Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Vans Warped Tour news

The VANS WARPED TOUR® is well established as America’s longest-running touring festival, breaking up-and-coming indie talent as well as showcasing established artists for the past 12 years. It has cemented its place in history by playing a major role in bringing punk-rock/skate/action sports culture from the underground to the forefront of American youth culture, while at the same time creating awareness and taking action towards environmental and causes and helping those in need. June 28, 2007 in San Diego, CA marks the kick-off of the “Lucky 13” year for the traveling punk rock summer camp which will feature a diverse array of artists as well as a variety of lifestyle attractions for its traditionally low ticket price.

Bands for the 45-date tour that Alternative Press readers voted the “Best Tour/Festival” of 2006 and Rolling Stone called “America’s most successful festival” (2005) have been revealed via the tour’s website: www.warpedtour.com/warpedtour/band.asp. Please note that not all bands are on every tour date and the line-up is subject to change.

Showing his enthusiasm about the variety of musical talent that will join WARPED this year, tour founder and producer Kevin Lyman elaborates on the massive number of band submissions for this summer’s trek: “We received over 4000 submissions, so in booking the tour this year I felt that a diverse line-up was in order. The tour has always been a place to explore and discover new music. This year’s line-up has old school, emo, punk, screamo, hip-hop, more ska than you have seen in a long time and everything in between. If you’re open minded, this will be a great show.”

The VANS WARPED TOUR® 2007 Presented By The New AT&T annual early Internet pre-sale for members of the www.warpedtour.com community will begin Sunday, April 1 at 10 a.m. Pacific Time. Through this special offer, fans will receive a concert ticket and a copy of the Vans Warped Tour double compilation CD for only $19.99 plus 25 cents for the Hollywood Heart* charity and a nominal convenience charge. After the limited pre-sale tickets sell out or when tickets officially go on sale in each market, tickets will return to their regular price of approximately $25.00, plus applicable Ticketmaster charges.

In other news, the tour will continue to implement and develop its “Warped Eco Initiatives” (WEI), including: biodiesel fuel for touring trucks and buses, environmentally friendly catering for bands and crew courtesy of Tada Catering and a solar-powered sound system. In 2007, WARPED will also team with Philippe Cousteau’s environmental organization Earth Echo International, which “empowers individuals to take action to sustain and enhance our water planet.” Lyman and the VANS WARPED TOUR strive to develop multiple ways to help the environment and create awareness through action.

Underlining the cultural relevance of the Vans Warped Tour and its significance to the punk-rock/skate community, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland recently unveiled a 2007 exhibit and time capsule that document the story of the Warped Tour from its inception in 1995 through the present. The exhibit, “Warped: 12 Years of Music, Mayhem and More,” opened January 27 and runs through September 3, 2007. The presentation features memorabilia from No Doubt, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, NOFX, New Found Glory, My Chemical Romance, Joan Jett, Dropkick Murphys, Bouncing Souls, Rancid, Helmet, Taking Back Sunday, Senses Fail, All-American Rejects and others. When the initial six-month exhibit ends, these items will be put into a “time capsule” to be stored at the Museum for 25 years, opened at a special event in 2031 and again displayed for an additional six months.

The media also continues to support the VANS WARPED TOUR. Here’s a sample of the critical acclaim from 2006:

"...the tour has maintained its DIY spirit by letting bands set up their own booths to sell T-shirts and stickers. It also continues to offer an area for political and social-cause tents (the One Project to end hunger in Africa, the Democratic Party and the Truth anti-smoking campaign). Smaller music stages and tents throughout the event also help keep Warped feeling authentic. You never know what strange new crew you might discover playing fervently to a scant few on the fest's outskirts...The continued success of the festival…continues to suggest that there will always be an audience for clamorous hard-core music…seeing it all in a new environment such as Dodger Stadium definitely made for a home run."
--Lina Lecaro, Los Angeles Times, July 14, 2006

“The Warped Tour is often described as a launching pad for young bands…as Joan Jett and some of the other veterans have figured out, this launching pad makes a pretty comfortable landing pad too. The Warped Tour is a place you can go after you have gone places.”
--Kelefa Sanneh, New York Times, August 7, 2006

“Warped is a great place to discover soon-to-blow-up bands…”
--Sarah Lewitinn, SPIN, July 2006

“Uniting relentless aggression with ruthless efficiency…this surprisingly nimble monolith of disaffected youth culture is as strong as ever.”
--Jason Ferguson, Revolver, October 2006

“With more than a hundred acts, dozens of buses and enough vegan hash to serve a thousand punks, the mammoth Warped Tour caravan is rolling from coast to coast in its twelfth summer, kicking up a dust cloud of punk pop, emo, hardcore, screamo and thrash.”
--Jenny Eliscu, Rolling Stone, August 10, 2006

