It’s a WONKA-ful Holiday!

Season’s greetings, WONKAnation! ‘Tis the season of giving, and guess what?!? WONKA has the coolest chocolates for gifting this winter! Surprise your mom, dad and friends with the chocolatey-est, mouth-watering WONKA Exceptionals holiday collection.

Pick up some of these treats – including seasonal Peppermint Shortbread Chocolates – at local Target, Kroger and Kmart stores now. They make great gifts and stocking stuffers!



You can also mix things up with fruity and fantastical WONKA Exceptionals Fruit Jellies, which come in two delightful flavors for the holidays: Goji Berry and Red Apple.



The Oompa Loompas have something for every sweet tooth on your list! Don’t they all sound delicious? WONKA is excited to celebrate this winter with you, your family and friends! So go ahead and spread some WONKA cheer and give a box of superfantabulicious WONKA Exceptionals this holiday season!

World's First WONKA Candy Store Comes to NYC!

Calling all candy fanatics! The first-ever WONKA candy store recently opened inside the world's largest toy store—Toys“R”Us—in New York City's Times Square!

Located on level one, the WONKA candy shop invites you to pick Pixy Stix from a 21-foot tree, pluck Laffy Taffy and Fun Dip from pretty plastic flowers and even make your own customized bags from candy mushrooms filled with WONKA's 12 classic brands, including Nerds, Spree and Everlasting Gobstoppers and the brand new WONKA Exceptionals collection. How cool and delicious does that sound?!?!

With candies dangling from the rafters and bulk-candy bins housed inside mushroom-shaped tables, the WONKA candy store is truly a piece of imagination come to life. A bonus for truly devoted WONKA fans—besides candy, of course—the new colorful candy store offers WONKA T-shirts, tasty lip-balms, and "whimsical stationary!"

So what are you waiting for? Follow your nose to the chocolate-scent-filled WONKA store on 44th and Broadway to checkout this candy paradise for yourself!

All Good Things Must Come To an End

We’re all wrapped up here on Warped Tour 2010 and we wanted to thank you all for showing some love and being a part of our totally excellent, on-the-road experience! We loved meeting you all and having you be a part of our spectacular WONKAfied experience!

Stay tuned though...we're not going anywhere. We hope to see you next year!

The Best Venue Award Goes To…..

Well, Warped Tour has come to an end, but I MUST tell you about one of our last stops! We arrived at The Gorge in Washington State after a pretty rough trek from Boise, Idaho. As the bus brakes grinded underneath our bunks, for what is usually still pretty quiet moments, we heard a lot of stirring around. It was definitely the first time on tour where multiple people woke up early (6 a.m., anyone?) to wander around the venue to take a heavy hit of all its beauty. And was it ever! This place was by far the most BEAUTIFUL venue I have ever been to. The Gorge stage had this majestic backdrop of mountains falling into a river. The word “wow” was on repeat at catering.

While most of the bands saved their final performances for the second day, Reverend Peyton and his Big Band decided to put on a special treat for fans and tour peeps the first day by inviting anyone that was a part of the tour to come on stage and perform with them for their last song of the set.

It was an all-star sing-a-long with Andrew W.K. and his sparkling wife, Cherie Lily, The Pretty Reckless, The Casualties, Giuseppe from Haste The Day, Face to Face, etc. It was a beautiful spectacle and the audience joined in at the top of their lungs.

We’re definitely sad that this spectacular adventure came to an end, but it’s mixed with extra joy that we got to be part of something so rad, and to have met and connected with all of these people.

Luck for me and for you, we took a few photos to capture the madness in all its glory.

WONKA-Tastic Warped Tour Fashion Statements

Hey there WONKA wonderfuls!

We just spent a little time “downstairs” (what we call the bay area of the tour bus) sifting through a travel bag for a little somethin’ to make our simple black dresses and rockin’ outfits a little less simple. We have a Warped Tour BBQ tonight and we’d like to class it up.

