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Kia Soul Lounge Returns to 2012 Vans Warped Tour
Indie Music Fest Calls on Kia as Official Vehicle
For the fifth consecutive year, Kia will serve as the Official Vehicle of the Vans Warped Tour, while also serving up a bevy of intimate and interactive music experiences in the Kia Soul Lounge. There, concertgoers will be treated to acoustic sets and autograph sessions with Warped bands, a live DJ, body painting, and a chance to make a little music of their own: The Create Your Own Beat station will allow visitors to mix 15- to 30-second music streams, which will then be patched into a master beat for each tour stop, then uploaded to the Kia Soul Facebook page.
Created in 1995 by Vans—“the original skateboard shoe company”—the annual Warped Tour is one of the country’s top concert series for indie music fans.
And this year, Kia will be running a variety of contests and challenges for Vans fans, who can earn points redeemable for some nifty prizes. Among them: The opportunity to watch concert acts from a shaded VIP riser near the main stages—or from the stages themselves.
And about those stages? They’ve been renamed the Kia Soul Stage and the Kia Rio Stage, and they’ll feature a connecting platform, set in the rigging between the showcases, that will put the Soul in the spotlight, too. (The Rio, Kia’s new 40-mpg subcompact, will be on the sidelines for the tour.)
"Kia is an innovative company that understands the culture of Warped, and their support allows us to bring back two main stages for the 2012 tour," said Kevin Lyman, Vans Warped Tour founder and producer. "We are happy to have Kia Motors onboard with us for a fifth summer.”
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Kia Soul
From rockin’ rodents to the hugely popular Share Some Soul marketing campaign—with a Party Rock Anthem soundtrack by LMFAO—the Soul has long worked to connect with its fans’ passion for music, making it an ideal fit for Kia’s continuing support for the Vans Warped Tour—and for listening to Vans bands while on the road. That’s particularly the case for the 2012 model year, since the funkified Soul now offers a 350-watt Infinity sound system with seven speakers, including a center speaker and subwoofer, as well as an external amplifier and speaker lights that pulse in time with the music.
The Soul provides an ideal way to travel to concerts, too, thanks to a roomy cabin with plenty of storage solutions and two advanced engine choices.
The entry powerplant is a peppy 1.6-liter unit that puts out 138 hp and 123 lb.-ft. of torque while ringing up an EPA line of 27 mpg city/35 mpg highway/30 mpg combined; alternatively, Soul drivers can trade up to the 2.0-liter I4 that delivers a best-in-class 164 hp to go with 148 lb.-ft. of twist and fuel-economy ratings of 26 mpg city/34 mpg higway/29 mpg combined. For those who want more green out of their driving machines, the Soul Eco, with aero enhancements and the 1.6-liter engine, offers up to 29 mpg city/36 mpg highway/32 mpg combined.
The 2012 Kia Soul is on sale now with an MSRP that starts at $13,900.
Vans Warped Tour: Dates and Destinations
The 2012 Vans Warped Tour will this year bring some 90 bands and a multitude of extreme sports exhibitions to almost 40 U.S. cities across the country. Artists will include The Used, Rise Against, All Time Low, We the Kings, Breathe Carolina and Yellowcard, with tour dates and locations as follows:
June 16—Utah State Fairpark, Salt Lake City
June 17—Sports Authority Field at Mile High, Denver
June 20—Luxor Hotel Parking Lot, Las Vegas
June 21—Orange County Great Park, Irvine, Calif.
June 22—Pomona (Calif.) Fairplex
June 23—AT&T Park Lot A, San Francisco
June 24—Ventura (Calif.) County Fair
June 27—Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre, Chula Vista, Calif.
June 28—Camelback Ranch, Glendale, Ariz.
June 29—NMSU Practice Field, Las Cruces, N.M.
June 30—AT&T Center, San Antonio
July 1—Reliant Center Parking Lot, Houston
July 3—Gexa Energy Pavillion, Dallas
July 5—Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, Maryland Heights, Mo.
July 6—The Palace of Auburn Hills, Auburn Hills, Mich.
July 7—First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre, Tinley Park, Ill.
July 8—Canterbury Park, Shakopee, Minn.
July 9—Sandstone Amphitheatre, Bonner Springs, Kansas
July 10—Klipsch Music Center, Noblesville, Ind.
July 11—Blossom Music Center, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
July 12—First Niagara Pavilion, Burgettstown, Pa.
July 13—PNC Bank Arts Center, Holmdel, N.J.
July 14—Parterre Ile Notre Dame at Parc Jean-Drapeau, Montreal, Canada
July 15—The Flats at Molson Canadian Amphitheatre, Toronto, Canada
July 17—Darien Lake Performing Arts Center, Darien Center, N.Y.
July 18—Toyota Pavilion, Scranton, Pa.
July 19—Comcast Center, Mansfield, Mass.
July 20—Susquehanna Bank Center, Camden, N.J.
July 21—Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Uniondale, N.Y.
July 22—The Comcast Theatre, Hartford, Conn.
July 24—Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, Md.
July 25—Farm Bureau Live at Virginia Beach (Va.)
July 26—Aaron’s Amphitheater at Lakewood, Atlanta
July 27—Central Florida Fairgrounds, Orlando
July 28—Cruzan Amphitheatre, West Palm Beach, Fla.
July 29—Vinoy Park, St. Petersburg, Fla.
July 30—Charlotte (N.C.) Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
July 31—Riverbend Music Center
Aug. 1—Marcus Amphitheatre, Milwaukee
Aug. 4—King County’s Marymoor Park, Redmond, Wash.
Aug. 5—Rose Quarter Riverfront, Portland, Oregon
Visit VansWarpedTour.com for more info.
