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Vans Warped Tour returns for 25th anniversary with two-day Atlantic City stop

Vans Warped Tour’s A.C. dates will be June 29 and 30. Live Nation and Atlantic City’s Casino Reinvestment Development Authority will produce the event

Vans Warped Tour in 2011. For its 25th anniversary, the Vans Warped Tour will make a stop in Atlantic City.
Vans Warped Tour in 2011. For its 25th anniversary, the Vans Warped Tour will make a stop in Atlantic City.Read moreTom Gralish / File Photograph

The Vans Warped Tour marked its final cross-country run last year, but the festival will return this summer to celebrate its 25th anniversary with three stops — including one in Atlantic City.

Presented as part of the annual Atlantic City BeachFest concert series, Vans Warped Tour’s A.C. dates will be June 29 and 30. Live Nation and Atlantic City’s Casino Reinvestment Development Authority will produce the event, which will serve as the lone 25th anniversary celebration stop on the East Coast. Other scheduled dates are June 8 in Cleveland and July 21 and 22 in Mountain View, Calif.

“Warped Tour was meant to take place on the surf and sand,” Live Nation Philadelphia regional president Geoff Gordon said in a release, “so we welcome fans from across North America to experience this unforgettable weekend with us in Atlantic City.”

Ticket pre-sales begin Feb. 25; sales to the general public will begin March 1. The festival’s lineup, as well as a list of special attractions, also will be released March 1. The lineup will include more than 50 bands, according to a release.

Founded in 1995 as a traveling alternative rock tour, Vans Warped Tour ran nationwide up until last year, when founder Kevin Lyman announced that 2018 would be the festival’s last nationwide trek. The move inspired many to attend the festival’s final Camden stop as a “badge of honor,” as the Inquirer’s Bethany Ao wrote last summer. However, in December, Lyman announced that Warped Tour would return in 2019 with three events during the summer festival season.

As a national tour, Vans Warped Tour brought bands from alternative rock genres like punk, emo, and metal to crowds around the country, popularizing groups like pop-punkers Blink-182, emo outfit Simple Plan, and post-hardcore rockers Silverstein, among others. As a limited series, however, the festival aims to provide a more immersive experience, Lyman said in a release.

“With the [Vans Warped Tour] 25th Anniversary events, we want to bring the atmosphere of a classic Warped Tour show, but on a scale that our fans simply could not get with a national tour “ Lyman said. “The bands, the special attractions, everything — we want to bring back elements that have made the Warped Tour, Warped Tour, over the past 25 years.”