Not long ago, warped tour co-founder Kevin Lyman had a nightmare. "The dream was, I got to the first show of the tour and no one was there," the forty-four-year-old promoter says. "No kids came."

Lyman probably shouldn't worry. Warped, now in its eleventh year, is the nation's longest-running touring rock festival. Last year's edition of the punk-rock traveling circus attracted 652,000 ticket buyers, more than ever before. This year's tour, with the Transplants, My Chemical Romance, the Offspring and, on some shows, Billy Idol, kicked off last week in Ohio and heads to Kansas tonight.

"For a lot of kids, it's the one thing they look forward to all year," says My Chemical Romance singer Gerard Way. "They save up for it. They get to see all the bands they like in one shot."

Warped has launched the careers of groups from Blink-182 to Good Charlotte, helped spread the punk-rock gospel to the youngest kids in the country's smallest towns and sustained the careers of veteran punks such as Pennywise -- all for no more than thirty-eight dollars a ticket.

"When you're traveling around with that many punkers and weirdos and stuff, it's just like a cool circus or rodeo," says Mike Dirnt of Green Day, whose Warped Tour stint in 2000 helped them reconnect with young fans. "They bring a subculture to town that just takes over."

The tour began in 1995, after Lyman, a veteran promoter of punk-rock club shows in Southern California, watched kids go nuts at an extreme-sports-plus-music benefit show he'd organized. He had an epiphany: Why not take it on the road? Warped began with a modest lineup that included Sublime, L7 and a pre-Tragic Kingdom No Doubt. Even with extreme economizing, including packing in two bands per bus, the tour lost money that year.

"I remember getting in trouble more than anything else," says former Sublime bassist Eric Wilson. "We were having too much fun, I guess." Lyman temporarily booted the band after Louie Dog, the canine immortalized in the band's "What I Got," bit one of the skateboarders. (Lead singer Brad Nowell died a year later.)

Warped made it to its second year only by taking on what became a permanent corporate sponsor, Vans. Since that first year, the tour has broken enough bands to fill an iPod: Kid Rock, Limp Bizkit, Jimmy Eat World and Yellowcard are among the acts that played Warped in their pre-stardom days. The second stage has been a key steppingstone: Both Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance played it last year and will move to the main stage this year. "It definitely launched our band," says Chuck Comeau, drummer for Simple Plan. "Warped Tour kids go home and spread the word about bands they love."

From the start, Warped has been an unusually egalitarian festival. There are no headliners, set times vary each day and the dozens of bands don't know when they're playing until they show up at the venue. That means a lot of hanging out -- which can be disconcerting for some. "I just got an e-mail from Billy Idol's crew: 'Where's the dressing room, and what time do we play?'" says Lyman. "You can't have a rock-star attitude."

Will the tour last another eleven years? All Lyman can promise is a 2006 edition -- and an upcoming documentary film of the festival's first ten years. And he has only one candidate to run it when he retires. "My daughter's talking about taking it over for me," he says. "She's ten now."

Warped Tour dates:

6/22: Bonner Springs, KS, Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
6/24: Dallas, Smirnoff Music Center
6/25: Houston, Reliant Center
6/26: San Antonio, TX, Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
6/28: Las Cruces, NM, N.M.S.U. Practice Field
6/29: Phoenix, AZ, Peoria Sports Complex
6/30: San Diego, Coors Amphitheatre
7/01: Long Beach, CA, Cal State Long Beach
7/02: San Francisco, Pier 30/32
7/03: Ventura, CA, Seaside Park
7/04: Fresno, CA, Save Mart Center
7/06: Pomona, CA, Pomona Fairplex
7/07: Sacramento, CA, Sleep Train Amphitheatre Lot
7/08: Boise, ID, Idaho Center Amphitheatre Lot
7/09: Seattle, Gorge Amphitheatre Lot
7/10: Portland, OR, Columbia Meadows
7/12: Vancouver, BC, Thunderbird Stadium
7/14: Calgary, AB, Race City Speedway
7/15: Bozeman, MT, Valley Ice Garden
7/16: Salt Lake City, UT, Utah State Fairgrounds
7/17: Denver, Invesco Field
7/20: Indianapolis, Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre Lot
7/21: Cleveland, Tower City Amphitheatre
7/22: Cincinnati, Riverbend Music Center Lot
7/23: Chicago, Tweeter Center
7/24: Minneapolis, Metrodome
7/26: Buffalo, NY, Darien Lakes PAC
7/28: Quebec City, QC, Colisee Pepsi Parking Lot
7/29: Montreal, TBA
7/30: Barrie, ON, Molson Park
7/31: Detroit, Pontiac Silverdome
8/01: Pittsburgh, Post Gazette Pavilion
8/03: Atlanta, Hi Fi Amphitheatre Lot
8/04: Jacksonville, FL, Jacksonville Fairgrounds
8/06: Tampa, FL, Vinoy Park
8/07: Orlando, FL, Tinker Field
8/08: Charlotte, NC, Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre Lot
8/09: Virginia Beach, VA, Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre Lot
8/10: Washington, DC, Nissan Pavilion Lot
8/11: Scranton, PA, Montage Mountain
8/12: Camden, NJ, Tweeter Center
8/13: New York City, NY, Randall's Island
8/14: Englishtown, NJ, Old Bridge Township Raceway
8/15: Northampton, MA, Three Country Fairgrounds