Latin acts are getting the Warped Tour stamp of approval this year, with Spain’s indie electro-popsters the Pinker Tones booked for the entire U.S. run, plans underway for a Mexican installment of the Warped Tour and a special South by Southwest showcase.
The Pinker Tones will play an extended set in the Skull Candy electronic tent on Warped in support of their April 29 release on Nacional Records, “Wild Animals.”
A Vans Warped Tour-branded rock festival at Mexico City’s Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez is scheduled for June 14, though local promoter Pako Zepeda was still working on getting bands together as of press time.
Zepeda, co-founder of the Soundguich management company, is licensing the Warped name and working with Mexican concert promotion giant OCESA. Zepeda is receiving some guidance from Warped in getting sponsors, which currently include Vans and Monster Energy drinks, he says.
Vans Warped Mexico is expected to be a mix of bands playing the U.S. tour and other acts from Latin America, says Zepeda, who manages Mexican rock acts like Sony BMG’s Allison.
“We want to start working it grassroots,” says Zepeda, who is building a database of potential attendees on MySpace and the Warped Tour Mexico web site. “We want to do it right, the way they do it over there [in the U.S.] and have the same quality.”
Vans Warped-branded shows have been put on in Australia, New Zealand, Japan and eastern Europe; Warped founder Kevin Lyman’s Taste of Chaos tour had two dates in Mexico last year.
“We get a lot of kids that come up from Mexico to see the [Warped Tour] each year,” says Lyman. “So it would be nice to be able to bring it down their way.”
Given the expense involved in transporting bands, international shows are usually break-even propositions, says Lyman.
Warped Mexico “will have to be really profitable for us to see anything” in terms of a cut of revenue, says Lyman. “We like to be able to take our brand and take our bands down there and give them a chance to play. Not everything is about making money, despite what you read about in magazines all the time.”
Mexico’s Allison, Delux and Lipstick Terror will play the Alternative Press & Warped Tour Latin America showcase at the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Tex. on March 15. Also booked for that showcase are Fueled by Ramen acts the Cab, the Hush Sound and Phantom Planet.
