Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Warped Tour launched on the 21st of June 1995 at the Idaho Center in Nampa, Idaho. It was created by Kevin Lyman and Ray Woodbury, president of RK Diversified Entertainment, in production with the short-lived Warp Magazine and Creative Artists Agency. Vans became the title sponsor in 1996, from which point it became known as the Vans Warped Tour.
Warped Tour is credited with bringing Blink-182, My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, Paramore, Avenged Sevenfold, Sum 41, Limp Bizkit, Black Veil Brides, Machine Gun Kelly, Bebe Rexha, and Katy Perry to wide attention. The Black Eyed Peas appeared on the 1999 Vans Warped Tour, and according to will.i.am, were the first group not categorized as punk to perform there.
Kevin Lyman announced on the 15th of November 2017 that the 2018 tour would be the final full cross-country run, citing in part audience demographics trending younger each year. A scaled-back 25th anniversary edition took place in 2019 with only three events, and Lyman described working with more than 1,700 bands over 23 summers in his farewell statement.
Kevin Lyman confirmed in 2024 that Warped Tour would return in 2025 for its 30th anniversary. Three festival dates were announced on the 17th of October 2024, with both Live Nation and production company Insomniac involved. Band lineup announcements ran daily on social media from the 27th of January to the 26th of February 2025.
Each year, one band called the BBQ Band earned their spot on the tour by preparing the post-show barbecue for bands and crew most evenings. Past BBQ Bands included the Dropkick Murphys, Art of Shock, and The Fabulous Rudies. A separate group, Animo (formerly DORK), played on the tour for four consecutive years in exchange for working on the setup crew.
The tour hosted the John Lennon Bus, a mobile studio started by Brian Rothschild and Yoko Ono in 1968, which offered music education workshops attended by artists including Eminem, Bowling for Soup, Fergie, Natasha Bedingfield, and John Legend. The Percussive Marketing Council also ran a free drum lesson program at a dedicated Lesson Lab tent, and over 10,000 bands tried out for the annual Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands competition in 2005 alone.