Written by Sosefina Fuamoli / All photos by Maurice Nunez

The legacy of the Vans Warped Tour in Long Beach is one that clocked a new chapter in 2025, when the iconic festival made its return after a six-year hiatus to celebrate its 30th anniversary. 

Redefining its position as one of North America’s strong destination events, the Warped Tour served as a reminder of the power in growing and sustaining music and community through dedicated to culture and the artists who cultivated it from the group up. 

This year, the Warped Tour returned to the Long Beach Shoreline for two sweltering days and nights of live music, skate demos, wrestling, Nitro Circus stunts and so much more: a playground of gleeful hedonism for longtime fans and newcomers alike.

With 140+ bands performing across the weekend, it was obviously impossible to get the full scope of the festival but with a mixture of legacy punk, emo and alternative acts, as well as newer artists who are certainly positioning themselves to be on a similar trajectory with time; it’s clear that the Warped Tour organisers have been focused on curating an accessible, multi-generational experience. 

The traditions of the festival are still held dear: throngs of excited fans rushing towards the large inflatable board near the vert ramp, phones thrust in the air to snap a photo of the set times each morning. Those same fans clamored to get any sliver of time possible with Steve Van Doren or Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman, both men offering friendly smiles and handshakes to punters; some who simply wanted to say thank you for bringing the Warped Tour back.

Sleeping With Sirens

Parents with their babies, teenagers and members of the audience who had been following the Warped Tour since its beginnings in the 1990s were gathered together to share, disrupt, and party; the bands knew their assignment too, and didn’t disappoint.

Highlights of Saturday’s programming included a number of nostalgia-coated sets from acts including Gym Class Heroes, Hoobastank and Reel Big Fish. Ferocity came courtesy of A Ghost Inside, Jinjer and Pain Of Truth (featuring a guest spot from Denzel Curry), while it was acts like Citizen, The Devil Wears Prada and Joyce Manor that stood out as early highlights of the whole festival.

Denzel Curry Joins Pain of Truth

With Jimmy Eat World, Simple Plan and All Time Low stacking Saturday’s home stretch, the final sets of the night came littered with Scooby Doo appearances, generation-defining singalongs and fireworks to reward the tens of thousands of fans who had been enduring peak heat temperatures throughout a standard-setting day of chaos.

Jimmy Eat World

Sunday felt like a slower start for some, yet the quality of music still drew the fans out early; many running for stages and barricades were removed by security at 11am. 

Between the Vans and Off The Wall stages, the early part of Sunday afternoon was spent with Nashville emo faves Free Throw, post-hardcore beloveds From First To Last, and Boston hardcore outfit Haywire. The latter in particular served potency, passion and frenetic pace; ripping through their set and leaving the audiences with messages of positivity and empowerment. 

Haywire

If you don’t like the music, don’t listen to it. 

These shows are for everyone; get with the program or keep it pushing.

And for those who may be struggling it is important to have the right people surrounding you to help you through.

Such messages felt central to the whole weekend of performances; time and again, artists stopped to acknowledge the fickle and often unpredictable, nasty nature of the times we’re living in. Yet through it all, music can be such a powerful tool to bind and heal communities of people together. 

Jason Aalon Butler and letlive.

The authenticity of this messaging continued further into the day, whether it was Letlive. frontman Jason Aalon Butler forming core memories for his two young sons in having them on stage with him; or Third Eye Blind proving their enduring potential with a set full of hits that encouraged a broad demographic of audience members to turn to strangers beside them and link up for the duration of their time together. 

Guilt Trip 

On the other stages positioned around the festival sites, pure heat was delivered from groups like Thrice, Guilt Trip, The Paradox and Dying Wish, while in watching eyes of some of the younger fans spark up during sets by Nova Twins, Scarlet House and Glassjaw, it was evident that this was an afternoon providing inspiration and memories in equal measure for many.

Nova Twins

As the festival turned from its final day into its final night, a sunset set by The Used on the Off The Wall Stage brought one of the biggest performances of the night. Led by Bert McCracken, the genre icons powered through a setlist of hits that still hold up. "Pretty Handsome Awkward" as their opener threw the gauntlet down in a way that informed the audience they weren’t ready to let up on them at any point. 

Jacoby Shaddix of Papa Roach

A perfect precursor to the return of Papa Roach to the Vans Stage: always such a consistently strong live group, the band’s return to Long Beach comes off the back of a blistering run of European festivals. Match fit and approaching the show with reverence themselves - Jacoby Shaddix commenting on the key role a festival like this has had on the band’s career - the pyro Papa Roach brought with them was purely a bonus. 

Coming in to bring things home, Canadian post-hardcore heroes Alexisonfire delivered a massive show that highlighted the band’s chemistry, their undeniable catalogue and emotionally charged live presence. 

For those ticketholders who grew up alongside these artists, the type of euphoria that this brand of live music brings is one of a kind. The music, bound together by intensity and a visceral honesty in storytelling, has been the soundtrack for many formative life milestones. 

Sammy of Drain

Talking to punters of all ages around the festival weekend who were seeing some of these bands for the first time, one of the main takeaways was that being part of the extended Warped Tour history, now it is back in full glory, is becoming a just-as-important formative time for them. Just as it was in its infancy and 2000s golden era. 

Despite the body aches and sunburnt skin that no doubt 90% of the crowd is feeling in the direct aftermath of a weekend out in Long Beach, it’s a pretty safe guess that many would say it’s been worth it.