Kevin Lyman is approaching this summer’s 24th edition of the Warped Tour thinking about something that never needed to enter his thoughts during most of the years he’s organized and overseen it:
He’s thinking about his life without Warped. Last fall, Lyman announced that 2018 would be the last year for Warped as a traveling festival that visits cities coast to coast.
It’s the end of an era in the concert world. Warped wasn’t Lyman’s first traveling festival — before launching Warped, Lyman worked for three years on Lollapalooza when it was breaking ground as a touring multi-band festival. But it is the last such tour from the ’90s heyday, having outlasted Ozzfest, Lollapalooza, H.O.R.D.E., Lilith Fair and every other traveling tour.
Lyman suspects the concept of the traveling festival has seen its day and lists multiple reasons why it’s unlikely to happen again.
One reason is finances. The transportation costs of getting some 70 bands and everything that comes with them to the venues have increased, as have band fees, insurance and other expenditures.
It’s also become a bigger challenge to book bands popular enough to anchor Warped stages and drive ticket sales. That wasn’t an issue in the first decade or so, when Warped was essentially the only big summer package tour going for bands in the Punk and AltRock worlds. Back then, managers and record labels clamored for one of the coveted tour slots.
The business of music and touring has also changed in big ways, and the changes haven’t always worked in Warped’s favor.
For one thing, album sales have tanked in the era of downloading and streaming services. Without much revenue from album sales, bands have to make their money on touring. Lyman says Warped is simply not seen by some industry professionals as the best summer touring option anymore, particularly for the kind of acts that could bring name recognition and a measure of star power to the tour.
“When I started Warped Tour, there wasn’t a full summer (of festivals) in Europe that you could go to,” Lyman says. “Bands used to go over there in June, do a couple of festivals in early June, and then they’d come back, (do Warped Tour) and hopefully do a couple (European festivals) in August. But now there’s a full three months of festivals going on in Europe.”
With the bulk of their income stream shifting heavily to the touring arena, Lyman says he’s sympathetic to bands’ financial necessities.
“It’s understandable. They only make their money from touring, so in the short-term thinking, maybe they could go make more money (in Europe),” he says.
On a personal level, Lyman also found himself getting worn down from the long hours he puts in traveling with the tour, making sure things run smoothly. He typically starts work before sunrise and doesn’t finish until dark, some 16 hours later. Physically, it’s become a challenge for Lyman, now 57, to maintain his hands-on approach to managing the tour. He has a knee replacement and a surgically rebuilt ankle to testify to the wear and tear.
“I go 100 percent on everything I do,” he says. “I’m always in the middle of it and I will always be in the middle of everything I do. But the physical toll on me has gotten too hard.”
So, yes, Lyman sounds ready to leave behind the grind of Warped, but not until he takes one last trip around the country. For Warped’s final voyage, Lyman assembled a diverse lineup of talent that includes a number of veteran bands that have had multiple outings on the tour (Less Than Jake, Reel Big Fish and Every Time I Die) as well as emerging acts that touch on everything from Pop Rock (Echosmith) and Punk (Doll Skin) to Metal (Amity Affliction) and beyond.
Due to the aforementioned financial realities, Lyman says he wasn’t able to book all of the returning acts he wanted, although some groups that helped put Warped on the map are making one-off guest appearances at various tour stops. He likes what this year’s lineup offers and what he’s seen with ticket sales so far.
“I have a very solid lineup and it’s all people who wanted to be there,” he says.
He says the varied roster of acts from different Warped eras seems to have helped expand the typical fanbase for the tour.
“I’m very happy with how I think we’re selling our tickets, who we’re selling our tickets to this year,” Lyman says. “It looks like we’re selling to a fan that maybe remembers their good times at Warped Tour, that’s maybe a few years older, that 20- to 35-year-old set. I really think it’s going to be a celebration of people who are true music fans, who remember those times (at Warped) and are going to come out and have a great last summer with us.”
The absence of a Warped Tour going forward will leave a void for some bands, especially the newer Alt-leaning acts that have been able to establish a buzz and a following for themselves on the tour. But Lyman figures those acts will find other touring options that will work for them.
One void that is a concern for Lyman, though, is the future of some of the nonprofits that have been part of the Warped experience. Each year dozens of organizations have traveled with Warped, and a good number of fledgling groups grew into influential operations through the exposure and volunteer participation they’ve generated on the tour. Working with these organizations has long been a major priority for him.
“One of the hardest things of ending this (tour) is trying to figure out how to continue to help them with their missions,” Lyman says. “We’ve got some plans in place. We’re not walking away from them.”
Lyman himself has plenty of ways to fill his time now that he’s not booking and running Warped Tour. Besides staying involved with some of the nonprofits, he will be available to consult on certain festivals or other events and he has accepted a teaching position with the University of Southern California starting this fall.
Having some time off during “summertime” for the first time since his days with Lollapalooza, Lyman has one other undertaking on his mind.
“Now I’m going to travel in a different way,” he says. “I get to take my wife on a summer vacation. It will be awesome. Next summer will be our first summer vacation in 27 years.”
The all-day Vans Warped Tour comes to Riverbend for a final time on Thursday (July 19). Tickets and more info: riverbend.org.
This article appears in Jul 11-18, 2018.