After the successful return of Warped Tour in three cities last year, the now two day festival expanded to 5 cities. Washington, D.C. was the first to host for the year on June 13 & 14th, followed by Long Beach in July, Montreal in August, Mexico City in September, and will finish off their “tour” in Orlando in November.

Overall, the entire festival felt like a nostalgic love letter to the fans and community with some updates from last year.

Both mornings saw fans tailgating the parking lot and lines snaking around the venue. Once the gate opened at 10, there’s a sense of anticipation and excitement as fans walked onto the festival grounds. The schedule for the day was hidden until 11 am, just like last year- which led to a “running of the emos” to get the first peak of what their day would look like.

Warped Tour was held at the same venue last year, the festival grounds at RFK Campus. There is still no shade and next to no green space. It’s pure asphalte. Let’s be honest, we love how true to the og tour this is… but we’re all older than we were back then. Our feet, knees, and backs do not love it so much. Credit is due to the WT team though- the survey last year was taken to heart which led to more tents providing shade around the grounds.

Walking through the venue felt as if it was even more packed than last year. Moving stage to stage is always quite a task, but felt even more daunting as the layout had slightly changed along with the sheer volume of people. However, this did not ruin anything as fans were still just as eager to get to the stages before. The map for the venue had been released in plenty of time but it was still a task to figure just where everything was and how to move without bumping into another person or a stand.

Countless charities, such as our friends over at Music Saves Lives and Headcount, could be found in Charity Circle. Each had a booth that allowed fans to take a moment and learn about their missions. Headcount allowed visitors to learn about the importance of voting and keeping their registration up to date. Music Saves Lives gave fans the chance to donate blood prior to the event for a chance to meet some of their favorite bands.

Artist Village was a way for fans to buy merch or catch their favorite bands for a meet and greet. Tucked away between the Vans/Off The Wall stages and the Verizon/Eagle stages, Artists Village made it easy to watch your favorite band or grab a t-shirt without ever getting too far away from the music.

Crowds were full of just beautiful, excited fans. Everywhere you looked, someone was crowd surfing, a pit was moshing, and lyrics were sung at top volume. The energy was unmatched from open to close both days. Between the six stages, crowds were packed in to see their favorite bands. With three stage areas consisting two stages in each, sets moved quickly with only about 5 minutes between bands. Delays were basically non-existent.

Some highlights include The Paradox (aka the golden retrievers of pop punk bands) having the Youtuber Reckless Ben announce a new religion “Bassology” and having the crowd join it, grandson and DeathbyRomy “walked” people in Trump and Musk masks like dogs during the set, and MXPX’s end of set “Punk Rawk Show” having one of the largest circle pits of the weekend.

There were two different types of tickets available, GA and VIP. GA allows access to most of the festival. VIP had vendor stands, lockers, and water refill stations that did not have the lines that GA did. The best part of the VIP areas of course was the air conditioned bathrooms. They also had Wifi available, however, they never got it working. This Wifi was probably provided due to complete lack of service on phones last year. Although the Wifi wasn’t working, I found my service to be better than last year in general.

Something that affected everyone from GA to the artists was that DC June heat. Leading up to the weekend, the forecast called for some major storms that differently had most people worried. In fact, one vendor mentioned being warned to be ready to pack up by 6 pm on Sunday if the weather did not change. Luckily, the storms missed the festival. Instead, temperatures were in the mid to high 90s with heat index values into the 100s.

These temperatures paired with the workout of seeing your favorite band created a very busy medical tent. At one point, the medical professionals on call were handing out bags of ice to people in line in order to separate those dealing with heat related issues and any other medical issues. These temperatures did allow for everyone to see the triumphant return of the official unofficial bird of Warped Tour, SOS packets.

Just as last year, Vans Warped Tour knew the cure for the post-festival blues and already announced ticket sales for June 19-20, 2027. When this was announced, there was a casual addition of a new ticket tier called GA+. According to the Vans Warped Tour website, this is a GA ticket with access to the air conditioned bathrooms.

Overall, Warped Tour Washington DC was absolutely incredible. Being able to see emo punk founding fathers Glassjaw on one stage and scene royalty Breathe Carolina on another really proved that Warped Tour is back in full force with incredible line-ups for everyone. DC was the first five stops and we are so excited what continued improvements will come next year.

What was your favorite part of Warped? Share in the comments!