It's their last black parade...
After more than two decades of filling sweaty, heat-riddled cities all over the U.S. with pop-punk hits every June to August, the always traveling Vans Warped Tour is finally saying goodbye to their endless summer.
The Vans Warped Tour announced on Wednesday that summer 2018 would be be its final, full cross-country run. The Warped Tour has been the largest traveling music festival in the United States, as well as the longest-running touring music festival in North America.
The tour's founder Kevin Lyman took to the tour's official website to reveal it was the beginning of the end for the traveling festival that finally made it cool for boys to cry, for punk to be pop and for us odd ones to rock out in a land of misfit toys.
"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," wrote Lyman.
"I sit here reflecting on the tour’s incredible history, what the final run means for our community, and look forward to what’s to come as we commemorate the tour’s historic 25th anniversary in 2019."
Of course the news got us thinking about the many (and after 23 years and so many venues, there have been a lot of acts) performers who have rocked the Vans Warped Tour stages over the years, and the many we'd forgot about and the ones we didn't even realize had performed (probably because they don't fall under the rock genre).
It turns out you don't have to just have an emo band to play The Warped Tour. Turns out that popstars, rappers, rockers and pop-rap-rockers have all played the tour. Did you know that Gwen Stefani performed the tour's first year in 1995 when she headed up No Doubt? Well it's no doubt that she did. Pharrell performed with N.E.R.D. in 2002. The Black Eyed Peas hit the stage in 1999.
Check out the bands you didn't know performed (and some of the ones you did) and we get ready to say adios to the Warped Tour...