By the time you leave Journey’s Warped Tour there are four things that you will know for certain, your feet hurt, your ears will feel like they are full of cotton, and there will be sweat dripping down your back all the way down to your socks that will stick to your seat on the way home in the most disgusting manner, and you will love every second of it.

The 2016 Warped Tour featured over eighty different bands, performing throughout the day between four different stages that are swarmed by crowds of people with rainbow hair and cropped tops, or in the case of the men, no shirts. Off to the side are tents and tables set up where fans will line up for two hours to meet their favorite bands and get the all mighty autograph.

Then there is the Warped Tour right of passage: crowd surfing. This is one Warped Tour tradition, though not formally recognized by Journey’s, that I chose not to indulge in. However, I will admit to feeling the draw of the exhilarating experience while watching the brave people around me taking their life into their own hands to surf the electric crowd in an attempt to get closer to the performance.

West Morris Central senior James Tank describes crowd surfing at Warped Tour as, “ freakin’ awesome,” and goes on to tell me that, “ . . . Warped Tour is an environment where you can be yourself and just really kinda let loose that crazy, insane, pointless side of you that you just get so much out of.”

Some of the largest crowds formed around Mayday Parade, Sleeping with Sirens and New Found Glory. People pushed close together to get closer to the stage, leaving little room to so much as move your arms, and it was almost impossible to navigate through the crowd.

Sponsor tents and press tents stood to the side with the bands, where free tokens were given out, and opportunities to win tickets to more events like Warped Tour. The lines wrapped around the sides of the tents and into the walkway, making it an adventure to walk through to get to the next event, or to find somewhere to sit.

Warped Tour was an all day event that I will not soon forget. The feeling of the beat of the drum in my chest, the smell of sweat and smoke, and the energy of the mosh pit is iconic to Warped Tour, that is only created by the combination of the eighty bands and hundreds of dedicated fans. This is an event that you do not want to miss.