Warped Tour, a festival that began in 1995 as a means to bring new, young punk acts into the public consciousness, announced this week that its final cross-country run will take place in 2018.
Thirty-seven final shows were announced, including a June 30 show in Salt Lake City.
Tour founder Kevin Lyman told Billboard in an exclusive interview that a significant decline in recent attendance convinced him it was time to call it quits.
“We were doing fine, but we had a pretty big dip last year. It was that younger end of the demo,” Lyman told Billboard. “Everyone had good crowds in front of the stage. But that casual fan that’s learning how to go to a music festival — they were not there last summer. … It was a really great show, sponsors were happy, but our attendance was down.”
The initial lineup of Warped Tour included such bands as No Doubt, Sublime, L7, Quicksand and No Use for a Name.
Punk stalwarts such as Bad Religion, Pennywise and NOFX became frequent featured performers. Other big-time bands such as Green Day, Social Distortion, The Offspring, Blink-182, Dropkick Murphys, The Descendents, Less Than Jake, The Bouncing Souls, Rancid, Flogging Molly and Anti-Flag also joined up, helping to bolster the tour.
Several acts became household names as a result of their affiliation with the tour, including Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, Avenged Sevenfold, Sum 41 and Good Charlotte.
The tour also would feature the occasional odd-fitting act. Names such as Katy Perry, Eminem, The Black Eyed Peas, Paramore, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and Kid Rock can all be counted among Warped Tour alumni.
No acts have yet been announced for the 2018 tour, but Lyman said it’s his hope that he can fill the lineup with many of the acts that previously helped make the tour such a success.