“Forget world peace or eliminating hunger: Everybody knows it’s the Vans Warped Tour that brings us together. Twelve years in, and Warped remains the punk paradise where, each summer, we get the chance to see in one day more great bands than one human brain can possibly process for a ticket that costs less than most band t-shirts.”
--Alternative Press, June 2006

“For a dozen years, Lyman and Warped have continuously pumped new blood-fans and bands-into the punk-rock scene, contributing significantly to the genre’s vitality.”
--Ray Waddell, Billboard, August 5, 2006

“Perhaps the greenest of the green--and we aren’t just talking about the colour of the spiky hair…”
--Vit Wagner, TORONTO STAR, July 29, 2007 (regarding “Warped Eco Initiatives”)


The VANS WARPED TOUR continues to enhance the fan experience year-round via the free Warped Community at www.warpedtour.com. 2007 brings many new features to the site, including: Individual Pages with personal profiles, the option to link to a MySpace profile and ability to connect with others who will be attending the same shows; Band Pages where fans can connect with bands, listen to streaming music and more; Vintage Warped Pages where fans can post photos and comments about tours from previous years; and easier access to contests for community members who log into the site.

The current tour dates and venues are as follows:

Date City Venue
Thu 6/28 San Diego, CA Coors Amphitheatre
Fri 6/29 Pomona, CA Pomona Fairgrounds
Sat 6/30 Ventura, CA Seaside Park
Sun 7/1 Mountain View, CA Shoreline Amphitheatre
Tue 7/3 Vancouver, BC Thunderbird Stadium
Thu 7/5 Calgary, AB Race City Speedway
Sat 7/7 Salt Lake City, UT Utah State Fairgrounds
Sun 7/8 Denver, CO TBA
Wed 7/11 Phoenix, AZ Cricket Pavilion
Thu 7/12 Las Cruces, NM NMSU Practice Field
Fri 7/13 San Antonio, TX Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre Lot
Sat 7/14 Dallas, TX TBA
Sun 7/15 Houston, TX Reliant Center
Wed 7/18 Atlanta, GA Hi Fi Amphitheatre
Thu 7/19 Jacksonville, FL Metropolitan Park
Fri 7/20 Tampa, FL Vinoy Park
Sat 7/21 Miami, FL Bayfront Amphitheatre
Sun 7/22 Orlando, FL Tinker Field
Mon 7/23 Charlotte, NC Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
Tue 7/24 Virginia Beach, VA Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
Wed 7/25 Washington, DC Merriweather Post Pavilion
Thu 7/26 Scranton, PA Montage Mountain Amphitheatre
Fri 7/27 Detroit, MI Comerica Park and street
Sat 7/28 Chicago, IL First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre
Sun 7/29 Minneapolis, MN Metrodome
Tue 7/31 Milwaukee, WI Marcus Amphitheatre
Wed 8/1 Cincinnati, OH Riverbend Music Centre
Thu 8/2 Cleveland, OH Tower City Amphitheatre
Fri 8/3 Camden, NJ Tweeter Center
Sat 8/4 New York, NY Nassau Coliseum
Sun 8/5 Englishtown, NJ Raceway Park
Tue 8/7 Indianapolis, IN Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
Wed 8/8 Pittsburgh, PA Post Gazette Pavilion
Thu 8/9 Boston, MA Tweeter Center Lot
Fri 8/10 Buffalo, NY Darien Lakes Field
Sat 8/11 Toronto, ON Park Place
Sun 8/12 Montreal, ON Park Jean Drapeau
Tue 8/14 St. Louis, MO UMB Bank Pavilion
Wed 8/15 Kansas City, KS Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
Fri 8/17 Boise, ID Idaho Center Amphitheatre
Sat 8/18 Seattle, WA Gorge
Sun 8/19 Portland, OR Columbia Meadows
Thu 8/23 Fresno, CA Selland Arena
Fri 8/24 Sacramento, CA Sleep Train Amphitheatre Lot
Sat 8/25 Los Angeles, CA Home Depot Center


The Vans Warped Tour® is made possible through the support of Vans®, title sponsors AT&T Wireless, Fuse, Hot Topic, truth, Monster Energy and Hansen’s Sodas, Lost Beverage, Guitar Center, Harley Davidson, Lucky 13, Sabian, SRH Clothing, Smart Punk, West 49, MySpace.com, Hurley, Circuit City, Energizer® e2™, Ernie Ball, Trojan, NAMM, Alternative Press and SPIN magazine and many others.

* Hollywood Heart (www.camppacificheartland.org) is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing recreational opportunities through a summer camping program for children infected and affected by HIV/AIDS.

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