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The Specials, Bad Religion and Reverend Horton Heat are among the artists who will play this summer's Vans Warped Tour.|
The tour is set to kick off on June 30 in Phoenix. Other artists on the bill include Rancid, NOFX, Cherry Poppin' Daddies, Germany's Die Toten Hosen, Spain's Def Con Dos and Australia's Frenzal Rhomb.
In addition to the music, Warped will also feature top extreme athletes like Steve Caballero, Neal Hendrix, Rick Thorne, Mike Frazier and Jen O'Brien showing off their biking, blading and skating skills on various half-pipes, ramps and racing courses.
New to the festival this year will be the Ladies Lounge, an attraction featuring booths geared toward a female audience, and an air-conditioned indie film tent that will hold 400 viewers at a time.
"We have probably given more successful U.S. bands their first chances at playing for larger audiences than any other tour," said Kevin Lyman, co-founder of Warped Tour. "We've helped introduce bands like Mighty Mighty Bosstones and 311 into [overseas] markets by packaging them with popular German, Australian and Swedish artists. This year we'll be bringing over several acts that are huge in their native countries and introducing them to a North American audience."
Since its inception in 1995, Warped tour has consistently grown
in popularity. Case in point: during the 1997 season, more than
250,000 fans came out to see bands like Sugar Ray,
Pennywise, Less Than Jake, Hepcat and the Bosstones. (Ari
Bendersky)