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Vans Warped Tour retirement is a hoax

Travis+Barker+of+Blink+182+performs+on+day+two+at+Lollapalooza+in+Grant+Park+on+Friday%2C+Aug+4%2C+2017+in+Chicago.+%28Photo+by+Rob+Grabowski%2FInvision%2FAP%29
Travis Barker of Blink 182 performs on day two at Lollapalooza in Grant Park on Friday, Aug 4, 2017 in Chicago. (Photo by Rob Grabowski/Invision/AP)

By Nina Mendes
Assistant E&L Editor
When the news broke in late January, it came as a surprise to some that Vans Warped Tour founder, Kevin Lyman, had announced the 25th-anniversary tour for the festival that claimed to close up shop in August 2018.
Many fans, however, were able to predict the tour’s continuance due to the language used to advertised last year’s bill.
Warped Tour 2018 was labeled as its “final cross-country run,” which left some leeway for producers to conjure up their next big production.
This grey area also served as free advertisement for the festival’s “final run,” with several dates of the tour selling out in the summer of 2018, one being Holmdel, New Jersey.
Freshman Lea Manniello is from NJ and attended that sold-out show last summer.
“I knew there was something weird about how they worded the announcement for Warped Tour 2018 because Kevin Lyman wasn’t officially saying it was the last run ever,” said Manniello. “I’m a little frustrated that there was this big push to see the show last year, and now they are continuing everything like usual.”
There are a few significant differences from the 2019 version of Warped compared to the past twenty-four summers since its debut in 1995.
For example, there are only three venues across the country that will host the tour compared to the standard 20-25 dates that have hosted in years prior.
The lucky cities are Cleveland, Ohio (June 8), Atlantic City, New Jersey (June 29-30), and Mountain View, California (July 20-21). This is the first time the tour will host the festival over two consecutive days at the same location.
On March 1, three different lineups had been issued to each city, which has never been done before either. Warped Tour has been known to tweak their lineups from show to show in the past, but a majority of the bands remained the same for each date. In 2019, very few musicians are on the flyer for all three venues, which has stirred up controversy among fans.
It has also been argued by some that the East Coast date, New Jersey, has better artists booked and the West Coast date, California, lacks the current alternative rock scene. It boils down to a matter of opinion in the end.
People should be focusing their energy on the fact that the Ohio date got screwed over big time. It is the only date out of the three that’s a single day and only has 5-7 artists performing, compared to the 50+ bands that will play in NJ and CA. Their genre of focus leans towards rap/hip hop which is foreign to Warped Tour culture. Fans have expressed their distaste on social media.
Some of the more well-known artists that have been booked to play the East or West coast dates are A Day to Remember, Andy Black, Bowling for Soup, Simple Plan, The All-American Rejects, and We the Kings.
“I am a little nervous to go to this year’s Warped, especially because the Jersey date is sold out and on the actual beach,” said Manniello. “I just hope everything works out the way it’s supposed to and everyone is safe.”
With any new event, safety is always a concern. Especially since two out of the three venues have never hosted this tour before, some concertgoers were hesitant at first.
Lyman’s promises for the 25th-anniversary were appealing enough for fans to sell out the NJ date within a week of its lineup being announced. Pre-sale/early bird tickets sold out for all three dates before each lineup was released, as well.
There’s no telling whether Warped Tour 2019 will be worth the hype it’s been receiving or the money fans paid for tickets, until after the festival’s conclusion at the end of July. Even then, it’s impossible to predict if Lyman has any additional tricks up his sleeve.
We will have to wait and see.

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