If you keep up with the annual touring concert festival of The Vans Warped Tour and their weekly announcement of bands, then you are aware of the recent announcement. 

If you do not keep up, then you missed rap artist Riff Raff being announced to be a main stage act on the entire tour that runs from June 19 to August 8.

Warped Tour is usually known to feature artists from many genres, but the recent announcement of Riff Raff seemed to upset people on the internet.

A petition was created to remove him from the tour this year on change.org, and has reached 980 signatures as of Sunday night. The petition reads, “He doesn’t belong, him being in this years line up is nothing more than a joke. If he remains on the line up, a lot of people will not attend.”

But who is to say that one artist does not belong on a tour whose sole purpose is to introduce different artists to new audiences?

A simple solution to those who do not want to see Riff Raff would be to just see a different band perform, but there are people who truly believe that an artist of a different genre should be removed just because they do not like their music.

Warped tour is meant to be diverse and people should learn to be open to different genres of music.

This is not the first time the tour has brought in artists that do not fit the typical genres of pop punk or hardcore music that recent crowds are used to seeing. Warped Tour has featured artists such as D12, G-Eazy, Katy Perry, MGK, and the list goes on from there.

The tour is not new to this, but some people still believe that only the music they like should be at the festival which features more than 100 different bands and artists yearly.

With that many bands, there is a chance that there will be one artist or band you will not like, and the best thing to do in that situation is focus on the artists you want to see.

I am not a fan of the hardcore genre, which is a main feature of the tour, but I am not starting a petition to remove every band in the genre because that would do nothing.

Music festivals, such as this one, are meant to bring audiences together to just enjoy live music, instead of creating hate. I have never seen Riff Raff before, and I do not even listen to rap music often, but you can guarantee that I will attempt to be front row for him at Warped Tour this year.

Chris Picazo can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]