Photos: Warped Tour rose from the dead in Orlando

After a years-long hiatus, Vans Warped Tour came back to life to celebrate 30 years, and Orlando received the reanimated fest with open arms and plugged ears.

The once summer-only touring fest is largely credited with changing the music festival landscape. It started as an alt-rock and punk fest that grew into a musical cottage-industry, helping to launch artists and serve as a model of what a community-forward fest could look like.

It’s been three decades since, and a 2025 Warped Tour brought with it much of what it used to be — this time, wrapped up in shiny new checkerboard-print packaging.

Despite its new size and inflated dollar signs, the fest honored tradition: guests crowded the central setlist blowup as soon as the gates opened, artists poured out their gratitude for fans, an attendee in a wheelchair crowdsurfed. It touched on the past while welcoming plenty of new fans.

Crowds were littered with not only seasoned Warped-goers returning again, but also with a new generation of little ones perched on parents’ shoulders, heads bobbing to whatever they could hear through padded headphones.

Across eight main stages and additional smaller showcases, the Orlando event featured big-name headliners (A Day to Remember, GWAR, Bowling For Soup, Falling in Reverse, Less Than Jake, The Wonder Years), newer alt acts and hardcore heavyweights (MGK, Julia Wolf, Angel Du$t, Winona Fighter) and local Orlando bands (mode., Gilt, Watts).

Tens of thousands of fans packed into Camping World Stadium to sing along, no less impassioned than in years past. The 2025 consensus was clear: $17.50 beer was a small price to pay for some sonic nostalgia.

Credit: Ian Suarez

Credit: v

Credit: Ian Suarez

Photos: Warped Tour rose from the dead in Orlando

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