Content Warning: This article mentions sexual assault of women and minors.
Picture this: It’s 2007 and you’re taking mirror selfies with a flip phone, showing off your newest Hot Topic merch and fresh red hair streaks. You update your Myspace profile picture and make a new Tumblr blog post with lyrics from your favorite My Chemical Romance song. It’s summertime and this weekend, you’re seeing your favorite punk, emo and alt bands at Warped Tour with your friends. At 15 years old, all you care about is rocking out to killer guitar solos and chaotic mosh pits.
For many former and current music junkies, this scene reflects a special kind of nostalgia that dwindled in 2019 after the hiatus of Kevin Lyman’s Warped Tour, otherwise known as the longest-running North American festival concert tour. Warped Tour, sponsored by Vans, transformed the scope of alt music representation by bringing together over 750,000 fans of iconic bands like Fall Out Boy, No Doubt, Paramore, Sum 41, Blink-182 and Pierce the Veil, among many others.
Though the festival had a successful 20+ years of lively performances circling across the globe to Europe and Japan, Lyman announced the end of the tour in 2019, citing a loss of connection between fans and performers. Ticket sales decreased as different musical acts clashed with one another.
Five years later, Lyman has announced that Warped Tour is coming back in 2025 and will be overseen by the entertainment mogul Live Nation, infamous for its lawsuit with the U.S. Department of Justice this year. The company owns Ticketmaster and has come under fire repeatedly for jacking up concert ticket prices.
Even worse, Live Nation has been linked to at least 200 deaths and 750 injuries during all of its concert events over the past 15 years. A collapsed stage during a 2012 Radiohead concert left three of the bandmates injured and one drum technician dead. In 2021, poor management of overcrowding at the Astroworld Festival left 10 people dead and inadequate security played a huge role in the homicide of LA’s Once Upon a Time music festival performer Drakeo the Ruler in 2022. Due to these repeated mishandlings of large events and insane ticket inflation, Warped Tour fans are skeptical of its return.
It seems, though, that fans are neglecting the darkest part of Warped Tour’s history – its rampant sexual misconduct and abuse, especially toward minors.
Multiple young fans, typically 14-25 years of age, have reported inappropriate text messages and grooming behavior from Warped Tour bands. Notable examples include accusations that Chris Conly from the band Saves the Day abused his power over a young fan (who was under the age of 12 when meeting him) to begin a sexually inappropriate and abusive relationship, Jake Mcelfresh of Front Porch Step’s unsolicited nudes toward underaged fans and worst of all, the Lostrophets’ Ian Watkins’ sex crimes towards children under the age of five which earned him a 35-year jail sentence in 2013. Some of these children were victimized by their own mothers, who were “superfans” of Watkins.
The sad part is that this list of predatory offenders and performers at Warped Tour goes on, something unfortunately common within the alt music scene. Lyman himself has said that sexual harassment and misconduct are all “part of the culture” of the music scene. Though only one publicly confirmed case of sexual misconduct — between Slaves band member Jonny Craig (who was barred from touring) and a female merchandise employee — has been acknowledged by Lyman, the dismissive nature of his response toward rape culture is what makes his tour so problematic.
Lyman has also allowed several musicians to perform at Warped Tour despite public allegations against them and petitions advocating for their removal from the setlist. Back in 2015, Mcelfresh was still allowed to perform at Warped Tour even though nearly 13,000 fans petitioned against it. Lyman knew of the allegations and chose to ignore them.
When Blood on the Dancefloor’s lead singer Dahvie Vanity faced rape and sexual abuse allegations in 2009, he was arrested; this didn’t stop him from performing for Warped Tour in 2011 and 2012, though. Since then, multiple people have come forward with sexual assault allegations, both on tour and off tour, against Vanity.
Coupled with Lyman’s ignorance towards his lineup’s history of sexual misconduct and abuse of children is the fact that many Warped Tour bands sold misogynistic and hypersexual merch promoting sexual violence to crowds of impressionable young girls who idolized them.
Metalcore bands Atilla and Emmure sold shirts with degrading and violent language towards women that is too explicit to write here, but baffling nonetheless. The fact that Lyman allowed the promotion and marketing of such toxic beliefs is what nourished the already saturated nature of grooming bred at Warped Tour.
With that being said, people should be less concerned about Live Nation’s skyrocketing ticket prices and more concerned about the potential for revitalizing decades worth of abuse of power in the alt music scene. Since the rise of the #MeToo movement, young women have been more outspoken about inappropriate behavior towards them — but they shouldn’t be solely responsible for their own safety, especially at concerts, which are meant to be a place where people bond over music. Heavy accountability lies on Lyman and how he manages his next Warped Tour.
Warped Tour needs to get its act together and take effective preventative measures to ensure young fans are not left alone with performers during meet and greets. Merchandise should not promote sexual violence and personal information between fans and musicians shouldn’t be exchanged. Most of all, sexual misconduct and abuse should not be written off as “part of the culture.”
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