Fans upset after Wilmington cancels Vans Warped Tour

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — The 2017 Vans Warped Tour will not be rocking in Wilmington on July 4.

According to a news release, today the City of Wilmington determined it will be unable to host The 2017 Vans Warped Tour at Legion Stadium.

Cousins Cailah and Jeydon Cull were both excited for the tour coming to The Port City but were devastated when they learned of the cancellation.

“Cailah’s dad called and I couldn’t hear anything and she was like ‘oh really?’ and that’s all I heard. I could tell from the drop of her voice, something bad had happened and she got off the phone and was like ‘they said warped tour was cancelled’ and I got teary eyed,” Jeydon said.

The city says this decision follows months of city staff trying to work out safe and appropriate arrangements with the entertainment company organizing the event. The tour was being organized by Huka Productions, LLC of North Carolina, which is a subsidiary of New Orleans-based Huka Entertainment.

“It is unfortunate we are unable to hold the Warped Tour at Legion Stadium as we had worked for months to try and make it happen. However, events held at city facilities must be hosted by groups with the ability to provide safety for concert goers as well as financial viability for ticket buyers,” said city Communications Manager Malissa Talbert. “We hope we can host similar events here in the future.”

The tour has been around since 1995. This would have been its first stop in Wilmington.

“I had to go through a whole bunch of mess to even get her to go. I had to convince her mom and her dad and figure out transportation. It was really difficult and then to hear that it was cancelled really just topped the cake,” Cailah said.

“I know there are other people that wanted to go more than me and I can’t imagine if I was that person,” Jeydon said.

Not long after the city made this announcement, Warped Tour organizers posted a statement online.

 “To all our fans – it is never easy to do this, but due to circumstances beyond our control we have been forced to cancel the 7.04 Wilmington, NC show.
From the Vans Warped Tour team, the bands, and all of our sponsors, we are truly sorry that this had to happen. We were completely blind-sided by the city of Wilmington, NC and have tried to work through everything as fast as we could.  

  We were working with HUKA Entertainment as our partner and the officials of the city of Wilmington, NC decided to not enter into a contractual agreement with Huka Production, LLC of North Carolina; instead the city pulled the permits that would allow us to have the show. This decision was based on a few concerns that included the venue’s ability to meet the logistical challenge of our tour, as nothing of that large of a scale has been done at the sports complex before. Ultimately the decision of the city resulted in the Vans Warped Tour being tied up and has left us unable to carry out the show.”

Event organizers say if you bought tickets, you have three options.

1) You can use the ticket at any other Vans Warped Tour show. You just need to bring your hard ticket to the yellow Guest List tent out by the main entrance gates. There you can exchange your Wilmington ticket for a ticket to that show.

2) You can get a refund for tickets purchased online via Ticketfly. Reach out to customersupport@ticketfly.com to receive your refund. Organizers recommend sending your order number and/or original confirmation email when you reach out.

3) You can get a refund for tickets purchased at a Journeys store.
Mail your physical ticket and customer info (full name, shipping address, email address) to the below address to be directly issued a refund:
CCRL – Vans Warped tour
5200 West Century Blvd
Suite 810
Los Angeles, CA 90045

Warped Tour organizers say do not go to the Journeys store for a refund, they will NOT be able to process it for you.

The next Warped Tour event will be on July sixth in Charlotte.