My favorite day of the year is not my birthday. It is not Christmas. It is not Halloween and it is not even the last day of finals.
My absolute favorite day of the year falls on the day the Vans Warped Tour comes to town.
“What is this Vans Warped Tour?” you may find yourself asking. Well, friend, let me enlighten. The Vans Warped tour can technically be defined as a summer concert that travels the United States featuring punk, rock, ska, emo and indie music.
I, however, choose to define the Warped Tour as huge slices of chocolate-covered-awesomeness sprinkled with amazing and a little dose of fantastic on top. Not clear enough? The Vans Warped Tour is straight up rock ‘n’ roll and anyone who knows anything about premo music will agree.
The Vans Warped Tour experience begins well before summer starts. By January, some of the first bands are being announced, and thousands of fans are crossing their fingers to see their favorite bands on the set list. The list grows so rapidly no one is disappointed.
Sure, bands like Simple Plan and Good Charlotte always make the line up to appease the 12-year-old pop-punk princesses, but when classic bands like MxPx and Less Than Jake start popping up people get excited.
Finally, the day arrives and despite the fact that the show doesn’t even start until noon, most fans arrive by 10:30 a.m. to pre-drink and show off just how punk rock they really are by wearing black jeans and long sleeved shirts to an outdoor concert in the middle of June.
When the doors open, people pour through the gates hoping to find out what stage their favorite bands are on. After that, the day becomes a blur.
Fans rush from stage to stage, normally seven or eight, trying to catch every band they want to see. They are bombarded with tons of free stuff from companies like Trojan, Alternative Press and Yoo-Hoo while they try to visit the merchandise booths and it’s next to impossible not to run into at least three other people they know.
The mosh pits are insane, people are being dropped from crowd surfing left and right, and there is always at least one parent with a 13-year-old kid who looks absolutely petrified.
I know this seems a bit crazy, and when I say a bit, I mean terribly, but it is glorious. There is something that words cannot describe about spending a day listening to your favorite music with hundreds of people you don’t know but you’re all there for the exact same reason.
Beyond being an amazing concert, the Vans Warped Tour creates a bond among people who otherwise would never look twice at one another. If a kid falls down in a mosh pit, you help him up and give him a high five before punching him in the face again. Moments like that are meant to be treasured.
I don’t expect everyone to understand my passion for the Warped Tour. In fact, I understand completely when people think the concept of it is a bit crazy. But that is OK with me because when my mother is reprimanding me for my second-degree sun burn, black eye and loose tooth, all I can do is smile to myself in anticipation of next year’s tour.