Lace up Vans sneakers, the Warped Tour officially returns in 2025.

The iconic punk rock festival, which started in 1995, will take over parking lots in three cities for two-day shows in honor of its 30th anniversary. Warped Tour embarked on its ‘final’ cross-country tour in 2018 and visited two cities the following year to commemorate its 25th anniversary.

“Since 1997, I said I hoped there was a kid in a garage who would one day come out and kick Kevin Lyman’s ass and throw a better festival,” says Kevin Lyman, founder of Vans Warped Tour. Rolling stone. No one has answered the call yet, so the founder took matters into his own hands. “People remember once something is gone that it was important, that it was fun – and I hope to bring a lot of that back,” he says.

Warped Tour 2025 kicks off in Washington, DC, at the RFK Stadium Festival Grounds on June 14 and 15, 2025, and continues west to Marina Green Park in Long Beach, California, on July 26 and 27, finally closing away in Orlando, Florida, on November 15 and 16 at Tinker Field. “My body can’t handle driving around forty cities in a tour bus,” says Lyman about the decision to hold Warped Tour 2025 in three cities. But he’s not completely closed to the idea of ​​adding more data in the coming years if the 2025 iteration is successful. “If it works, we will look to the future to do more,” he adds.

The festival’s lineup has yet to be announced, but Lyman promises a robust mix of previous Warped Tour bands and new artists. “We’re getting very, very selective about finding some unique twists in the lineup,” he says. Next year there will be 70 to 100 bands performing at each stop. Some of the most notable acts from previous years include Blink-182, Green Day, Fall Out Boy, Paramore and even Katy Perry. Bands like Less Than Jake and Simple Plan have become Warped Tour favorites with more than ten performances each.

While Warped Tour 2025 aims to bring fans the most compelling elements from its glory days, it doesn’t intend to be a nostalgia fest. “I’ve always felt like we should pay tribute to the past, but we’re looking to the future of the artists and the community,” Lyman says. Naturally, launching emerging artists is embedded in the Warped Tour DNA. The festival plans a weekly lineup rollout to spotlight smaller bands and musicians who may be overlooked on a larger festival poster.

Another piece of Warped Tour’s unique energy has always been the price of the ticket. For Warped Tour 2025, two-day tickets start at $149.98 (a $119.99 ticket, with $29.99 fees). Ticket presales begin next week on October 24 at 12pm ET/9am PT. here.

The accessible price point is a great point of pride for Lyman. Las Vegas-based festival When We Were Young, an emo nostalgia event with a similar audience, has tickets starting at $325 (excluding fees) for a day pass with general admission.

While many factors went into the Warped Tour’s price tag, Lyman credits the festival’s partnership with Insomniac for helping to preserve tickets for the lower-end comparison events. Founded by Pasquale Rotella, Insomniac is a seasoned music event promotion company that has created some of the biggest music festivals in the world.

“(Lyman’s) has really committed to making this about the people, and making sure people can afford to come,” Rotella says. In response to the rising ticket prices and exorbitant festival prices that have taken over the music industry, Lyman was steadfast in keeping the costs of Warped Tour 2025 inclusive. “It really starts with Kevin taking that step, standing his ground and having faith in the community ”, adds Rotella.

That trust has already paid off. Many of the musicians who helped make Warped Tour a signature festival for the pop punk and emo genres have also stepped up to bring back the heyday energy for 2025. “The bands get some credit here too,” says the Insomniac founder. “Some of them had to call their teams and say, ‘No, I want to do this.’”

Lyman also highlighted the camaraderie of bands from the music scene that brought the Warped Tour to fruition, saying, “It’s band members talking to band members, and people saying, ‘I’m coming, aren’t you?'”

Warped Tour’s strong sense of community will be central to its 2025 return. “Making a community strong can’t just be an individual thing,” says Lyman. “Everyone is needed for that.” As an associate professor at the USC Thornton School of Music, the festival founder comes into contact with young people every day and wants to make sure they feel just as welcome as older, returning Warped Tour fans.

The festival grounds will once again be filled with tents from non-profit organizations, individual bands with their own merchandise and sponsor stands. Lyman is especially excited about bringing new nonprofits on board. “There are a lot of young people doing great things in the world, and we want to give them a place and give them a boost,” he says. In addition, “new immersive elements” and community-building events such as the Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands will be part of Warped Tour 2025.

Naturally, at the start of each show date, fans are welcomed by the sight of the inflatable, daily setlist. It’s all part of Lyman’s fastidious plan to bring back the charm of the Vans Warped Tour. Even thirty years later, his promise remains refreshingly simple: “It will always remind you of that parking lot, that party in the backyard. That’s what Warped Tour was.