Warped Tour: Learning From Music & Life

Opportunities to learn span far beyond the conventional classroom; in fact, much of life's most valuable lessons occur while people are just living. So it's not difficult to recognize how Van's Warped Tour has such an undeniable grip upon America's youth with its positive spin on issues of responsibility, charity, faith, camaraderie and environmental awareness. All of these aspects and more provide multiple opportunities for teens to become involved with/enlightened to concepts and values they may not otherwise encounter. In short, Warped Tour offers many benchmarks of social awareness for the youthful crowd to learn and apply in their own lives.

Being socially responsible is not typically at the forefront of adolescent minds, a reality that is shaken up with the strong social message Warped Tour organizers and performers bring to the fold. One of the best examples is the collection of exhibitor booths where attendees get an in-your-face reality check. Such tangible learning experiences are essential for making the gratitude connection with adolescents whose primary focus is to be self-serving; empowering them with the tools to think beyond their myopic worldview is the greatest influence Warped Tour has upon America's youth.

Knowles points out how Warped Tour has "made a consistent effort to galvanize festival-goers by sanctioning multiple booths like eco initiatives, recycling projects and hunger relief causes, pushing fans to not just rock, but rock for a cause." Some of the organizations whose presence has opened youthful eyes over the last seventeen years include Rainforest Action Network, My Friend's Place, Music Saves Lives, Music for Relief, Invisible Children, Keep a Breast, Create a Skate, Greenpeace, Boarding for Breast Cancer, Amnesty International, Shirts for a Cure and To Write Love on Her Arms.

Two of the greatest influences of adolescent identity - peers and parents - can either guide a teen down the positive road of personal growth or drop him into a quagmire of self-doubt from inadequate or harmful relations. Marked by the transition from family to peer support, adolescence is a precarious time of acceptance into this new realm of emotional and spiritual nurturing. Warped Tour acts as something of a bridge for those who may not have solid role models or strong peer ties, affording them the opportunity to cultivate social responsibility and sense of self within a fun environment. 

Tour developer Kevin Lyman, who received Billboard's 2009 Humanitarian Award for his long-standing commitment to positive activism, spreads the message to impressionable youth how the very notion of global survival depends upon environmental citizenship, the collective effort of every living being to sustain the planet's ecosystem; however, man is the only species who doesn't abided by this fundamental doctrine. Lyman shows the young crowd he walks his own talk by using solar and biodiesel fuel to power the Warped Tour trucks, buses, stages and booths.

This type of unyielding dedication to humanitarian and environmental issues places Lyman and his Warped Tour in the top spot for teaching teens how personal growth demands awareness in order to incite positive change.


High-5 photo by Megan