Annual traveling punk rock music festival Vans Warped Tour, which helped jump-start the careers of artists like Blink-182, Fall Out Boy and Katy Perry, will end in 2018 after 24 years.
In a statement, Vans Warped Tour organizer Kevin Lyman announced, “I have been a very lucky person to have traveled across the country and sometimes around the world as one of the founders and producers of the Vans Warped Tour. Today, with many mixed feelings, I am here to announce that next year will be the final, full cross-country run of the Vans Warped Tour.”
The Warped Tour first took place in 1995. Vans became the title sponsor the following summer. It is the largest traveling music festival in the United States, and is the longest-running touring music festival in North America. In the early years it featured newcomer bands that would become international sensations: No Doubt, L7, The Deftones and Sublime.
The years that followed saw it usher in the pop-punk era with bands like Blink-182, Sum 41, Simple Plan, MXPX, New Found Glory and Good Charlotte. The event also hosted legitimate punk stalwarts like Social Distortion, Pennywise, NOFX, Bad Religion, The Descendents, Less Than Jake, Dropkick Murphy’s, The Bouncing Souls, Rancid, Flogging Molly, Anti-Flag and The Offspring.
“I am so grateful to have worked with more than 1,700 bands over the last 23 summers,” Lyman said in the statement. “I wish I could thank every band that has played the tour.”
In an interview with Billboard, Lyman cited weakening ticket sales, fewer hot bands and his own exhaustion for the decision.
Photo courtesy Vans
