Warped Tour Long Beach 2026 Reminded Me Why This Festival Changes Lives

There are moments in life that make you stop mid-step and make you think - this is exactly where I'm supposed to be right now. Standing on the Shoreline Waterfront in Long Beach, CA, camera in hand, surrounded by the tens of thousands of people who all found their way here, was one of those moments for me. Warped Tour Long Beach 2026 was two days of sweltering heat, crowd chaos, tears, new friends, and music that reminded every single person on those grounds why they fell in love with this scene in the first place.

Before the Gates Even Opened

I kicked off the weekend with something I'll never forget... a private tour of the grounds before gates officially opened, led by none other than Kevin Lyman, the founder and father of Warped Tour himself.

Kevin is the exact kind of energy you'd always envisioned and hoped he'd be. He was chatty, warm, and visibly proud of everything he built and all that he's still building. He walked our media group through the Charity Circle, pointed out the various activations, shared stories of Warped Tours past, and made his final stop at the legendary Warped Wall. The Day 1 set times would be dramatically unveiled for the crowd and set out the agenda for the day, showcasing set times for every band on today's bill. Watching him stand there in front of that wall, taking it all in, told you everything you needed to know about what this festival meant to him (and us.)

Following the grounds walkthrough and opening gates, I had a chance to chat with Dolly Ave for an interview. Kevin Lyman had personally invited her after a brief encounter, which is exactly the kinda move that proves he still has the sharpest eye for talent in the game. Her upcoming album (which I was luckily enough to preview) is honestly something special. It blends grunge, girly pop, and raw, unflinching lyrics that touch on identity, sexuality, and what it means to be completely, unapologetically yourself in a scene that can sometimes feel like it's forcing you to meld into the mold.

Want to know more about Dolly Ave? Check out my full interview with her on YouTube!

Let's Be Real: What to Expect at Warped Tour

Alright, let's be honest about something first: it was goddamn hot. Aggressively, mercilessly damn hot out there on the Shoreline. The GA sections offered little to no shade, and while VIP areas had access to misting fans and covered spots to sit and cool off, I'll be honest: shade and the ability to cool down probably shouldn't be gatekept behind a VIP upgrade. That's a conversation worth having, isn't it?

Last year, VIP sections had elevated platforms that gave attendees a better sightline to the stages, but they did come with their own drawbacks (primarily, people camping these somewhat shaky Final Destination-y areas, so if you didn't get to the stairs to go up quick enough, you risked being turned away due to the strict occupancy limits.) Those were removed in 2026 (much to my short girl dismay) and replaced with shaded stools and tables near the drink vendors. This all sounds fine in theory, but in practice it resulted in people camping (again) and refusing to leave, which dwindled the spots other attendees could come and recover from the heat. On a day that physically exhausts you with the heat and walking, that matters.

With all that said, the crowd this year was much more manageable than last year's sold-out return. According to Kevin himself, approximately 60,000 patrons and 5,000 guests/band members/crew were in attendance this year. Last year's comeback felt electric but nearly impossible to move through as you pushed yourself around the venue. The lines at merch tents, meet-and-greets, and food vendors stretched endlessly, and VIPs almost didn't feel worth it due to overcrowding. This year had a little more breathing room, which made the experience of actually getting to the stages a little more survivable despite the heat.

There's no re-entry at Warped Tour, so hydration and heat management are fully on you. Bring a collapsible water bottle and Liquid IV, and do not underestimate how much ground you'll cover going back and forth between stages. Your feet and future self will thank you.

Sad-derday, aka Day 1

A quick heads-up on the stage layout: the Vans and Off the Wall stages housed the heaviest hitters of the weekend, while Ghost and Beatbox held the overflow of talent that really made every set conflict feel so deeply personal. Underoath, Joyce Manor, Jimmy Eat World, Jinjer, Gym Class Heroes, etc. were just a few of the bands rocking out on these stages. Choosing between each and every one felt genuinely painful.

I was #blessed enough to catch Escape the Fate to warm up for the day, and it felt like such a good time hearing Craig Mabbitt serenade us with "Ashley" and "One for the Money."

After a quick hydration and sunblock recharge, it was off to witness the glory that is Underoath. They took the Off the Wall stage by storm & maaaaaan. Watching them play "A Boy Brushed Red Living in Black and White" and "Reinventing Your Exit" for the first time, live & RIGHT in front of me, alongside a crowd that screamed every single word... I'll be honest. I cried. I wasn't alone, either. There's something about hearing those words in a crowd of people who grew up on them that just bypasses every single defense you have and gets you right in the chest. Blood, sweat, and tears feel accurate when describing the crowd's energy by the end of their set (literally, someone in one of the pits got hit pretty hard in the mouth) .

