Dear Warped Tour Crush 

Dear Kevin Lyman, 

Hope all is well on your end, and that life has been treating you kindly. As for me, well, my summers haven’t felt quite the same since you and the rest of the Warped Tour crew said farewell. Of course, I didn’t expect you to head out into the blistering heat for a few months until the end of days, but at the same time – I always thought it’d be around so that every new generation had that collective summer space to hear the music that makes them feel a certain type of way. However, I am forever grateful that Warped Tour existed, even if just for a quarter of a century – an impressive feat. 

See Mr. Lyman, I do a podcast all about crushes, and this week I wanted to pay homage to my love of Warped Tour because, for a good chunk of my life, it was the one thing my friends and I could count on annually. Well, that and the fact that New Found Glory would tour – either on Warped or on their own. Anyways, ever since I was 18, I was thrilled to see the lineup for that summer. In many ways, Warped Tour was the soundtrack to my young adult life. I started going right after graduation, and the final date I attended – well, if you listen to this week’s episode, you’ll hear how life sort of came full circle at that moment in not just how it mirrored my first, but with the band that closed it all out. 

So back to the thank yous…because so many of us owe a big thank you to you and all of the people who helped put this traveling musical circus together. All so that a bunch of people ranging from peep squeaks to adults with aching backs could go and sing along to the music that made them feel seen in a world where they often felt invisible. Now, was every year a winning combination for me? No, but that goes to show that you curated lineups that stayed current with the times, and you never gave in to the pressure to keep things exactly the same – allowing for new bands and fans to come out and enjoy. Also, shout out to whoever was in charge of getting the food vendors. The egg roll joint that was at the Southern California dates, they were the MVPs. 

Another shout-out to the people you got to run your press tents in the back. Because of them, I got to strengthen my in-person interview skills a handful of summers, and in reality, it’s what helped lead me to other writing opportunities in the years that followed. I was just a 20-something with a blog, and y’all never stuck your nose up at that. Unlike some other music festivals and shows that have popped up in recent years to make a buck off nostalgia but that’s neither here nor there. Warped Tour will always have a piece of my heart for allowing the little writers to come through and do what they do. 

Again, thank you for the summers underneath the sun with the best soundtrack a former Hot Topic shopper could have ever asked for. Maybe one day you’ll decide to pick up the pieces and put it back together again, but if not – I get it. Some stuff is better left in the past to remember and rejoice about, but if you do – I do not doubt that new generations will one day be as grateful for it as we are. 

Take care, 
Kendra