CULTURE
Making The Warped Tour Great Again
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The annual traveling punk rock festival hits the West Coast.
Published on August 5, 2016

As the 20th year of the Vans Warped Tour reaches the West Coast, MERRY JANE will be in attendance for the San Diego show in the Qualcomm Stadium at Jack Murphy Field parking lot. What began as the mainstay of skate punk acts, Warped Tour has morphed into an eclectic mix of pop punk, metal, and hip-hop groups.

Founder Kevin Lyman has been producing the Vans Warped Tour since its inception and has given the punk community an annual festival to meet up, mosh, and be merry. Warped Tour also gave the skateboard and BMX crowd a chance to see some breathtaking stunts on the vertical ramp and half pipe from the scene’s most gifted and extreme athletes.

The shear size of the festival grounds at various venues across the country make many wonder how many crew members it takes to set up, take down, and transfer all of the equipment to the next stop. No other traveling tour can match the magnitude of this all-day sweat fest.

The Vans Warped Tour has brought some well-known artists into the limelight including Blink-182, My Chemical Romance, Paramore, Katy Perry, and Yelawolf. The first group to be categorized as something other than “punk” was the Black Eyed Peas in 1999.

The 2016 Warped Tour in San Diego will be a reunion of sorts with appearances by Warped veterans Reel Big Fish, New Found Glory, Sum 41, Yellowcard, and Less Than Jake; whose mascot the “Evo Kid” has been spotted on each date crowd surfing on an inflatable raft.

San Diego will also be rocked with sets by Sleeping With Sirens, The Interrupters, Teenage Bottlerocket, Masked Intruder, Waka Flocka Flame, and Ballyhoo! amongst many others. The energy that will be flowing through Mission Valley will undeniably live up to this year’s tour moniker “Make Warped Tour Great Again.”

After San Diego, the Vans Warped Tour will have two more California dates in Mountain View and Pomona on August 6 and 7. The 2016 tour will then head to Las Vegas before concluding in the Pacific Northwest in Idaho, Washington, and Oregon.

You can follow MERRY JANE’s Blake Taylor on Instagram @LetsGetBlaked to catch all of the action the day of the show. Also, be sure to follow us on Twitter (@MERRYJANE) for some action packed photos following the fest.

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Blake Taylor
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Blake Taylor worked for a leading medical/recreational marijuana grower in the Seattle area and has been a freelance writer for four years.
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