Vans Warped Tour From A Mother’s Perspective!

JK: Since I was sixteen my summer has consisted of me working a few shows or legs of Vans Warped Tour.  For the first time along with my friend Bethany’s mom, my 49 year old mother went to Vans Warped Tour. My mom loves Andrea Bocelli, Celine Dion, county music, Journey, and Def Leppard; a far cry from some of the music at this festival.

MK: I arrived at First Midwest Bank Amphitheater at 3 p.m. with Karen. We got our passes and made our way backstage. It’s funny I’ve seen so many concerts there, but have never been backstage or side stage. I was amazed at all of the security checking wristbands to make sure we could be back there.  My daughter ran over to me surprisingly not tanned or burned, while Crown The Empire was teaching a Bandhappy class in front of us.

Courage My Love’s Phoenix and Mercedes stopped Jacklyn in the hallway and I got to meet them. I couldn’t get over how nice and respectful they were, we even took a selfie! The Protomen I saw the interview that SRS did with them before coming.  We went side stage to watch their performance. They were the funniest people to meet and have a really original performance. It was so odd looking at the crowd and being one of those lucky people standing on the stage.

We walked pass fans staring wide eyed at A Day To Remember, the special guest that day. The crowd for Bowling For Soup was so intense, fans moshing, sitting, crowd surfing, and tweeting. Already 8 hours into the festival so many kids were worn out and passed out.

I was flabbergasted at the amount of food fans donated to Feed Our Children Now.  They also donated cell phones as well.  It is great to see the festival having the kids make a difference and encouraging it!

SRS interviewed Mayday Parade which I watched. Then Face The King and Survive This did a joint interview where the lead singer Eric made me get on camera, I’m not a camera person.  It was intriguing to see what this website did and how hard the crew works, it takes a lot of preparation and thinking on your toes.

We went past Of Mice and Men’s set and boy were they loud. Later on during the night I met Austin, the frontman who was nothing but sweet and smiley.  He came over and played with dogs with all of us.

I don’t know how fans handle the heat and the 10 hour+ day.  I wasn’t expecting the eclectic line up and was pleasantly surprised.   I was not expecting all of the outfits and costumes fans wore. It was amazing to meet the people my daughter works with and other parents visiting or on the tour. I had no idea coming into this how respectful and family like this tour is,  I was honestly blown away.