‘Punk rock summer camp on wheels’ hits Anchorage Wednesday

ANCHORAGE — The Vans Warped Tour arrives in Anchorage Wednesday, under the title of Road to Warped Tour. The tour is typically an event of the contiguous states, where upwards of 70 bands and solo musicians take to tour buses and crisscross America playing music in parking lots, fairgrounds and amphitheaters for the summer.

Every year since its inception, teens and music fans around the country wait eagerly for the dates of stops to be released, hoping and looking for their chance to see many of their favorite artists perform in one place, and find some new acts to tell their friends about, too.

This year, music fans in Alaska get to be a part of that excitement.

Organized by Chris Cardenas, local promoter and artist manager for the Anger Management group, in alliance with the Warped Tour founder, Kevin Lyman, the show is set to showcase 14 local bands alongside six national bands, as well as acoustic acts for a total of 29.

“We’ve always wanted to bring the show up here. This year we really were able to square it away and have sponsors and everything come through ... It’s exciting to make it possible to have people in our state come out and get the experience,” Cardenas said via phone.

In planning Warped Alaska, community played a big role in bringing the show to town. A team of 20 to 30 people worked for more than a year to make it happen, including promoters such as Family Tree Presents, and technical groups like Creative Light & Sound, as well as radio station DJs and local volunteers.

Keeping local music a part of the event was a big factor. With the help of 94.7 KZND DJ Andy Ball, the group hosted a Battle of the Bands earlier this year to begin compiling a local line-up for the show. That narrowed the roster to 14 local bands that will play on the Local Stage at Road to Warped Tour, including the Harlequin State, Thera, AeroMoto, and PJ Franco and the Burnouts.

The group then set to work on planning national acts to play. “It’s not the full experience of Warped tour without the national bands,” Cardenas said. “We tried to pick a wide range for fans to like. Some only want to hear their favorite style or genre, but that’s not Warped. Warped is about it all coming together.”

Dave Velasquez, part of the team bringing the show to Anchorage, and vocalist-guitarist of band AeroMoto, noted that the novelty of Alaska was a big factor in having bands from outside come to play. “Bands that aren’t even on the tour for the rest of the summer, or bands we hadn’t contacted yet, were calling us to try and organize the opportunity to come up,” he said.

Bands All Time Low, Falling In Reverse, Less Than Jake, and Yellowcard are playing, in addition to radio-famous group 3OH!3, and hardcore scene favorite The Devil Wears Prada.

“Having six national bands in one place in Alaska is so huge and so rare for us to get,” Velasquez said. “We’ve gotten emails and Facebook messages from people driving from Fairbanks, flying in from Juneau, Whitehorse and even Barrow to come to the show. It’s really cool to see people coming out of the woodwork to see bands. It will be a good time.”

The Vans Road to Warped Tour: Warped Alaska is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m., Wednesday at the Northway Mall festival grounds in Anchorage. Vans shoes is offering the first 250 entrants free Warped Tour memorabilia.

Tickets for the all-ages show are $40 and available online at vanswarpedtour.com, as well as at Anchorage retailers Mammoth Music, The Rock Wood Fired Pizza, Northway Mall, and Mad Hatter.

Tickets can also be purchased at the gate for $50.