PHOTOS: Vans Warped Tour says goodbye to NYC area

WANTAGH, NEW YORK — The Vans Warped Tour is sadly making its final cross-country trek this year. After more than two decades of music-making and unique programming, the annual summer festival will come to an end, at least in its current form.

That doesn’t mean Warped is leaving without a party. The punk, rock and metal experience pulled into Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater in Wantagh, New York, for a final goodbye to the New York City area. The Saturday, July 28 festival reportedly sold out with 18,000 fans, many of them young music lovers who came to see the likes of Issues, Mayday Parade, Reel Big Fish, The Maine, This Wild Life, Unearth, Trash Boat and many more.

Parents were allowed in free with a paying child, and from the looks of it many adults earned the honor of coolest parents of the year. Most of the stage areas were packed with crowds ready to mosh, crowd surf, jump, scream, sing and sway. Vendors sold T-shirts, bracelets, iPhone chargers and bandanas. Eclectic food choices were offered, and the water, especially in the nearing-90-degree heat, flowed effusively.

The Vans Warped Tour hosts many stages for each of its festival stops. Punk and rock acts were combined on the Journeys Left Foot and Journeys Right Foot stages, essentially with each band receiving 30 minutes to rev up the audience. With the alternating stage structure, there was no wasted minutes between sets. Ditto for the metal stages: Mutant Red Dawn and Mutant White Lightning. An owly.fm stage and Full Sail University stage rounded out the musical choices, although pop-up tents had smaller bands playing with a lot of energy.

Being that the festival was held in the amphitheater’s parking lot, the heat felt hot. There was no grass and few areas of shade. Sitting down on a chair was a luxury, and most concertgoers simply parked it on the blacktop when their feet gave out.

The energy in the audience for the early sets was palpable and nonstop. It did not take long for fans to be hoisted into the air and brought — sometimes smoothly and sometimes violently — toward the stage in an iconic crowd surf. Security was aplenty, ready to help these music lovers make a safe landing.

It was a bittersweet adieu.

The Vans Warped Tour will hopefully return to the East Coast in some form, but until its future is hammered out, 18,000 fans will sit, wait and cherish those memories.

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com