Five cities, eleven days, thousands of miles. It’s safe to say being on Warped Tour has cured any signs of the travel bug. To put it simply, it’s hard to imagine what my life will be like after this seven-week tour. One thing is certain – I may be addicted to life on the road.
Some of the IC Music team at Warped Tour, San Diego.
For the past six years, Invisible Children Music has joined the traveling music festival as a way to communicate our mission and work to thousands of people across the nation within a music community that is just as dynamic as our organization. Uniquely bringing the worlds of music and advocacy together, Warped Tour provides an outlet for IC to make connections with past supporters and build an entirely new support base. This year, we’ve teamed up with Epitaph Records and Tilly’s to shake up our tour plans.
After bouncing from our San Diego headquarters and joining our tourmates in Los Angeles, we kicked off the tour in Seattle, Washington, and have since traveled to four other cities along the West Coast. Our next stop finds us in Las Cruces, New Mexico. I’d consider this last week to be Warped Tour boot camp, a crash-course, so to speak. What’s been less than two weeks already feels like a month. Days have been filled with the run-down of how show days go – from set-up to break down and getting familiar with the staff, musicians and people who create and make up this community.
Sleeping on a tour bus took a bit of an adjustment, but it’s almost kind of comforting at this point (#bunklyfe). Being surrounded by tour veterans, experienced music business professionals and brand managers has been a learning experience in itself. Each conversation has something to take note of. I thought I had stories to tell, but stories on this bus are next-level status. Yet, all the different backgrounds of those on the bus have already set the stage for a community that’s looking out for each other.
For the first time on Warped, we brought an AmigoBooth along for the journey to not only capture what we’ll be up to but to add something special to our artist meet and greets (stay glued to @invisible_music on Twitter for the details). Check out photos from our signings with William Beckett in Seattle & Ventura.
William Beckett getting creative with a fan during his meet and greet at Warped Tour Seattle.
Candid AmigoBooth shots taken during our signing with The Summer Set.
All in all, these past days have been a mix of waking up a bit disoriented (not knowing where I am) and a breath of fresh air. To say it’s been fun would be an understatement. Music aside, from a mobilization perspective, getting to meet long-time supporters and hear stories about how IC changed people’s lives directly from the sources may be my favorite aspect of this whole tour.
p.s. Thanks to all the IC alumni who volunteered with us the past week. What up, Judith Claire!
+ Juan Frausto (Stesha’s blog coming real soon)
Think people should hear about this?