Yesterday Rolling Stone broke the news: Vans Warped Tour is returning in 2025. The festival, which was founded in 1995 and made its last cross-country tour in 2018, will pop up for two days each in Washington, D.C., Long Beach, California, and Orlando, Florida, next summer.
The piece praises Warped Tour and its founder Kevin Lyman for fostering up-and-coming bands, maintaining lower ticket prices compared to similar festivals, and the organizationâs âstrong sense of community.â But one thing Rolling Stone fails to mention is Lymanâs staggering track record for booking and protecting musicians accused of (and in some cases charged with) sexual harassment, sexual assault, and domestic violence.
Itâs not a secret. For more than a decade, Warped Tour has been synonymous with predatory behavior. Itâs a recurring topic on the humor website Hard Times, and itâs been written about and reported on by NPR, The Washington Post, and Flavorwire, among others. Still, Lyman didnât seem to think there was a problem. In a 2017 interview with Billboard, ahead of what was billed as Warped Tourâs final year, the outlet asked Lyman about the recent âissues of sexual harassment on the tour.â Lyman denied any misconduct happened on the tour itself and dismissed general inappropriate behavior as âpart of the culture.â
It is part of the culture, heâs not wrong. But whatâs not being said is how much Warped Tour has contributed to that culture over the years.
In 2009 Blood on the Dance Floor singer Dahvie Vanity (real name Jesus David Torres) was arrested for statutory rape. Still, the band played Warped in 2011 and 2012. In 2011, when asked about the bad press he was receiving for booking Blood on the Dance Floor, Lyman told music journalist Adam Bernard, âYeah, you know what... controversy. Punk rock was controversial at one point. ⊠Iâm like well, you got a couple options. One, there are six other stages and three will have bands on them when that band will be playing. Thatâs one option, go see someone else. Or two, stay home. No one is twisting anyoneâs arm to come to Warped Tour.â
In 2019, the Huffington Post published a story in which 21 women accused Vanity of sexual assault. One woman told the publication that Vanity attacked her on the bandâs tour bus during Warped Tour in 2011. She says he âexposed his penis and tried to remove her clothes,â and âhit her in the faceâ and cut her lip when she wouldnât have sex with him. She was 16 years old. In a 2020 Business Insider story, Vanity denied all accusations, but sources told the outlet the FBI was investigating.Â
Pierce the Veil played Warped Tour in 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, and 2015. In 2017 a woman claimed on Twitter that she had a sexual relationship with the bandâs drummer, Mike Fuentes, when she was 16 years old and he was 24. She says he knew how old she was, and they slept together after meeting up at Warped Tour in 2008. Another woman made similar claims about a month later, in December 2017. She said she met Fuentes at Warped Tour in 2008, and he asked her for nude photos when she was 15. Fuentes said in a statement, âI have never intentionally manipulated or abused anyone in my life,â but left the band after the accusations became public.
Lostprophetâs frontman Ian Watkins was accused of pedophilia as early as 2008. Cops ignored the claims for years. The band played Warped in 2012. Months later, Watkins was arrested and ultimately convicted of rape and sexual assault of a child under 13, three counts of sexual assault involving children, and six counts of possessing indecent images of children, among other things. He was sentenced to 29 years in prison.
Singer Ronnie Radke has played Warped Tour multiple times, both in Escape the Fate and Falling in Reverse. Following Escape the Fateâs 2007 appearance, Radke spent two-and-a-half years in prison after being indicted on battery charges for being âpresent during an altercation in May of 2006 that ultimately led to the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Cook.âÂ
In an April 2012 interview with Rolling Stone, Radke admitted he was a âtroublemaker during his early stints on Warped with Escape the Fate,â but Lyman welcomed Radke back to Warped Tour with his new band Falling in Reverse. The magazine wrote, âLyman views himself as a mentor for performers like Radke. âI donât judge what these kids are doing. I think I can guide them a little, help them miss some of the mistakes that maybe killed a few of my friends,â he tells Rolling Stone.â
In August 2012, Radke was arrested on charges of domestic violence and âcharged with a misdemeanor count of corporal injury to his girlfriend.â Alternative Press reported that Radke pleaded âno contestâ to âdisturbing the peace,â and the domestic violence charge was dismissed. His girlfriend claimed on Twitter that it was a plea bargain and maintained he assaulted her. The band played Warped in 2014, 2016, 2017, and 2018.
In 2014, months after working as a Warped Tour Pit Reporter, Youtuber VeeOneEye (real name Jason Viohni), was accused of soliciting nude photographs from a minor in 2011 and raping a teenager in 2013. No charges were filed. In 2021, Daily Dot reported that a young woman named Ania Magliano-Wright posted a video on YouTube in 2014 claiming Viohni âgot her drunk and slept with herâand then a message revealed that he wanted to get her drunk again.â She said she was 15 at the time and he was 20. According to the Daily Dot, more women shared similar stories publicly and with Magliano-Wright. The Daily Dot and Channel 4 News in the UK both reported that Viohni tweeted an unlisted response video to Magliano-Wright. According to Channel 4 News, Viohni said, âIâm not going to deny it. Iâd just like the chance to explain myself.â He said his Mormon upbringing and drinking at the time contributed to his behavior.
