Every year I tell myself that this will be the last… Well, I said it again.

Van’s Warped Tour turned 15 this year, and gave me a lot to blog about. I have been an attendee for roughly 8 of those many precious years, and never have I had so much fun while having such a terrible time all at once.

Amidst the sea of awful tattoos, sunburns, and facial piercings, I herded with the other scenesters and punk kids from stage to stage, while gripping my $5 bottle of water that seemed to run dry much too fast.

Passing through crowds of people, I experienced the ever familiar sensation of being much too hot and sweaty, pissed off, and mildly excited to stand for hours at a time while trying to avoid using the portable toilets as much as humanly possible.

Throughout the course of the day, I made quite a few observations that brought new ideas to my attention, and also gave me deja vu of years past.

First of all, the crowd never changes: young girls of a questionable age wearing nothing but a bikini top and boy-short bottoms, flirting with every band guy, guitar tech, and merch dude alike; bro-moshers, in khaki shorts and sans t-shirts, with some sort of writing on their chests in permanent ink, jumping and pushing one another to the sounds of punk rock and/or ska music; little scened-out teenagers traveling in groups of 3 and 4, anxiously wandering the grounds with a pen and digital camera seeking their favorite lead singer; emo boys that look barely old enough to be smoking that cigarette; the obvious musician appearing more groomed and less sweaty than everyone else, just emerging from the air-conditioned tour bus to walk around, showing off their laminate and freshly flat-ironed hair; boys and girls finger-blasting their sidekicks, tweeting and @replying anyone and everyone about the band they’re watching, or the hardly famous guitarist that just passed by…

I could go on for hours about the different breeds that attend the annual music fest, but I won’t waste your time. If you have ever been to one of the dozens upon dozens of tour dates in a city near you during the months of May-August, I’m sure you have witnessed all of that for yourself. Moreover, if you noticed a few major changes this year from that of previous years, you weren’t the only one.

Which brings me to my next point…
Kevin Lyman needs to step up his game. Seriously. Half of the bands booked to the smaller stages were unrecognizable to myself and others who are consistent with the music industry; they just flat-out sucked. On top of my complaints concerning poor booking, I noticed a decrease in the number of stages present at the festival. Aren’t there usually two main stages? And although the schedule ran until 8:30 PM, there was no “closing” band on the Vans Main Stage. That time slot was completely empty. Because of this fault, bands like Lights and A Day To Remember were playing on similar-sized stages. This made very little sense to me.
My immediate guess for the reason of this change was a lack of funds in our declining economy; however, water was still $5, and don’t even get me started on the price of other beverages. While a money deficiency is understandable, I cannot explain the lack of food, water, restroom facilities, sponsors’ tents, and the complete absence of trash cans! My final answer is: poor production, poor planning, and sub-par execution on the event day itself.

Now, I don’t know too much about past band drama with disputes over religious-connotaded music and how tastefully or poorly that was handled, but this year I did notice a bit of scrutiny against different genres of music. During the Millionaires’ set, I glanced out into the crowd and witnessed only a handful of spectators actually enjoying themselves and singing along. The rest were either making stink faces or throwing garbage at the stage. Among these stink faces (and I won’t name names) were the familiar faces of bands who were also on the tour. And you don’t need a spy kit to discover how widely this genre of music is hated among those musicians who play instruments and actually write and sing songs. I find diversity in booking bands to be a very mature and modern concept in the music industry today. Of course, without variety, we would all be listening to the same thing. However, when this tour extravaganza began in 1995, the bands were mostly punk and ska. Now we are seeing a melting pot of those plus pop-punk, post-hardcore, hip hop, electronica, screamo, pop-rock, and more. Maybe the reason for the decline in funds and popularity of Warped Tour is because the name has lost a face? Just a thought.

So, while I sit and wait for 12 months to pass as I debate on skipping out on next year’s Warped Tour, I will ice down my knees, even out my v-neck tan, and cross my fingers that this event improves. With that old and familiar anticipation losing its luster, the production crew and creative team needs to come up with a new twist to re-spark the interest of loyal Warped attendees. To be completely honest, I had to leave early this year because I was literally nauseous.