Spencer Chamberlain looked insanely proud of the moments, and I often caught him beaming in excitement as he moved from song to song. Timothy McTague, right next to him, brought the intensity as he swung around his guitar on stage battling the heat to bring the fire to the Shoreline. Despite the excruciating heat, the crowd absorbed every moment as if it were their last.

In spite of the heat and a raging migraine (please stay hydrated out there, homies; don't be me), I found my way over to check out a band I'd heard lots of great things about: The Early November. Where Underoath elicited a sense of brutal nostalgia and raw screams, The Early November brought a wayyy different energy. Their music was happier and looser, and everyone just looked like they were forming incredible memories swaying together in the crowd.

Ace Enders leads the charge on this emo-meets-pop-punk hybrid, with Mike Carney supercharging the set on guitar. It's funny, I feel like I've continuously heard about this band from die-hard Motion City Soundtrack and Cartel fans, but I hadn't gotten around to investigating their sound – and to be honest, this set was the PERFECT entry into their beat.

They've been cranking out consistently great albums for over a decade, and if you're able to take a swig at Tired of Lying ... I guarantee you'll fall in love with their sound just the way I did. Ace Enders, Mike Carney, Jose Lopez, and Jeff Krummer combine their talents to bring their fans electric emo injected with visceral lyrics and a range of heartfelt emotion. The Early November has been a staple in the emo scene for about 20 years now, and it's easy to see why.

Attila brought the most intense energy of the day by a wide margin for me. Bodies slammed into bodies across a fleshy horizon of continuous mosh pits from the VIP section to the GA. The crowd was screaming itself hoarse. People happily helped one another up after bodyslamming them down in the pits, then clapped each other on the back and raced headlong back in the chaos. It was a beautiful sight to behold as Chris Fronzak tore up the stage.

After all that ferocity, I felt it only fitting to take a seat on some dusty curb nearby while I sang along to The Ghost Inside's set on the BeatBox stage. I eyed the crowd as more and more festival goers found their way to settle in for Dance Gavin Dance's show on the Ghost stage right next door.

Dance Gavin Dance is always a technicolor sight to behold. By the time they took the stage, the pain in my knees had faded just enough for me to run over to get a few snapshots. People were singing and cheering as each song was belted out beautifully by Andrew Wells with such lovely support on guitar from the legendary Will Swan. Watching everyone during "Uneasy Hearts Weigh the Most" and "Lemon Meringue Tie" felt like gazing out at a sea of people who had collectively decided to simply let go of all the pain and insanity outside the Shoreline for a few hours and just exist together... which, honestly, is such a beautiful thing to behold.

Once the set died down and it was time to bring Day 1 to a close, the slew of fans walking out turned into its own experience. It took a solid 20-40 minutes to slowly shuffle out altogether to leave through the front gate! But in that time people were swapping highlights from the day, and phone numbers/social media handles to attempt to meet up the next morning for Day 2 of Chaos, and y'know, hell yeah, building community.

Taking Back Sunday, aka Day 2

Y'all, if Day 1 felt like a scheduling challenge, Day 2 nearly took me out entirely (I mean that with so much love.)

This time I arrived better prepared (more water, more sunscreen, and migraine medication) and immediately linked back up with some incredibly talented photographer friends I had made the day before. The energy on Sunday was noticeably higher than Saturday. People were moving much faster between stages, strategically halving sets in order to remedy schedule conflicts, and generally were more open to chatting with one another while walking around vendor areas. I encountered more spontaneous conversations on day 2 than I could count. Strangers were becoming fast friends mid-crowd, trading trinkets and bracelets, spending time at the various fun nonprofit activations, and eating together.

Alright, onto the highlights of the day:

Taking Back Sunday is a real divisive topic for people — you either caught Adam Lazzara on a good day where he's on time with his vocals, energetic, and giving you the show of your goddamn life, or you caught him on an infamously "off" day that you'll still enjoy regardless of the timing issues and frantic mic swings. Some people love TBS; others avoid their sets at all costs. As an avid fan, they were one of my "need to see"s, and they were ON FIRE. The band felt like they were so overjoyed to be playing for us at the Off the Wall stage, and that kind of energy was contagious. "MakeDamnSure" and "Cute Without the E" are always fun to catch live, and we were all so lucky to have caught an insane display of skill on stage.