Warped Tour is a haven for self-expression and really what better place to let it all shine then a breeding ground for young talent, art, music, fashion, discovery and imagination.

So we’ve set out to see what all of you wonderful Warped Tour and WONKA fans are reppin’ this summer. We see the stickers, the “Free Hugs” written in sharpie on your back, the vibrant splashes of paint on your faces and arms, and we see the bracelets. Male, female, band member or fan, most of you are rocking them on the left, right or both - and it looks awesome. What is the most popular of all you might wonder? Wonder no more, it is the rubber bracelet! Think “Live Strong” but morphed into hipster couture. Wrist couture, if you will. It seems like almost every band guy out here has one on (see photos below).

Splashy colors with symbols or words, these rule the tour grounds this year. It’s all about making a statement of your own, but not being flashy – even if you do rock the bling. It’s all about you, your words and spreading positive messages.

And they’re cheap! Rad and inexpensive. Can’t get much better than that….

Now Welcoming….Hot Chelle Rae!

Nothing is going to stop us now! WONKAnation has been rocking out at this year’s Warped Tour all summer. We’re now welcoming Hot Chelle Rae into the tent! They’ll be signing on a slew of fabulous dates until the end of the tour! Come meet them and get some free stuff.

We’re building dreams and then living them here in the WONKA tent! You can too! Come see us across the U.S. and jam out with Kid Cedek and Warped bands, get free candy and more!

We Are Family!

On Warped Tour there is a wonderful sense of family that underlies everything. These people are the people you share bed time (a.k.a. bus call) with every night and wake up with every morning. We all here on tour share meals, stages, grounds, bathrooms, and good times. We are intertwined with each other’s lives for the eight weeks we spend out here on the road. We look out for each other and it’s all pretty awesome. Outside of the bubble, I don’t spend half as much time with some of my dearest friends and family.

The added bonus to all of this summer camp and family love is having awesome bus mates who you share the closest quarters with. Our roomies are like getting extra cherries and chocolate sprinkles on your sundae. These people RULE, and it’s so sad when some of them have to leave. Recently we had to say goodbye to Nick and Justin from A Rocket to the Moon. Their acoustic Warped stint came to an end. They’re two of the raddest, sweetest and most stylish dudes that we’ve ever met. Please check out their band!. These guys deserve every bit of goodness that comes their way.

We’re all going to have to sharpen our DJ skills now on the Bus. I think we can do it. After all, Kid Cedek, our WONKA tent DJ, sleeps on here too!

See WONKA Music Factory Live!

Get up, kids! Get yourself to a Warped Tour date near you and be a part of the awesomeness that is the WONKA Music Factory live this summer – before it’s too late!

Clap your hands and say YEAH! Warped Tour and WONKAnation are in full groove mode right now and YOU can be a part of the fun! Check out the Warped Tour dates and come hang out, consume candy and listen to some of today’s best music! It’s all happening now!

A rocket to Warped Tour. That’s what you need this summer! All sorts of fantastical things are happening city to city and we want you to join in. Come see us in the WONKA tent, listen to mind-blowing tunes and try some new and old WONKA favorites.

Interview with AM Taxi... So Cool!

Chances Are.

It’s 123 degrees on the blacktop at Cricket Pavilion in Phoenix, AZ. Warped Tour, in all its parts, is fighting through what could be an epic meltdown but the sponsors, the bands and the kids are all still going strong and so are the Chi-town future rock/power-pop, soon-to-be heroes, AM Taxi.

This is your first Warped Tour, how has it been thus far?
AM TAXI: Hot…. but not like today. Overall it’s been fun. It’s been good. Jason: We’ve met a few bands. Everyone’s been real nice. Riverboat Gamblers are real nice guys. We did a little bowling charity thing last night.

I heard Motion City Soundtrack were the winners. Did you make it to the final round?
Jason: We made it through the first round. Not so much the second round. After a few we started to not bowl as well. Luke: I started to do the dive bowl; the upside down.

