Saturday, July 12th kicked off with a bang as hundreds of tour buses piled into The Jones Beach Theatre parking lot, along with tons of fans awaiting what was to come. All this hype could only mean one thing — Warped Tour 2014 had officially hit Long Island.
Warped Tour is not a single band, but rather about 100 bands that tour throughout the United States and perform at various venues on different dates. At Jones Beach, there were approximately eight stages and hundreds of tents. At each stage, there was a slightly different genre of music with different groups playing the type.
One of the most popular stages seemed to be the Electric Soul Stage, which had relatively known bands such as Bowling for Soup and The Summer Set, who is planning on releasing their new album in Spring 2015, according to alterthepress.com. The genre of music demonstrated by these bands was a mixture of rock and pop, which people normally tend to hear on the radio, which made sense because they always attracted the largest crowds and performed on one of the bigger stages.
For the people who would trade physical instruments for computer-synthesized sounds and preferred a louder and more fast-paced type of music, the Beatport Stage was a popular location. Artists such as Crizzly and Antiserum got the crowd jumping and going crazy when the beat dropped. However, the standout was Watsky, who proved to be the biggest surprise performer on the Beatport lineup. George Watsky, who was originally involved in slam poetry, showed his music was different by using a mixture of his rapping and the soulful voice of his female background singer, as well as the use of different instruments such as a harmonica and trumpet.
In contrast to the light rock at the Electric Soul Stage and Beatport Stage, the Monster Energy Stage was a place for heavy metal rockers at heart. Bands like Attila gave high energy, high intensity, and high-pitched screams, which really got the crowd going. The crowd seemed to get too crazy, however, when they began forming mosh pits, and making it dangerous for people standing nearby.
Despite the “no mosh pit or stage diving” rules, which was enforced by the use of signs, both the crowds and bands didn’t listen. Almost every stage one went to, no matter what kind of music there was, featured people would forming giant circles in the crowd and begin running around and flailing their bodies at people. This got dangerous, especially when a man actually unknowingly punched somebody in the jaw.
Stage diving was also a cool experience, especially when a performer jumped in the crowd, even though it was not allowed, because just like mosh pits, people can get seriously hurt. According to MailOnline.com, George Watsky jumped from stage lights thirty feet in the air in November, causing him to be sent off in a stretcher and also broke a female fan’s arm. Although nothing quite extreme like that happened during any of the shows, most of the performers always got around to a stage dive.
Although Warped Tour was filled with high energy and was pretty well organized inside the vicinity, getting in seemed to be the toughest part. There were no lines, but rather mobs of people, and people who were on the “guest list” didn’t know where to go, and neither did the employees working there.
“Getting in was difficult and poorly arranged, but once you entered Warped Tour, it was pretty clean and planned out,” junior Kaitlyn Oddo said.
Despite the safety concerns and problems getting in, Warped Tour proved to be a fun event, where hundreds of people came to watch their favorite bands and discover new music. Everyone there all shared the same interests in music and Warped Tour seemed to be a place to let their inner punk or heavy rocker shine through.
“Everyone who was there, of every nationality, gender, and age, was there for the music,” junior Nicole Schiraldi said.