in 1997 when the world opened up to them and made them the superstars they are today.
The Vans Warped Tour was the platform to witness the rise of pop punk with Sum 41, Simple Plan, MXPX, New Found Glory and Good Charlotte.
The birth of Emo – with bands like Thrice, Thursday, The Used, Taking Back Sunday, The Starting Line, Motion City Soundtrack and Jimmy Eat World.
Fast-forward to the summer in 2005 when TRL and Warped Tour helped launch the careers of Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance and Avenged Sevenfold.
I witnessed Warped alumni like The Black Eyed Peas, Katy Perry, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, No Doubt and even Kid Rock play the Super Bowl. I’ve even had the pleasure of seeing Green Day play the Rose Bowl.
More of Lyman’s statement can be read on Warped Tour’s official site.
If you’re looking to catch Warped Tour’s final summer, here’s where you can do that:
Warped Tour 2018 dates:
Jun 21 Pomona, CA
Jun 22 San Diego, CA
Jun 23 Mountain View, CA
Jun 24 Ventura, CA
Jun 26 Phoenix, AZ
Jun 29 Las Vegas, NV
Jun 30 Salt Lake City, UT
Jul 01 Denver, CO
Jul 03 St/ Louis, MO
Jul 05 Bonner Springs, KS
Jul 06 Dallas, TX
Jul 07 San Antonio, TX
Jul 08 Houston, TX
Jul 10 Nashville, TN
Jul 12 Virginia Beach, VA
Jul 13 Camden, NJ
Jul 14 Holmdel, NJ
Jul 15 Hartford, CT
Jul 16 Pittsburgh, PA
Jul 17 Toronto, ON
Jul 18 Cincinnati, OH
Jul 19 Cuyahoga Falls, OH
Jul 20 Detroit, MI
Jul 21 Chicago, IL
Jul 22 Minneapolis, MN
Jul 23 Milwaukee, WI
Jul 24 Indianapolis, IN
Jul 25 Darien Center, NY
Jul 26 Scranton, PA
Jul 27 Mansfield, MA
Jul 28 Wantagh, NY
Jul 29 Columbia, MD
Jul 31 Charlotte, NC
Aug 01 Atlanta, GA
Aug 03 Orlando, FL
Aug 04 Tampa, FL
Aug 05 West Palm Beach, FL
Photo: warpedtour.com