Your new album just came out, how has it been received?
Jason: Real good. We’re excited to now be on tour, sell some CDs, and have people hear us play.

How was it working with Mike McCarthy (Spoon, …Trail of Dead, Patty Griffin)?
AM Taxi: Interesting. No (laughs), it was great! He’s an amazing producer, but he is an eccentric guy. Adam: His set up in the studio, well, you can’t see him. There is a wall, then the control room. So we would play and wait and wait, and have no idea what was going on. Then you would hear the Sex Pistols and we’d put down our guitars, and you’d go in to see what was going on and he’d be dancing around the room. Then we’d all be dancing around the room. Then it was like, “Ok. Now we can get a take.”

How long were you guys there for?
AM Taxi: 8 weeks. John: It felt pretty loose. Near the end, of course, you’re like, ”Oh crap, there’s like three days.” And then you want to stay longer, and he’s saying, “You brothers. Are you sure you have to leave, man?” We’re like, “No more days! We have shows booked.”

Did you have moments were it felt like monotonous?
John: Not the way Mike recorded. He kept it exciting. Adam: Well, there was Woodpecker. That was the one song. John: Woodpecker, which is on our record, there is another version of it floating around. It’s a little slower. It is Mike’s baby. Luke: If anything got monotonous it was “computer camp.” We had computer camp all of the time while he would tune the drums, and then the other instruments.

Do you find yourselves re-working/mixing stuff up on stage?
Adam: Some of the songs are a little older to us because of touring them before, so the recording was the re-working.

For Warped Tour each band plays for 30 minutes. How do you choose which songs you are going to play?
John: We tie names to pigs and try to catch the pigs. Jason: Greased pigs! Luke: Tiny pigs! Jason: It’s really fun today because it’s so hot. John: The “Half Hour of Power” we like to call it.In a 30-minute time limit you need the set to have as much impact as possible, so it has to be more organized. You need to work the set so it keeps the crowd’s interest and know when Adam is going to talk.

Warped Tour is intense. There are a lot of bands, crew, sponsors. It’s hot and dirty. What are some of your touring necessities?
AM Taxi: Babywipes! Jason: Toothpaste.

Off the topic of music, let’s get personal. If you could have a superpower what would it be?
Chris: The ability to do laundry in my shoes. I am running out of clothes. If I could turn anything that resembles a bucket into a washing machine, I would. Adam: Turn any beverage into an alcoholic beverage. Jason: I wanna fly. I wanna go up and fly. I don’t want to be called Superman though. Chris: Like Sugar Ray? (everyone laughs) Jason: Not like Sugar Ray. Or it would be to get rid of jokes like that (laughs). John: To read and control people’s thoughts. Mind control. AM Taxi (minus John): Freak show! Luke: I’m going to go with telekinesis, or I’d like to have Prince’s singing voice. One of the girls on our bus has a pillow with Prince’s face on it. It’s awesome. Luke: I want to meet this girl.

What are some of your musical escapes? What do you listen to when you want to shut out the madness and get locked into your own world?
Luke: Kings of Convenience Adam: Otis Redding Jason: Sam Cooke, Wilco Chris: Sub.bionic John: My brother clanking stuff around. (Luke is playing with a Keep Abreast water bottle and it’s a noisy mess). No, Massive Attack or Zero 7.

Now that you’ve been away from home for a little while, what do you miss from home [Chicago] the most?
Luke: My girlfriend and my cat. Jason: My fiancée and my dogs.

Finally, what is your favorite WONKA candy?
AM Taxi: Cherry Kazoozles and Nerds Luke: Sweet Tarts, and I’m a big fan of the chocolate John: The Kazoozles or Nerds. Chris: The gummies in the orange package [Sluggles].

AM Taxi will also be doing a series of signings in the WONKA Music Factory this summer during Warped Tour. You can keep posted on these by following WONKA on Twitter: http://twitter.com/wonkanation.

