San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Warped Tour wraps up in S.A.
As they did 24 years ago, San Antonio’s hardcore punk rock fans of all ages partied hard Saturday at the annual Vans Warped Tour.
It would be the last time.
After 24 years, the famed pop-punk festival is ending. San Antonio was the 12th stop on its final 38-date tour.
Fans sported mohawks and tie-dye hair colors as they crowded the seven stages on the AT&T Center parking lot. The Warped Tour has come a long way since the festival first came to San Antonio in 1995. Back then, punk bands such as Sick Of It All and Sublime rocked the Sunken Garden Theater stage, but didn’t quite fill the space. This year, the line snaked around the AT&T Center grounds as eager fans waited for the doors to open at 11 a.m.
“It’s become a tradition for me,” said Tanner Grosse, who has gone to the San Antonio show five times. Grosse, 25, traveled from Lubbock each time. “It’s just a group of likeminded people who want to listen to good music.”
Grosse’s friend Adam Rios has visited the festival eight times and appreciates the accepting nature of the tour.
“Look at all the weirdos around,” he said, motioning to the eclectic crowd of emo fans and punk rockers. “I feel right at home.”
The Vans Warped Tour is the longest-running touring music festival in the United States, and it has become a summertime staple for many San Antonians.
The festival’s mix of genres — emo, metal, punk, rap and more — contributed to its rise in popularity, as did its family-friendly atmosphere.
Deidre Cuellar, 44, was sitting in the parent chillout zone (known as the Reverse Daycare Tent) Saturday while her 16year-old son was enjoying the music. The festival was his first concert experience. Cuellar said her 26-year-old daughter saw her first concert at
Warped Tour 10 years ago.
“It’s better than the concerts I used to go to,” she said.
The festival always provided shaded zones and free water refill stations for concertgoers, and first-aid tents and paramedics were peppered throughout the grounds.
“People came to
Warped Tour and were a part of it because it’s a community. It’s a family,” said Chad Cong, who has worked the festival eight times. To see the festival’s end is bittersweet. “There may be some tears at the end of the road here.”