The Warped Tour began more than fifteen years as a traveling carnival for skate punk.

Now, like a lot of other things in the music biz, it’s lost its way.

Sarah Ventre, in New Times' Up on the Sun blog, hits the tour for the first time, and comes away disillusioned. Here’s a few excerpts:

The worst let down […] was that almost nothing truly notable happened throughout the day. I hung out in an asphalt parking lot for seven hours, patiently ready to document anything and everything exciting that happened. Unfortunately, I came out of the event with fewer notes and observations than I had from nearly all two or three hour indoor concerts that I’ve been to recently.

Among Ventre’s observations:

  • Other people have reported, and I can confirm, that several body parts were burned just from being adjacent to the asphalt. This includes the soles of feet, (through socks and sneakers,) and asses, (through underwear and jeans.)
    • Warped Tour is no longer a punk festival. While I really enjoy the kind of music that should be represented there, theoretically, I would probably only classify like half of the bands as punk. There were another large handful that I would classify as screamo crap.
    • The placement of the stages was ridiculous. Even though the event was at Cricket Pavilion, the “main stage” was not the main stage. (You know, the one with the shade and the fans?) The “main stage” was the one in the middle of the parking lot. The absolute last one to get shade. The one with the extraordinarily hot asphalt. Really bad decision.
  • The festival charged $2 for a piece of paper with a xeroxed copy of the schedule. For reals?
  • There was so much corporate branding, that even the First Aid tent read, “Vans Warped Aid.”
  • The small stages were too close together, making it really tough to hear, well, anything.
  • I saw no drinking fountain or free water available. Bottled water cost $4.50. (Isn’t it illegal not to give someone water when they ask for it in Arizona?)

Sounds like fun!