Warped Tour reportedly returning in 2025. Could the iconic festival come back to NJ?

Five years after its 25th anniversary events in 2019, one of which took place in Atlantic City , the iconic rock music festival Warped Tour is reportedly returning to celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2025.

According to rock news YouTube channel Rock Feed, multiple sources familiar with the matter said that Warped Tour will return in 2025 to celebrate its anniversary with a "series of festivals."

In a video posted to YouTube on Thursday, Brian Storm, the host of Rock Feed said, "According to multiple sources familiar with the matter, Warped Tour will celebrate its anniversary with a series of festivals next year when Warped Tour returns in 2025. The festival will now be overseen by Live Nation, although festival founder Kevin Lyman is said to be heavily involved. A request for comment from Live Nation was not returned."

There has not been any further information released about the potential festival or the unnamed sources, but a comeback in 2025 would make sense as it would be Warped Tour's 30th anniversary.

Founded by Kevin Lyman in 1995, Warped Tour served as a starting point for some of music's biggest names to this day. Some iconic bands and artists that played Warped Tour over the years include Fall Out Boy, Paramore, Blink-182, Katy Perry and so many more.

The festival toured the country for 24 years, with the summer of 2018 being the final cross-country run. Lyman told Kerrang in 2019 that "the loss of the punk rock community" is what ultimately led to the tour's downfall.

During the summer of 2019, to celebrate the tour's 25th anniversary, Warped Tour cut down from a summer long, cross country tour to three festivals in Cleveland, Ohio, Mountainview, California and Atlantic City.

What could the Warped Tour 30th anniversary look like?

As stated by Storm, his sources said that the 30th anniversary will be celebrated with a "series of festivals." This indicates that the 2025 Warped Tour will likely look similar to the 2019 celebrations rather than a full cross-country tour.

As for the featured bands, there could be a number of artists selected to play the festivals.

According to Storm, the comeback of Warped Tour could be very good for upcoming groups who will be able to get in front of a big, live audience and grow their fan base.

In terms of headliners, there could be a number of possibilities. In 2019, headliners for the Atlantic City festival included Blink-182, A Day to Remember and The Offspring.

Additionally, in recent years, iconic bands such as My Chemical Romance have made a comeback, so the possibilities could be endless.

"I don't think it is going to be exactly like Warped Tour was in the past, but I also think they are definitely going to do this smart and it's going to have that nice nostalgic feel for so many people like myself who grew up going to Warped Tour," said Storm.

Will Warped Tour come back to New Jersey?

While no official plans have been announced by Live Nation, it is possible that Warped Tour will return to New Jersey as the tour has stopped in the Garden State numerous times and the East Coast's 25th anniversary festival took place on the beach in Atlantic City.

Camden also served as Warped Tour venue during its original run.

Scrutiny over Live Nation

While the news of Warped Tour's potential return has been met with a ton of positive responses online, many people are skeptical of the fact that Live Nation will be reportedly overseeing the festival.

"Good news: Vans Warped Tour is back," commented one viewer under the Rock Feed YouTube video, "Bad news: Live Nation is producing the tour which is not good considering the company has been criticized by fans over scamming fans on expensive ticket prices and so many controversies that damaged its reputation."

Live Nation has been under scrutiny in recent years, especially since its merge with Ticketmaster in 2010. In May, Reuters reported that the U.S. Justice Department and more than two dozen states sued to break up Live Nation arguing that the concert promoter and Ticketmaster unit "illegally inflated concert ticket prices and hurt artists."

The Reuters report quotes U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland who said that Live Nation "suffocates its competition," monopolizing the live events industry in the United States.

Warped Tour fans are concerned that the ticket prices, which historically were incredibly affordable, will skyrocket if Live Nation takes over the festival.

"If tickets are more than $60 do not purchase them," said another commenter on Rock Feed. "Do not give in to scalpers or significantly raised prices for the sake of nostalgia. If they want to bring it back, then they can bring it back the right way."

Storm says that fans will likely not see the low ticket prices that they have seen in the past saying, "Times have changed, things are a lot more expensive now, so there is no way that you're going to be able to do that and then also have the number of bands on the bill that you do."

According to U.S. News and World Report , music festival tickets in 2024 typically range from $200 to $600 before travel, food and other costs.

Additionally, since 2017, Live Nation has been putting on the When We Were Young Festival which features a similar lineup to what you might see at Warped Tour. This year's festival will take place on Oct. 19 and 20 in Las Vegas with My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy listed as two of the headliners.

If Warped Tour were to adapt a traditional festival structure going forward, it will be interesting to see how it stacks up against When We Were Young.

Keep an eye out for more updates on the future of Warped Tour as we move into 2025 and plans for next year's festival season begin to be released.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Warped Tour reportedly returning in 2025. Could the iconic festival come back to NJ?