Mayday Parade — consisting of vocalist Derek Sanders, guitarist Alex Garcia, guitarist Brooks Betts, bassist Jeremy Lenzo, and drummer Jake Bundrick — have been at this since roughly 2005, and they took to the Vans stage with such practiced ease. From DIYing their first album to selling out shows across the US and gold/platinum records, Mayday Parade is one of those bands that people will forever remember until the day they die (#shoutoutSOTY). Their Shoreline setlist pulled from across their anniversary albums & well-known hits, with new material comfortably mixed in.

When Derek Sanders led the crowd into "Jamie All Over", something on that Shoreline shifted. Thousands of voices joining in at once, all snapped back into the versions of themselves that first encountered that song yeeeears ago. It was a sight to behold, and that kind of collective moment is exactly what Warped Tour was built for. Mayday Parade sincerely delivered with everything they had.

Motion City Soundtrack, consisting of lead vocalist Justin Courtney Pierre, guitarist Joshua Cain, keyboardist Jesse Johnson, bassist Matthew Taylor, and drummer Tony Thaxton, released The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World back in September of 2025. This was their first studio album in roughly a decade, and the love for this release showed in the crowd surrounding the Beatbox stage. Justin has been open on his social media channels about some personal health challenges he's been facing in the last few years, and there were moments during the set where that pain was visibly present.

But watching the crowd help carry an artist through these kinds of hard moments by singing loud enough to fill in the gaps, moving together, holding the energy up... that was one of the quietest and most moving things you can ever truly witness at a festival. Motion City Soundtrack's fanbase is strong, and that evening they showed up in full force for their favorite band.

The Used's set on the Off the Wall stage felt powerful, but familiar for me. Bert McCracken (vocalist), Jeph Howard (bass), Dan Whitesides (drummer), and Joey Bradford (guitar) were joined this time around by their littlest member! Dan's son stood on stage with a mic, protective headphones, and a cool pair of shades, singing along with his favorite people. The little guy was completely at home — dancing around the stage, singing along, and stealing the crowd's heart without even trying. Easily the fan favorite of the set, and honestly, fair.

There's a familiar rawness to a The Used performance that simply cannot be manufactured. Bert McCracken is one of those frontmen who makes every song feel personal, and the crowd on the Shoreline felt every moment of intensity right up to the blast of the confetti cannons to signal the end of the set, sending the crowd off into the night in a burst of color and noise.

Some bands have a signature feeling you can't replicate anywhere else. The Used are one of them — and Warped Tour Long Beach was the perfect stage to be reminded of that.

The Part That Actually Matters

I met some of the best damn people I've ever encountered at a festival out on that Shoreline. People I'm genuinely excited to call new friends. And that's the thing about Warped Tour that no lineup announcement or photo pass can fully prepare you for — it's the people that make Warped Tour great.

Music has this way of making us more willing to drop the walls we carry around everywhere else. Out there on the Shoreline, it didn't matter what was happening in the world outside the gates. For two days, bodies collided in mosh pits and hands reached down to pull each other back up. Strangers became weekend best friends waiting in line to get their merch signed. People cried together listening to songs that got them through the hardest years of their lives, then turned to the stranger next to them and laughed about it.

The crowd spanned every age you can imagine — from a few-month-old infant in noise-cancelling headphones to an older woman crowd surfing with her walker — and that is the whole damn point of Warped Tour. That's the legacy, that's the heartbeat of it all. Coming together as a community and lifting each other up emotionally and physically as crowd surfers. This is a space where the music matters more than anything else, and where the people who show up for it find each other every damn time. This is what Kevin Lyman built.

You'll suffer the heat. You'll spend more money than you planned on water, food, and that one shirt you can't live without. You'll walk out sunburnt and exhausted from dancing and moshing, and your voice on Monday will be gone.

And you'll be back next year on this Shoreline. Kevin let us know that he intends to bring Warped Tour back on July 24-25th, 2027, and that the new Warped Tour double dose of weekend dopamine consisting of crazy set times and festival madness is here to stay. I urge you to check it out, and make new friends with the people in the crowd. You seriously won't regret your decision... but make sure you bring that water bottle and sunscreen, man. And earplugs.

Oh, and YES, I did crank that Soulja Boi with I Set My Friends on Fire. No regrets.