An Unforgettable Warped Tour

The exclusively outdoors festival had not only nine stages featuring back-to-back performances, but also included dozens of booths for bands, food, and other merchandise. There were also free water stations to fill reusable water bottles, a new feature of the tour that was added to help fans combat the summer heat.

The concert lasted over ten hours, starting on a Saturday morning and stretching through the heat of the afternoon into nightfall, but Warped followers were not deterred. The Bay Area stop of the tour drew thousands of diehard fans who waited in a line that backed up into the parking lot at the Shoreline Amphitheatre.

Possibly the most distinct and entertaining part of the concert was the crowd. Throughout the entire day, hyped up fans created some of the craziest mosh pits known to Northern California.  Another highlight of the day came from Stephen Harrison, guitarist for band The Chariot, who jumped into the middle of a mosh pit to play a searing guitar solo. The fans also warmly welcomed some Bay Area natives on tour, such as teen pop punk band Emily’s Army, and frontman Ricky Reed from electronic dance group Wallpaper.

Not all of Warped Tour was fun and games, however. Although the day was not particularly hot, the length of the concert and the low availability of shade in the venue made standing in the sun all day more intolerable. However, that was not the major problem. With all concerts come drunk people. And with drunk people, in Warped especially, come drunk crowd surfers. Now this wouldn’t be an issue, if not the blaring fact that 90 percent of sober crowd surfers only make it about ten feet above everybody’s heads before crashing onto the ground, or another person. The results for those over the legal limit are stupendous, and for the people who have to deal with their unique form of exiting the top of the crowd, rather unneeded.

Even with its flaws, the tour provides some of the most adrenaline rushing moments of the summer. Fans can all agree that Warped Tour is like no concert you have ever seen before.