2018 Vans Warped Tour Will Be Fest's "Final, Full Cross-Country Run"

After 22 years, the Vans Warped Tour — America's most revered traveling punk, metal, and hardcore festival, held every summer since 1995 — is coming to an end. Festival founder and producer Kevin Lyman announced the alternative institution's retirement today (November 15th) in an emotional statement posted to the festival website. "Today, with many mixed feelings, I am here to announce that next year will be the final, full cross-country run of the Vans Warped Tour," he said. "I sit here reflecting on the tour's incredible history, what the final run means for our community, and look forward to what's to come as we commemorate the tour's historic 25th anniversary in 2019."

In an accompanying interview with Billboard, Lyman cited several reasons for shuttering the festival, including "an evolving summer festival industry, a shrinking pool of bands, and declining ticket sales amongst its teenage demographic." Lyman has yet to confirm the lineup for the 2018 Warped Tour, which kicks off June 28th, in Pomona, California. Speaking with Billboard, he rattled off his dream lineup for the jaunt; in a perfect world, he'd get Less than Jake, Every Time I Die, The Maine, Mayday Parade, Blink-182, Avenged Sevenfold, Deftones, My Chemical Romance and Eminem — all of whom are Warped alums.

This past summer, Revolver spent a couple days with Gwar at the Vans Warped Tour's San Diego and Pomona, California, stops to chronicle the (very NSFW) madness, from bloody showers to presidential assassinations in effigy. Watch below.