Warped Tour, Beyond the Stage
by Drew Kolar
It wasn't too long ago that busloads of tattooed teenagers and pierced punk-rockers traveled to the Nassau Coliseum parking lot for one of the biggest rock shows of the summer. Masses of fans filled Penn Station, anxiously awaiting the Hempstead-bound Long Island Railroad line to make it to the 2007 Van's Warped Tour, a summer music festival that travels the country, showcasing some of the biggest punk and rock acts of the year.
Even when the trains were replaced by buses, rock fans were not deterred from their adventure. Even the LIRR staff got into the mood—one railway worker even got the crowd going by shouting, "Is everybody ready for the concert?" Of course she was greeted with a roar of cheering. Thus began the punk pilgrimage to the festival, for fans and workers alike.
Past performers at the Warped Tour included Blink 182, the Offspring, NOFX, My Chemical Romance, and even the legendary Joan Jett. This year cut down on the number of stages and brought in some great acts, as well, such as Bad Religion and Alkaline Trio. The crowd was made up mostly of young music fans, peppered by older-generation punks. The real hard workers of the event, however, were the behind-the-scenes staff.
In Warped Tours of the past, smaller stages were sometimes set up by the bands themselves, since there were more stages and performers at the festival. This year, the majority of acts performed on just six different stages scattered across the lot. Tents housed band merchandise and autograph signings, while others featured charities and sponsors. Though fans begin traveling to reach the gates by noon, the daily routine actually starts around eight in the morning for crews. Buses fill the parking lot, and tour managers scurry to find wristbands and meal tickets. Stages and tents go up around nine, at the same time as local vendors and outside help also begin to filter in for the day. Street team members hang posters inside the gates and distribute fliers outside in the lines, the merchants organize their wares, and bands rest in their buses or lend a hand to their crew.
The worst part of the day comes at noon when the gates open and the throngs of teenagers begin to make their way towards the schedule board to see when their favorite bands perform. Promoting surges until fliers wind up all over the ground. Those who are handing them out are prone to deep sunburns by the end of the afternoon. Security takes over on the sides of the stages to rescue crowd surfers and stop mosh pits before they get too out of hand. All the while, the sun beats down on hot concrete, and sweat pours out of everybody, forcing all in attendance to purchase $4 bottles of water.
There is no shade to hide in unless you are a vendor under a tent, or a band with an air-conditioned bus (if you're lucky enough to have working air). Many people walk around in what barely passes for beachwear, and almost all modesty is forced to be left at the gate - even for punk kids that normally wear black t-shirts and heavy chains dangling from their pants. Luckily, during sets people sometimes fling their water bottles around. There is also a slip-and-slide on the lawn, and sometimes there are merchants selling water guns or spray bottles.
The Warped Tour is definitely a monster all on its own. Different from any other concert, this tour goes on throughout the summer, taking many bands to many cities, exposing new artists to new listeners on a daily basis. Groups take off because of summer concert tours. A few lesser-known bands, such as The Vincent Black Shadow, even had a chance this year to play the main stage at some gigs. Fans can even meet their favorite artists at signings or meet the new artists they discovered throughout the day. They get a full day of 30-minute gigs for the price of one ticket, and with a group of friends, it's pretty easy to forget the heat.
Crews and merch vendors get paid extremely well to stick around for the whole tour in the heat of summer (or else, let's face it, they wouldn't be doing it in the first place). Street team members get to hang with the band, get free merchandise, and even have future opportunities to help out and put it on a résumé. The setup may be hectic and even off-putting, but in the end it seems to be a good time for everyone, or at the very least a good opportunity.
At about eight at night, the festival draws to a close. The heat is gone, and the remaining people hold their ground until it is clear that the show is over and the last band is offstage. The artists clear out their instruments, and the crews disassemble the stages and tents and pack up for the next stop. Many confused Long Islanders who didn't attend the show wonder why there are hundreds of punk kids pouring out of the Nassau Coliseum, only to be informed that one of the biggest summer festivals just let out and everybody is headed home from a long day of headbanging, moshing, dancing and having an overall awesome time.
Warped Tour brings fans and musicians together. It's a day to let loose and celebrate uniqueness and freedom of speech and art, to express yourself in attitude, in style, and in music - both listening and performing. Though the fans and bands are constantly changing, the tour still lives on. So much work goes into the day that it is hard to imagine it as a daily routine until you have lived it. There are many summer concert tours each year, all with hard-working individuals behind the scenes. Hopefully these events will continue for many years to come, and the same amount of hard work and dedication will be put into them. For now, though, music fans should realize exactly what goes into a large-scale gig like the Warped Tour - not just on the part of the band, but also their management, merchandise vendors, advertisers, street teams, and the sponsors of the tour itself. Everybody plays an equal part, keeping the yearly summer pilgrimage alive so we can pay homage to the punk rock gods once more.
