Remember when you could go to Warped Tour, get your teeth kicked in, and no one would care and everything was fine? To be fair, I don’t, but that was the way Warped was intended to be- a punk music festival. However, as we all know, ‘the man’ loves to take down the punks, and so pictures of signs at this summer’s Warped surfaced that read “No Moshing/Crowd Surfing. You Mosh, You Crowd Surf. You Get Hurt. We Get Sued. No More Warped Tour.”
Kevin Lyman, founder of Warped Tour, said, “This is really a reminder to be safe and take care of each other. No one has been kicked out for moshing.” It’s good to know that he isn’t enforcing that guards kick everyone out, however, bands can no longer say ‘mosh/mosh pit/wall of death/circle pit’ or anything that may inspire fans to start a pit. Warped has been pressured because no matter how punk rock they are, they are a brand, and can be legally responsible if anything bad happens to an attendee.
If you look on the tour’s official website, there’s no mention of anything in regards to moshing, so I guess they’re not enforcing it too much. It’s just another example of a few bad apples ruining things for everyone else. I’ve never seen any forms of real dangerous violence at Warped Tour, and I have watched some of the heaviest band throughout the years that I’ve gone. Sure, anyone in the pit is gonna get a bit beat up, but that’s what they’re there for, and it’s how some people enjoy their concert-going experience. Taking that away because little tiny scene girls want to pretend to be tough and end up getting a black eye cry and try to blame the tour for it is just sometimes what has to happen.
The bottom line is if you choose to enter a pit, get hurt, and then sue, you’re the scum of the scene because you knew what you were getting into and you’re just ruining it for everyone. Free to mosh, free to crowd surf, free to have a good time.