Ready, Set, Go! Vans Warped Tour 2010 Officially Kicks Off!

Hey WONKAnation! WONKA here, reporting from the start of the 2010 Vans Warped Tour! We’ll be living on and riding one of the valiant tour buses across the U.S. and through Canada, bringing y’all the behind-the-scenes scoop from all the cities coast-to-coast and above the border. Actually, we (the fun family that is Warped Tour) just completed day one.

Oh yes, numero uno, the sweet beginning. And it was sweet, not just because we’re partially fueled by Kazoozles and other WONKA candy goodness, but because the Carson/Los Angeles show was a totally outstanding blast off into tourspace! In the WONKA tent, we had AM Taxi signing autographs after they rocked their set with their Americana punk stylings. I had a minute to chat with Jason from AM Taxi about his need for coffee in the morning, being snowed-in in Chicago and Boston, and why Chicago needs to get their garbage situation in check.

He also informed me that WONKA Gobstoppers are Adam Krier’s favorite candy. Jason told me that he even “eats them for breakfast!” We’re stoked to be riding along this summer on Warped Tour. Many people thought that maybe Warped Tour would slow down, or maybe even halt, as it turned 15. Well, they were wrong! Watching the kids swarm the grounds, taking on the heat, it’s obviously nothing but full-speed ahead. So, keep your eyes on WONKAnation’s blog, Facebook and Twitter for all of my updates, because we’ll be coming to a city near you soon!

2010 AP Tour Blizzard

My lovely WONKA enthusiasts! I couldn’t be happier to be writing you this third blog installment from the AP Tour! Why so happy you ask? Well, our caravan of three buses and two vans with trailers just finally made it through the craziest storm that I have toured through in the last decade!

We began our day in Salt Lake City just like any other day. We got our gear inside, and I checked in our 1,000-pound shipment of delicious WONKA candy, and so on and so forth. After an hour or two, I went back outside to get changed for the show and to my great surprise it was pouring rain. And I’m talking like sideways, sting your face, all over the place rain. Within another hour it was hailing the size of golf balls, which was soon replaced by snowfall.

Now let me pause for a moment and say that, since I’m from Los Angeles, snow is novel and fun for the first 15 minutes or so. We ran around, caught snowflakes on our tongues and had a snowball fight. After the initial awesomeness wore off it became quite clear that not only would we need to push everyone’s set times up to finish the show early so kids could get safely home, but that we also might not make it to the show in Denver the next day : / boo!

It was decided that the two bands with vans and trailers, The Summer Set and Every Avenue, would stay behind as the roads were much too dangerous. We put each band’s singer and one guitar player on our buses so they could play acoustic shows the next day and headed out. Our three buses crawled their way through the pass and we eventually made it to Denver the next day around 4pm… a drive that normally takes nine hours took us 17!

I’m glad to report that after 48 hours all of the tour caught up to each other and we made it safely to Des Moines, IA today! Thanks to all you guys and gals who helped us along the way, showed up early in the snow to line up and made the last few shows so much fun that we all remembered why we tour and go through storms and all other sorts of madness to make it to your city! Hugs and SweetTARTS! X0

A Day in the Life…

So we are about a week and a half into the AP Tour, and I thought it’d be fun to fill you in on a little bit of the touring world that most people neeeevvver ever see… how one lives full time on a tour bus and sleeps in a bed that travels down the highway at 65 miles per hour.

A lot of people think the touring life is so very sweet, and because of WONKA, this tour just happens to be! Nope, no fancy hotel rooms for us, my home for the next two months is a standard band bus… about the same size as a Greyhound bus, but completely gutted and redesigned on the inside!

