Warped Tour: A Look Back in Photos in Honor of Its Last Hurrah
Last year, Warped Tour’s founder, Kevin Lyman, announced the end of an era: After nearly a quarter of a century, the monumental fest would make its “final, full cross-country run.” The news is now sinking in as a reality as the tour’s final date, August 5th, fast approaches. What’s been known as Vans Warped Tour since 1996 has equally officially been known as a place for aspiring alts trapped in the suburbs to flourish—one that just so happened to make history in the process. Warped Tour was not only a launching pad for Green Day, Katy Perry, Blink-182, and even Eminem; it was also a documentation of the birth of emo as we know it in the aughts, seen through its lineups’ shift from punk acts like Bad Religion, Rancid, the Casualties, NOFX, and Anti-Flag to bands like All Time Low, Simple Plan, Sum 41, Taking Back Sunday, the Used, and From First to Last—the latter of which featured one long-haired, screaming emo heartthrob Sonny Moore, now better known as Skrillex. In case you hadn’t noticed, pretty much all of the above feature almost exclusively white men—a lack of diversity that’s unfortunately continued into the 50-plus bands chosen to make up Warped Tour’s last hurrah. (Joan Jett is putting in her usual appearance, but Paramore’s flamed-hair Hayley Williams, essentially the only woman who managed to become a face of Warped Tour throughout its history, is noticeably missing from this year’s lineup.) Take a look back at that history, flaws and all, with the best photos of its glory days, including flashbacks to Perry’s guitar, Oli Sykes’s neck tats, Benji Madden’s snake bites, Jared Leto’s lipstick, Pete Wentz’s popped collar, Demi Lovato‘s sweeping side bangs, and Jeffree Star’s infamous hot-pink mop, here.
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Skrillex, when he was Sonny Moore of From First to Last, at the 2006 Vans Warped tour in San Francisco.
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A pre-pop-fame Katy Perry performing at the 2008 Warped Tour in Carson, California.
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Hayley Williams of Paramore, with her signature neon hair, performing at the 2011 Vans Warped Tour in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
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Chris Barker of Anti-Flag performing at the 2010 Vans Warped Tour in Wheatland, California.
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Jared Leto of 30 Seconds to Mars performing at the 2006 Vans Warped Tour in Fitchburg, Massachusetts.
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Simple Plan performing at the 2004 Vans Warped Tour in Bonner Springs, Kansas.
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Before his makeup line became an empire, Jeffree Star, seen her at the 2011 Vans Warped Tour in Carson, California, was a Warped Tour regular.
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Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance performing at the 2005 Vans Warped Tour in Columbus, Ohio.
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Katy Perry performing at the 2009 15th Anniversary Vans Warped Tour in Los Angeles, California.
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The Casualties performing at the 2006 Vans Warped Tour in Uniondale, New York.
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Demi Lovato posing backstage at the 2010 Vans Warped Tour in Ventura, California.
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Taylor Momsen of the Pretty Reckless (and more famously of Gossip Girl) performing at the 2010 Vans Warped Tour in Marysville, California.
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Taylor Momsen’s shoes during her performance at the 2010 Vans Warped Tour in Mountain View, California.
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Bert McCracken of The Used performing at the 2002 Vans Warped Tour in San Francisco, California
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Jared Leto of 30 Seconds to Mars performing at the 2006 Vans Warped Tour in Fitchburg, Massachusetts.
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Benji Madden of Good Charlotte performing at the 2004 10th Anniversary Vans Warped Tour in Boston, Massachusetts.
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Katy Perry performing at the 2008 Vans Warped Tour in Carson, California.
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Joe Trohman, Patrick Stump, Andy Hurley, and Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy at the 2005 Vans Warped Tour in Columbus, Ohio.
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Billy Idol performing at the 2005 Vans Warped Tour in Pomona, California.
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Lars Frederiksen and Tim Armstrong of Rancid performing at the 2003 Vans Warped Tour in San Francisco, California.
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Joan Jett performing at the 2006 Vans Warped Tour in Detroit, Michigan.
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Travis Barker of The Transplants performing at the 2005 Vans Warped Tour in Randall’s Island, New York.
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Oli Sykes of Bring Me the Horizon performing at the 2013 Vans Warped Tour in Ventura, California.
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Jeffree Star at the 2013 Vans Warped Tour press conference and kick-off party in Los Angeles, California.
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Andrew W.K. performing at the 2010 Vans Warped Tour in Mountain View, California.
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William Beckett of The Academy Is… performing at the 2008 Vans Warped Tour in Englishtown, New Jersey.
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Hayley Williams of Paramore performing at the 2011 Vans Warped Tour in San Diego, California.
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Ice-T performing in a surprise appearance at the 2003 Vans Warped Tour in San Francisco, California.
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Hayley Williams of Paramore performing at the 2008 Vans Warped Tour in San Antonio, Texas.
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Katy Perry signing a fan’s cast at the 2008 Warped Tour in Ventura, California.
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Joan Jett performing at the 2006 Vans Warped Tour in Atlanta, Georgia.
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Bebe Rexha performing at the 2015 Vans Warped Tour in Ventura, California.
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Riff Raff and bassist Andy Glass of We Came as Romans performing during the 2015 Vans Warped Tour in Ventura, California.
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Tyson Ritter of the All-American Rejects performing at the 2010 Vans Warped Tour in Carson, California.
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Katy Perry performing at the 2008 Vans Warped Tour in Ventura, Caliornia.