Yesterday Rolling Stone broke the information: Vans Warped Tour is returning in 2025. The competition, which was based in 1995 and made its final cross-country tour in 2018, will pop up for 2 days every in Washington, D.C., Lengthy Seashore, California, and Orlando, Florida, subsequent summer time.
The piece praises Warped Tour and its founder Kevin Lyman for fostering up-and-coming bands, sustaining decrease ticket costs in comparison with comparable festivals, and the group’s “robust sense of neighborhood.” However one factor Rolling Stone fails to say is Lyman’s staggering observe file for reserving and defending musicians accused of (and in some circumstances charged with) sexual harassment, sexual assault, and home violence.
It’s not a secret. For greater than a decade, Warped Tour has been synonymous with predatory conduct. It’s a recurring subject on the humor web site Onerous Occasions, and it’s been written about and reported on by NPR, The Washington Publish, and Flavorwire, amongst others. Nonetheless, Lyman didn’t appear to suppose there was an issue. In a 2017 interview with Billboard, forward of what was billed as Warped Tour’s ultimate 12 months, the outlet requested Lyman concerning the latest “problems with sexual harassment on the tour.” Lyman denied any misconduct occurred on the tour itself and dismissed common inappropriate conduct as “a part of the tradition.”
It is a part of the tradition, he’s not unsuitable. However what’s not being stated is how a lot Warped Tour has contributed to that tradition through the years.
In 2009 Blood on the Dance Ground singer Dahvie Vainness (actual identify Jesus David Torres) was arrested for statutory rape. Nonetheless, the band performed Warped in 2011 and 2012. In 2011, when requested concerning the dangerous press he was receiving for reserving Blood on the Dance Ground, Lyman instructed music journalist Adam Bernard, “Yeah, you recognize what… controversy. Punk rock was controversial at one level. … I’m like properly, you bought a pair choices. One, there are six different levels and three could have bands on them when that band will likely be enjoying. That’s one possibility, go see another person. Or two, keep residence. Nobody is twisting anybody’s arm to return to Warped Tour.”
In 2019, the Huffington Publish revealed a narrative during which 21 ladies accused Vainness of sexual assault. One lady instructed the publication that Vainness attacked her on the band’s tour bus throughout Warped Tour in 2011. She says he “uncovered his penis and tried to take away her garments,” and “hit her within the face” and lower her lip when she wouldn’t have intercourse with him. She was 16 years previous. In a 2020 Enterprise Insider story, Vainness denied all accusations, however sources instructed the outlet the FBI was investigating.
Pierce the Veil performed Warped Tour in 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, and 2015. In 2017 a girl claimed on Twitter that she had a sexual relationship with the band’s drummer, Mike Fuentes, when she was 16 years previous and he was 24. She says he knew how previous she was, they usually slept collectively after assembly up at Warped Tour in 2008. One other lady made comparable claims a couple of month later, in December 2017. She stated she met Fuentes at Warped Tour in 2008, and he requested her for nude photographs when she was 15. Fuentes stated in a press release, “I’ve by no means deliberately manipulated or abused anybody in my life,” however left the band after the accusations turned public.
Lostprophet’s frontman Ian Watkins was accused of pedophilia as early as 2008. Cops ignored the claims for years. The band performed Warped in 2012. Months later, Watkins was arrested and finally convicted of rape and sexual assault of a kid below 13, three counts of sexual assault involving youngsters, and 6 counts of possessing indecent photographs of kids, amongst different issues. He was sentenced to 29 years in jail.
Singer Ronnie Radke has performed Warped Tour a number of instances, each in Escape the Destiny and Falling in Reverse. Following Escape the Destiny’s 2007 look, Radke spent two-and-a-half years in jail after being indicted on battery fees for being “current throughout an altercation in Could of 2006 that finally led to the capturing loss of life of 18-year-old Michael Cook dinner.”
In an April 2012 interview with Rolling Stone, Radke admitted he was a “troublemaker throughout his early stints on Warped with Escape the Destiny,” however Lyman welcomed Radke again to Warped Tour along with his new band Falling in Reverse. The journal wrote, “Lyman views himself as a mentor for performers like Radke. ‘I don’t decide what these youngsters are doing. I feel I can information them somewhat, assist them miss among the errors that possibly killed just a few of my pals,’ he tells Rolling Stone.”
In August 2012, Radke was arrested on fees of home violence and “charged with a misdemeanor depend of corporal damage to his girlfriend.” Different Press reported that Radke pleaded “no contest” to “disturbing the peace,” and the home violence cost was dismissed. His girlfriend claimed on Twitter that it was a plea cut price and maintained he assaulted her. The band performed Warped in 2014, 2016, 2017, and 2018.
In 2014, months after working as a Warped Tour Pit Reporter, Youtuber VeeOneEye (actual identify Jason Viohni), was accused of soliciting nude images from a minor in 2011 and raping an adolescent in 2013. No fees have been filed. In 2021, Day by day Dot reported {that a} younger lady named Ania Magliano-Wright posted a video on YouTube in 2014 claiming Viohni “received her drunk and slept along with her—after which a message revealed that he wished to get her drunk once more.” She stated she was 15 on the time and he was 20. Based on the Day by day Dot, extra ladies shared comparable tales publicly and with Magliano-Wright. The Day by day Dot and Channel 4 Information within the UK each reported that Viohni tweeted an unlisted response video to Magliano-Wright. Based on Channel 4 Information, Viohni stated, “I’m not going to disclaim it. I’d identical to the possibility to elucidate myself.” He stated his Mormon upbringing and ingesting on the time contributed to his conduct.
