Van’s Warped Tour
Published in The Calgary Herald on July 14, 2005
He stands by the giant skateboard ramp, forehead glistening with fresh blood,
his beaming white teeth flecked with red.
Event staff is trying to lead him by the hand to the medical tent right away,
but 20-year-old Michael Armstrong has seen his reflection in my sunglasses and
wants to talk to the newspaper.
What sort of skateboarding trick were you trying to pull, Michael?
“I smashed my head against someone else’s in there,” he smiles and says,
pointing to a bouncing, swirling mosh pit in front of the band Atreyu. “I
wasn’t skateboarding.”
This is the biggest the Van’s Warped Tour Calgary has ever seen, and 14,500
young punk fans have congregated from all corners of Alberta to celebrate their
love of the genre. While one side of the city is fermenting in plaid and twang,
this side of the tracks is soaking in raw punk energy.
“For one thing, there’s no hicks here,” says 18-year-old Shane Degraaff in
explaining why he’s here instead of the Stampede. “At the Stampede, you end up
paying $100 for a day and you get to see one band at the Coca-Cola stage. Here,
you see more than 50 bands for $50.”
It’s also much safer than you’d believe, though that’s not much to do with
event staff. It has to do with the audience of mostly suburban teens who don’t
really get drunk, lewd or violent. Other than Armstrong’s accident in the
moshpit, Dr. Andy Anton, medical doctor for the event, says there is nothing
much to report. A few people come in with asthma problems because of all the
dust being kicked up, and it’s a little busier than usual because the crowd is
bigger.
It’s a shame all the good punk t-shirts come in black, because that ain’t
exactly heat-friendly.
“It’s difficult to say if the dark clothing the kids are wearing is
contributing to the heat problems,” Anton says. “The organizers have made sure
water is available and so even the heat-related problems are slowing down.”
Apart from the occasional waft of weed and the used condom that sticks to my
shoe, no one seems to be breaking the law either.
Fifteen thousand people move simultaneously from stage to stage in thick herds
like cattle, and without a cell phone or a game plan, a lost friend is lost for
the day. Wheelchaired Bond Jewell has to stay pretty far back for a decent
view of MxPx.
“But you don’t really want to be in the middle of all that, anyway,” the
24-year-old says.
Neither do parents Kelly and Hayden Kaylo from Yellowknife, who have driven all
the way for their 16-year-old daughter and 13-year-old son. Of course, the kids
are nowhere in sight.
“Oh God, we have no idea what bands they’re here to see,” Kelly says. “We
haven’t quite found our groove yet. This isn’t exactly Nashville North.”
The reason for the massive increase in attendance (5,000 more than last year)
is the rise of “screamo” bands, the kind where the lead singer sounds like his
testicles are in a vice. This also means there is a subtle change in the
fashion trend — far fewer mohawks, a lot more dyed black hair.
There is also a move away from the political: while the past few years have
featured many tents selling “(Expletive) Bush” and “Not My President” t-shirts,
there wasn’t one to be found this year. Instead, there was a rise in social
change tents, those from PETA, Oxfam and Amnesty International.
“This is the crowd you want to hit, open-minded and free-spirited,” PETA’s
Krista Moore says, showing me sheets of paper stacked with signatures. “And
Canadians are really easy to sign up — in America, no one was willing to do it
unless we gave away free stuff.”
But the free stuff was there if you looked hard enough: free freezies, free
stickers, free water, free buttons, free wristbands, free newspapers, free
bandanas.
