When you consider the kind of history the Vans Warped Tour has with Washington D.C., it made sense that their 30th anniversary celebration would begin there - even if the tour hadn't been back in the city since 1999. 

To give you some sense of just how vital and diverse the tour has been during its three decade tenure, the last time the Vans Warped Tour was at RFK Festival Grounds, the July 1999 tour stop featured performances from Blink-182 and Blkack Eyed Peas, Suicidal Tendencies, Pennywise and Eminem. 

For the first Vans Warped Tour dates since 2019 and the first to touch down in the District since pre-Y2K, organizers took the ethos of the tour to heart and compiled a line-up that crossed genre and generation. Touting performances from headliners in Sublime, MGK, Avril Lavigne and Simple Plan, the festival also highlighted several alumni with the likes of 3OH3!, Pennywise, Chiodos, Dance Hall Crashers, Less Than Jake, Motion City Soundtrack, Bowling For Soup, Hawthorne Heights, Saosin and Fishbone taking up the flag for the OGs. 

Living up to the Vans Warped Tour's legacy of nurturing emerging talent and platforming future headliners, (much like when Eminem played the Tour back in 1999), the contingent of new blood on the tour re-emphasized the hole that had existed since the Warped Tour went away. Highlight sets from Drain, Scowl, Slaughter to Prevail, Gideon, Big Ass Truck, Scene Queen, KOYO and Yung Gravy underscored not only the diversity of the tour line-up, but the enthusiasm of the capacity crowd that out and actively seeking to discover something new. 

Completing the Warped Tour experience, the festival also corralled a wide array of important bands that brought serious star power to the 30th anniversary party. From Ice Nine Kills, Atmosphere, August Burns Red, Knuckle Puck, Miss May I, We Came As Romans, Comeback Kid, Asking Alexandria, blessthefall, The Wonder Years and Silverstein - plenty of fan favorites served to strengthen and stack the D.C. return. 

Welcoming more than 40,000 fans spanning across six stages, the Warped Tour also revived their requisite amenities. With gravity defying antics from the Nitro Circus to a host of skateboarding elite camped at out the Vans vert ramp - the action wasn't just limited to the stages. Emphasizing the core of community that has long been part of the Warped DNA, a team of charitable non-profit organizations were on site as well and a host of record labels including Sumerian, SharpTone and Thriller Records introducing fans to both their new and favorite artists and advocating for physical media - slanging CDs, cassette tapes and vinyl - a throwback to the good ol' compilation days. 

The return and refresh of the Vans Warped Tour was only a nostalgic trip down memory lane, it also introduced a whole new generation of fans to the kind of festival experience that loaned itself to musical discovery. For many of the 40,000 fans that made up the sold out crowd, 2025 Washington D.C. show was their first-ever Warped Tour pilgrimage - and for those of us that were fortunate enough to have previously attended - the modern era served well in prioritizing everything the Warped Tour has always stood for. 

See the gallery of images below of the 2025 Washington D.C. stop of The Vans Warped Tour's 30th anniversary run. All images courtesy of The Vans Warped Tour. 

DAY ONE

DAY TWO