When you first walk onto the bus you see the driver’s seat and a curtain you have to pass through that leads to the front lounge, aka “Hugs&Hangs Deluxe Zone.” We’ve got two couches, a small table, kitchen sink, microwave, and one of those tiny refrigerators some of you have in your dorms at college J. After that, you hit the bunk galley, which is separated by a sliding door on either side, called the “Sleepy-Time Nation” area. Now when I say ‘bunk’ you probably think of the bunk bed you and your sibling had in elementary school… well there’s a little twist here, instead of two beds high, ours sleep three high! And let me tell you, I have a top bunk on this tour, and I feel like a professional rock climber every time I successfully make it into bed!

The last small space in the very back of the bus is, well, the back lounge. Just a small table with a bench seat and connected couch, but we’ve turned it into our mobile office. Laptops and printers all over the place with everyone working on everything from daysheets for the next show, to WONKA candy dropships, to creating/writing new songs in Logic for upcoming albums!

And yes, we work all day while our bus driver sleeps all day. At the end of the day, we climb into our bunks to fall asleep and our driver Johnny sets out on the highway to take us to our next show… possibly your city! Check out the video that I made to see for yourself. See ya soon, WONKAnation!

A.P. Tour 2010… and So It Begins!

Well hello there my fantastic WONKAnation friends! We just kicked off the AP Tour with a few shows in Texas and Arizona and I can already tell this is gonna be an AWESOME two months on the road!

The first day of tour always seems to feel a little like the first day of high school… you’re nervous and excited at the same time and you don’t know quite what to expect. Well…as soon as my bus arrived to pick me up, I knew it was gonna be all good! The band that I’m living with, Hey Monday, jumped out with big smiles on their faces sayin, “You’re the WONKA candy chick?? This rules!” Let me tell y’all, we are definitely the most popular bus on tour already with all this free WONKA candy!

So here’s the deal, we are hitting 41 different cities across the U.S. on this tour so there’s pretty much no excuse for not coming to a show to get some free candy, listen to killer bands and to hang out with me at our WONKA booth. Check back here for my weekly updates and follow @WONKAnation for instantaneous awesomeness during the shows! Who knows, I might just be talking about you and your rockin’ WONKA style!

WONKA Golden Ticket Sweepstakes: Win a Free Trip Around the World!!

Wow! Not only did WONKA debut a collection of premium chocolate bars, the candymaker is also offering its first buyers of the new WONKA Exceptionals chocolates a chance at a one-of-a-kind prize - a WONKA Golden Ticket!



How do you get one of these exclusive WONKA Golden Tickets, you ask? Well, here’s the deal:

Ten WONKA Golden Tickets can be found in WONKA Exceptionals chocolate tablet bars and bags of minis. Lucky Golden Ticket holders (and their loved ones) win a Grand Prize of a trip around the world! I know… awesome, right!?!?

Thousands of secondary prize Purple Tickets, including airline vouchers, Ticketmaster gift cards and movie theater gift certificates, can be found in WONKA Exceptionals chocolate tablet bars and bags of minis too. Not a bad deal, huh!!!

If you’re lucky enough to get a WONKA Golden Ticket, you’ve got yourself some bragging rights. I have just one question for y’all: If YOU got a Golden Ticket, where would you want go on this once-in-a-lifetime trip?

So hurry up and visit WONKA.com for more information about the Golden Ticket Sweepstakes and good luck!

Attention All Chocolate Lovers! Introducing WONKA Exceptionals!

We at WONKA wanted to show our fans how WONKA does chocolate, and we’re sooooo excited to share some EXCEPTIONAL news!

This past week, WONKA launched its new collection of premium chocolates - WONKA Exceptionals! These chocolates - inspired by the WONKA story so many of you know and love - are unlike any others on the shelf. More than eye candy, the WONKA Exceptionals chocolate collection was created with as much attention to the taste inside as the presentation outside. WONKA is bringing a pinch of whimsy, a bucket of imagination and something a little unexpected to the all-too-stuffy premium chocolate category.

The new WONKA Exceptionals chocolate collection started appearing on store shelves last week, so keep an eye open for them in your area.

Visit WONKA.com for more information about WONKA’s decadent new chocolate collection! Chocolate coma, here we come!