The End of an Era

In 2019, the Vans Warped Tour will mark its 25th anniversary. Sadly, this summer will be the last year the tour will run. Warped changed me as a person, and it definitely kept me going throughout the school year.

As a big fan of music I begged my mom to take me to Warped Tour, she never had been to a music festival so neither of us had an idea of what to expect. That day in the middle of the summer with my best friend is still so rememberable. The place was alive, I was 14 in a big place with eccentric characters that I’ve never met before. During one set, some random lady high-fived me because of my Misfits tank top as she ran out of a mosh. It was something I can never forget; for the first time I wasn’t alone in a sea of people. I remember the beautiful Jersey sunset during the final songs, singing along to my favorite bands my voice was shot for the next three days afterwords.

We went to the same venue the next year. Fun fact, we were watching the live video of the lineup while freezing outside a venue in Philly while waiting to get in to see Bring Me The Horizon. The one thing I did wrong at warped this year was, I didn’t eat. In the middle of a mosh pit I felt like crying, I was shaking and I had no clue why. The band came on, but I couldn’t focus, I was too busy trying not to fall and pass out. Inside the pit, it was easily 100° and not eating was definitely a bad choice. Luckily enough, I was with someone who saw me about to pass out and helped me out. I had already seen the band once before, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t bummed to go sit down and not be in the front row. I was mad at first, but knew I would have got super injured if I stayed in that pit. We sat the remaining time, there weren’t many bands after that so we just sat in the seated pavilion. That’s the great thing about the Camden show, the seats. Most of the time you want to be in the pits but the seats are a good option too. I finally got to see NeckDeep play my favorite song, December. If anyone was at the New Jersey show and saw a girl flipping out in the seats to NeckDeep, that was me. It started to downpour but the band played on. Gwar was somewhere playing in the rain, yet we were all tired and with my little spell of almost passing out we decided to call it a day.

I was having one of the worst days ever when I got the news that Warped Tour was ending. I felt defeated, I felt as if my heart cracked in two. The bands I saw on warped all motivated me to start my own band. I went home and told my best friend we needed to make it. Everything about it was so liberating, it felt like the music helped me breathe, took my battles and fought it for me. I wanted everyone to feel that when we played. Warped Tour was the dream, me and my best friend talked about playing everyday. We dreamed of playing beside our favorite bands and having the fans hop around and go crazy to us too. There will be other festivals, but none of them will ever top Warped in my mind. Although warped is ending, it’s forever in our hearts. As we speak of the fun times we had and future generations ask what Warped is we can forever be grateful we lived in a time where the summers shined a little brighter and rocked a little louder.

Forever Warped