Austin Jones, another Youtuber, was accused of soliciting sexualized videos from minors in 2015. He was booked for Warped in 2015 but removed from the line-up weeks after an online petition made the rounds. Jones was arrested for child pornography in 2017 and sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2019. The year Jones was arrested, Buzzfeed published a story in which another former Warped Tour artist claimed he told Lyman about Jonesâs behavior before the news was made public.
Lyman told Alternative Press at the time, âThe word âpedophileâ is a strong, strong term. While the world can be screwed-up at times, there is a criteria for things. In the court of the Internet, peopleâs lives are being dragged out in front of the world with no due process. People throw very strong words out onto the Internet and when it is old news to them, it leaves a trail of destruction in other peopleâs lives. This country was built on the concept of âinnocent until proven guilty.â Are we going to go back to this Salem witch hunt mentality? Communication needs to happen. I am actively encouraging that If women and girls feel they are being victimized, tell your parents, go to the police, talk to counselors.â
Jones wasnât the only booked artist to be removed from Warped Tourâs line-up in 2015. Front Porch Step (real name Jake McElfresh) canceled his festival appearance after being outed for allegedly exchanging nude photos with minors. Lyman quietly put McElfresh back on the schedule during a Warped Tour stop in Nashville. People were pissed. When news of McElfreshâs performance broke, Dan âSoupyâ Campbell of the band the Wonder Years canceled his Warped Tour performance that day, and Haley Williams of Paramore tweeted, âI still believe in you, scene. Demand better bc you deserve better. No more excuses for boys just âbeing boys.ââ
I was working for the alt-weekly the Nashville Scene at the time, and when I reached out to Lyman for comment for a story, Lyman said McElfreshâs performance was ârehabilitationâ and âpart of the 8-month therapy program, with his counselors and all his supervisors here.âÂ
The band Slaves were also removed from Warpedâs 2015 lineup after the bandâs singer Jonny Craig allegedly sexually harassed a merch sales employee. Afterward, Lyman told Billboard that he âproposed a plan to allow Craig and Slaves to return if they adhered to a series of caveats, such as attending a meeting with sexual-harassment and bullying counselors.â Other musicians on the tour opposed Lymanâs plan in a âtown hallâ vote, and Slaves did not return. In 2017, multiple women accused Craig of sexual assault, and the bandâs label, Artery Recordings, dropped them from their roster.Â
The Australian band With Confidence played Warped Tour in 2016. The next year, guitarist Luke Rockets left the band after being accused of sending inappropriate messages to a 14-year-old girl. The band canceled the remaining dates of their US tour and released a statement saying, âThis sort of abuse of power has been all too prevalent in today's industry. It is in these circumstances that people need to be completely stripped of that power and held accountable for their actions.âÂ
Days later, the bandâs vocalist, Jayden Seeley, was also accused of sexual misconduct when a fan claimed Seeley âpressuredâ her into sending him nude photos when she was 15 years old and he was 21. Shortly after, the band tweeted, âWe are taking a step back from touring while we process and think on recent developments.â With Confidence, with Seeley still on bass/vocals, played Warped Tour the next summer, in 2018.
What is it about Warped Tour that is so appealing to predatory and abusive men? And how, despite this damning pattern, can Lyman consistently take the stance that if there arenât criminal charges, these accusations shouldnât be taken seriously?
According to RAINN, âonly 310 out of every 1,000 sexual assaults are reported to policeâ for an endless list of reasons, from fear of retaliation to lack of faith that authorities would or could do anything to help. Lyman brushes off accusersâ claims as rumors and âwitch hunts,â but look how often ârumorsâ turn out to be facts. Look how often men on Warped Tour whoâve been accused of predatory behavior turn out to be predators.Â
Warped Tour isnât the only music festival to have problemsâin 2022, I wrote about how When We Were Youngâs nostalgia for early and mid-2000s emo and pop-punk was littered with issues, tooâbut before Warped ended in 2018, it was one of the longest-running and largest touring music festivals. It had a wider reach than so many other one-off events. In 2018 Lyman reported that the festival sold 540,688 tickets across 38 US cities. (For comparison, Coachella reportedly sold 161,838 tickets for two weekends in 2024.)
But just as the culture is beginning to hold abusers accountable, we should hold those who enabled them accountable, too. Lyman has yet to take any responsibility for how Warped Tourâand so many of the musicians heâs personally vouched forâhave contributed to a scene that so many music fans and even some performers have since condemned. Hayley Williams said in a 2020 interview with Vulture that the âpop-punk and emo scene in the early 2000s,â including the bandâs time spent on Warped Tour in 2005 and 2006, was âtoxicâ and âbrutally misogynistic.âÂ
And now weâre supposed to, as Rolling Stone says, âlace up [our] Vans sneakersâ and get stoked for Warpedâs return? We could listen to Lyman, we could just âstay home.â Or we could take Williamsâs advice and we can demand better.