Vans Warped Tour

It's hard to believe that the Warped Tour is 10 years old. The decade anniversary of this annual punkapalooza is the envy of all the other festivals. Warped's organizers have been successful because they haven't altered a strategy that packs the sheds every summer, even as Lollapalooza collapses because of disinterest. Warped also continues to offer plenty of faux-hawk bang for the buck, selling tickets in the $30 range (a welcome relief in an overpriced concert market). The 2004 edition offers the usual mixture of aging yet vital vets (NOFX, the Vandals, Bad Religion) and mall-punk gel boys (New Found Glory, Good Charlotte, and Yellowcard, pictured) rounded out by brash oddities such as Flogging Molly. Yeah, it'll be hotter than hell, and the parking lot will be dry and dusty, but it just wouldn't be Warped any other way.