Austin Jones, one other Youtuber, was accused of soliciting sexualized movies from minors in 2015. He was booked for Warped in 2015 however faraway from the line-up weeks after a web-based petition made the rounds. Jones was arrested for baby pornography in 2017 and sentenced to 10 years in jail in 2019. The 12 months Jones was arrested, Buzzfeed revealed a narrative during which one other former Warped Tour artist claimed he instructed Lyman about Jones’s conduct earlier than the information was made public.
Lyman instructed Different Press on the time, “The phrase ‘pedophile’ is a powerful, robust time period. Whereas the world may be screwed-up at instances, there’s a standards for issues. Within the courtroom of the Web, folks’s lives are being dragged out in entrance of the world with no due course of. Folks throw very robust phrases out onto the Web and when it’s previous information to them, it leaves a path of destruction in different folks’s lives. This nation was constructed on the idea of ‘harmless till confirmed responsible.’ Are we going to return to this Salem witch hunt mentality? Communication must occur. I’m actively encouraging that If ladies and women really feel they’re being victimized, inform your mother and father, go to the police, speak to counselors.”
Jones wasn’t the one booked artist to be faraway from Warped Tour’s line-up in 2015. Entrance Porch Step (actual identify Jake McElfresh) canceled his competition look after being outed for allegedly exchanging nude photographs with minors. Lyman quietly put McElfresh again on the schedule throughout a Warped Tour cease in Nashville. Folks have been pissed. When information of McElfresh’s efficiency broke, Dan “Soupy” Campbell of the band the Surprise Years canceled his Warped Tour efficiency that day, and Haley Williams of Paramore tweeted, “I nonetheless imagine in you, scene. Demand higher bc you deserve higher. No extra excuses for boys simply ‘being boys.’”
I used to be working for the alt-weekly the Nashville Scene on the time, and after I reached out to Lyman for remark for a narrative, Lyman stated McElfresh’s efficiency was “rehabilitation” and “a part of the 8-month remedy program, along with his counselors and all his supervisors right here.”
The band Slaves have been additionally faraway from Warped’s 2015 lineup after the band’s singer Jonny Craig allegedly sexually harassed a merch gross sales worker. Afterward, Lyman instructed Billboard that he “proposed a plan to permit Craig and Slaves to return in the event that they adhered to a sequence of caveats, equivalent to attending a gathering with sexual-harassment and bullying counselors.” Different musicians on the tour opposed Lyman’s plan in a “city corridor” vote, and Slaves didn’t return. In 2017, a number of ladies accused Craig of sexual assault, and the band’s label, Artery Recordings, dropped them from their roster.
The Australian band With Confidence performed Warped Tour in 2016. The subsequent 12 months, guitarist Luke Rockets left the band after being accused of sending inappropriate messages to a 14-year-old lady. The band canceled the remaining dates of their US tour and launched a press release saying, “This form of abuse of energy has been all too prevalent in at this time’s trade. It’s in these circumstances that folks should be utterly stripped of that energy and held accountable for his or her actions.”
Days later, the band’s vocalist, Jayden Seeley, was additionally accused of sexual misconduct when a fan claimed Seeley “pressured” her into sending him nude photographs when she was 15 years previous and he was 21. Shortly after, the band tweeted, “We’re taking a step again from touring whereas we course of and suppose on latest developments.” With Confidence, with Seeley nonetheless on bass/vocals, performed Warped Tour the following summer time, in 2018.
What’s it about Warped Tour that’s so interesting to predatory and abusive males? And the way, regardless of this damning sample, can Lyman constantly take the stance that if there aren’t prison fees, these accusations shouldn’t be taken severely?
Based on RAINN, “solely 310 out of each 1,000 sexual assaults are reported to police” for an countless listing of causes, from concern of retaliation to lack of religion that authorities would or may do something to assist. Lyman brushes off accusers’ claims as rumors and “witch hunts,” however look how typically “rumors” become details. Look how typically males on Warped Tour who’ve been accused of predatory conduct become predators.
Warped Tour isn’t the one music competition to have issues—in 2022, I wrote about how When We Had been Younger’s nostalgia for early and mid-2000s emo and pop-punk was affected by points, too—however earlier than Warped resulted in 2018, it was one of many longest-running and largest touring music festivals. It had a wider attain than so many different one-off occasions. In 2018 Lyman reported that the competition offered 540,688 tickets throughout 38 US cities. (For comparability, Coachella reportedly offered 161,838 tickets for 2 weekends in 2024.)
However simply because the tradition is starting to carry abusers accountable, we should always maintain those that enabled them accountable, too. Lyman has but to take any duty for a way Warped Tour—and so most of the musicians he’s personally vouched for—have contributed to a scene that so many music followers and even some performers have since condemned. Hayley Williams stated in a 2020 interview with Vulture that the “pop-punk and emo scene within the early 2000s,” together with the band’s time spent on Warped Tour in 2005 and 2006, was “poisonous” and “brutally misogynistic.”
And now we’re imagined to, as Rolling Stone says, “lace up [our] Vans sneakers” and get stoked for Warped’s return? We may take heed to Lyman, we may simply “keep residence.” Or we may take Williams’s recommendation and we are able to demand higher.
