heidicuda's Blog

Kevin Lyman is a punk rock hippy. The founder of the Vans Warped Tour, who started the festival 14 years ago, made it acceptable for punks to wear Birkenstocks. Consider the fax: Over the years, he's loaded up his tour buses with bio-diesel, uses cornstarch cutlery to feed his crew, encourages the traveling carnies he rolls with to use a singular coffee mug in the ayem rather than create new trash. He even fuels some of his sound stages with solar-powered energy and mandates his crew clean up beaches and build homes in New Orleans and their days off.

This year, he's beating off a recession and ginormous fuel costs by urging bands to double and triple up on buses. And rather than raise ticket prices ($30 bucks gets you 90 bands), he simply told his wife Fran, "We're not gonna make as much money this year."

I got to know the legendary promoter by writing a book with him about the tour ("Warped Book: Tales of Freedom and Psychotic Ambition") and if you're looking to take a crash course in Punk Rock Business 101, that's the tome.

Against all odds, the little tour that could is still America's longest-running music and alternative sports festival, and it's the most you'll have in 120 degree heat in Pomona ever... More from the Warped files momentarily... xoxo hsc

 (Below, Kevin Lyman on tour, photo credit: Lisa Johnson)