As we reported back in October, Warped Tour has announced its return for 2025, albeit with a greatly reduced touring schedule, only making three stops in Washington D.C., Long Beach, California, and Orlando, Florida. Warped has always been a primarily punk festival but, back in its heyday, it often booked a variety of bands including hardcore acts, metal bands, pop artists, and even rappers. In its final days, the festival was so geared towards the poppiest of pop-punk bands that the average punk fan couldn’t recognize most of their lineup. So there was a lot of hope that, with this reset, there might be a chance that the festival would return to what made it great and book a wide variety of bands, including some that are a bit heavier. So far, that hasn’t exactly panned out, but the festival did get a little harder recently with the addition of hardcore/thrash band Drain.
The festival has been rolling out bands very gradually, announcing about three at a time. One thing you can say is that it’s more of a genuine punk lineup than they had in their last days as a festival, with legendary punk band Pennywise being booked for all three dates as well as a very long-awaited reunion of ska-punk band Dance Hall Crashers who broke up over 20 years ago. But much of the festival is still leaning towards the poppier side of punk, with pop-punk emo act The Maine on the bill as well as pop-punk band Simple Plan and pop-rock band Honey Revenge. Also, 311 is playing the Long Beach date, offering concert-goers a great chance to use the restroom.
Drain stands out as the heaviest band booked at the festival so far, and it’s by a lot. But they’re also playing all three stops on the tour, adding a healthy dose of heavy to the whole affair. Warped Tour posted a funny video of the members of Drain supposedly finding out they’re playing Warped Tour this year amidst their work outs: one while lifting weights, one while climbing a rock wall, and one while in a headlock. Check out the full list of announced artists so far below:
06/14-15 Washington, DC – Festival Grounds at RFK Campus:
Simple Plan
Bowling For Soup
Dance Hall Crashers
The Maine
Miss May I
Drain
Pennywise
Honey Revenge
Saturdays At Your Place
Chandler Leighton
07/26-27 Long Beach, CA – Shoreline Waterfront:
Bowling For Soup
311
Dance Hall Crashers
Miss May I
Drain
Honey Revenge
Pennywise
Chandler Leighton
11/15-16 Orlando, FL – Camping World Stadium Campus:
Miss May I
Drain
The Maine
Pennywise
Honey Revenge
Chandler Leighton
Source: www.metalsucks.net
