It’s been a few years since we saw the massive Vans Warped Tour bring the likes of The Offspring, Parkway Drive, Millencolin and The Amity Affliction to our shores, but with the skate punk fest announcing a new expansion into Mexico headlined by Good Charlotte, the idea of a show or two in Australia is naturally on our minds.
We reached out to tour founder Kevin Lyman recently about the prospects of seeing the show roll back around to Oz and, while he wasn’t committing to anything, it certainly seemed like a return was a serious possibility.
“I am exploring all options,” he told us, “and it would be remiss to not include one of my favorite places in them.”
Now, with the announcement of the Mexico expansion ringing in our ears, Lyman has revealed that a move to Australia is at the very least on the table, even if he’s not exactly booking a lineup just yet.
The Vans Warped Tour returned to Australia for the first time in over a decade in 2013 thanks to former Soundwave boss and Big Day Out promoter AJ Maddah, but wasn’t able to return the following year, with both of the aforementioned festivals folding soon afterwards.
At the time, Maddah claimed that the Canberra and Coffs Harbour legs were planned to be scrapped due to low attendance, before discussions to bring the festival back for a second year fell through.
With the festival scene a markedly different beast following the demise of the massive touring festivals in favour of smaller boutique offerings, it would take a change in strategy for Warped if it were to make its way back for another bite at the cherry.
But with the enormous EDM festival Ultra heading to Australia next year to fill the gap in the electronic festival market left by Stereosonic, and a swathe of skate, surf and general punk talent currently killing it locally, it might be the time to give Warped another crack at Australia.
