Something kind of embarrassing about both Liah and Alli here at Twilight Collective is that neither of us have ever been to a festival. You throw your phone, laptop, or whatever device you're using down. "How could they?" you hiss. "They have never been to a music fest yet they DARE to call themselves music fanatics and writers?" Sadly, yes. And unfortunately, we will keep on going with those titles. To make up for this fact, our pal and Alli's fellow Staten Islander Camryn has been to a couple! She wrote us up a tale of Warped Tour; every emo kid's fantasy land that came to a close this summer. Going to one of the last tours EVER has to brew some interesting stories, right? See for yourself. Enjoy a little somethin' different from us to you. You guys deserved a festival anecdote, and Camryn deserved a spotlight for her writing, and crazy tales inside of Jones Beach. It is 8:00 am on Saturday morning, July 28th, 2018 and I am exhausted. Despite the lack of sleep, I am ready and ecstatic to take on the day because ladies and gentlemen, the day has come—Vans Warped Tour 2018 in Jones Beach, New York. July 28th, I attended my first, and unfortunately, last cross-country Warped Tour. My good friend Natalie and I hit the road and after some unforeseen traffic, we finally made it to the venue. Welcomed by long lines to the entrance, we dropped our food cans for donation next to the gates and waited on line. To clear up any confusion, Warped Tour will allow attendees in early if you arrive with either three cans of food, an old cell phone, or a $5 donation. Unfortunately, we were just a few cans too late and were unable to get inside early, but the line was just as entertaining as the event. Everywhere we looked, our eyes found girls and boys of all ages in their finest, “emo ensembles” and greeting old friends from previous concerts. Groups of friends covered in glitter and charging their vapes graciously hugged and drank as much water as they could before having to throw out their bottles. After a slight wait outside the fence, the golden gates were finally opened and we entered the Jones Beach Warped Tour of 2018. Before hitting the vendor booths, we ran to the Left Foot Stage to watch the Atlanta based, metalcore band, Issues. They opened with the track, Hooligans, off their debut, self-titled album and continued with COMA from their 2016 album, Headspace. We watched the crowd mosh and crowdsurf to the rest of the set as the sun started to shine and Warped Tour began. Besides watching amazing bands perform, we also took some time to take a stroll through the tables of vendors and multitude of food trucks (a true highlight) and discover what else Warped had to offer. On our walk, Natalie spotted the lead singer of pop-punk/hardcore band Assuming We Survive, Adrian Estrella and the booth for his band and stopped to take quite a cute picture with him. They switched glasses, I snapped the photo, and we continued to stroll. We stopped for a healthy breakfast of churros and empanadas, and made our way to the main stages to see the young rock band, Waterparks (a personal favorite) and then metalcore band, Wage War (Natalie’s personal favorite) right after. After a quick glance at the inflatable stage schedule, we realized that our dear bands were playing at the exact...same...time. With no time to lose, we planned a meeting point and ran our separate ways. I arrived back at the Journey’s Left Foot Stage just in time to watch the Waterparks set. The up-and-coming band mixes influence of rock and electronic effects to create a unique sound that almost anyone can take a liking to, no matter what music you’re into. They started off with their hit off their latest album, Entertainment, with the song Blonde, an upbeat bop addressing the idea that maybe blondes simply do not have more fun. They continued with their upbeat punk hits off both their newest and last album, Double Dare, and took a breather with the acoustic song off Entertainment, Lucky People. The song (in my completely biased opinion), is absolutely adorable. The lyrics, telling the story of our lead singer, Awsten Knight and a mystery girl’s relationship and his feelings towards her. All two and a half minutes of this acoustic beauty eventually brought us into the last and heaviest song of the set, TANTRUM. A song directly targeting the negative critics of the band and done quite well. As Waterparks ended and I found Natalie once again, we decided to take another walk through the vendors and take a moment to see anything we may have missed. All of the vendors had some pretty cool merch to offer, mostly being tents for specific bands, but the rest being some awesome small businesses and of course the official Vans tent. After seeing so many people covered in paint, Natalie and I found our way to the tent which I unfortunately cannot recall the name of, and covered ourselves in paint galore (Ultimately resulting in a quite interesting sunburn). My personal favorite tent happened to be the Ernie Ball Musician’s tent where a few Ernie Ball bass guitars and electric guitars were available for anyone to play. Both being musicians, I picked up a guitar and Natalie grabbed a bass and we jammed for a few minutes while a few larger bands such as We The Kings, Mayday Parade, and Falling In Reverse started and ended their sets. As Natalie continued to shred the bass with headphones on to hear herself, Chris Gaylord, bassist of one of her favorites, Wage War, walked directly up to her and happily said, “Wow, you’re killing it, dude.” This was the one moment of the entire day that Natalie was not paying attention. He repeated his comment as I waved my arms in her face shouting, “TAKE OFF THE HEADPHONES!” Alas, she finally removed the headphones from her ears and Chris Gaylord gave a hearty laugh and headed out of tent with the rest of his band. Despite Natalie’s slight disappointment at herself, this was one of my favorite moments of the day. Watching pure happiness ooze from your friend’s every word is a wonderful thing. Unfortunately, I had to leave Warped Tour a bit earlier than Natalie due to the fact that I was leaving for California the next morning and had not packed a single sock. After all the live music, weird sunburns, and sweaty guys in their mid-twenties sneaking fruit into Jones Beach, I had an absolutely wonderfully warped time at Vans Warped Tour. I would recommend that everyone attend next year but alas, this summer was their final cross-country tour after 24 years. Hopefully my memories and the memories of all those who have attended will keep Warped Tour alive forever. Shout-out to Camryn for wanting to add her wonderful writing to our blog! We both feel so honored that you appreciate our little page so much! Follow her on Instagram here!
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