{"id":7153,"date":"2025-11-21T14:24:30","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T20:24:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/?p=7153"},"modified":"2025-11-21T14:24:30","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T20:24:30","slug":"festivalgoers-celebrate-20-years-of-riot-fest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/?p=7153","title":{"rendered":"Festivalgoers Celebrate 20 Years of Riot Fest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border-radius: 12px;\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/episode\/0vKS66UyOh0RETGgqVGR7X?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"152\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-testid=\"embed-iframe\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For three days at the end of every summer, a relatively small park in Chicago is the home of tens of thousands of stoned and tipsy-to-drunk punk rock fans celebrating several decades of rock. What is normally an empty field for 362 days of the year is transformed as five stages and countless merch and food stands pop-up to accommodate the people. All of this is to celebrate one of the biggest music festivals in the United States: Riot Fest.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The first Riot Fest was held in 2005 in the now-defunct Congress Theater, a building that could hold a maximum of 3,500 people. 20 years later, more than 50,000 rock fans descended upon Douglass Park, located in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the event.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The festival moved around, but eventually found a home at Douglass Park in 2015, where it has been held every year since. The decision to move to Douglass Park paid dividends, as that is when Riot Fest really started to get people coming back year after year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Of all the slightly drunk and\/or stoned people interviewed over the course of the three day event, the vast majority of them said that they first attended in 2015, and that they have been coming every year since.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, there are some people that have been to every single Riot Fest, and remember the original venue that it was held in.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe Congress Theater was great, but the plumbing was crap,\u201d said Carter Mattig, who has attended every Riot Fest. \u201cWe\u2019ve really found our home here.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mattig wasn\u2019t the only one to remember the \u201cold days\u201d when Riot Fest was held at the Congress Theater. During their set on the Radical Stage on Saturday the 20th, The Bouncing Souls frontman Greg Attonito remarked that \u201cThe first one sucked. It was in this broken down building, and everywhere you went it sounded like 15 bands playing at once.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Bouncing Souls were one of three bands to play at both the first Riot Fest and the 20th one, the other two being Agent Orange and The Effigies. Agent Orange also performed on Saturday on the Rebel Stage, while The Effigies performed on Sunday the 21st, on the Riot Stage.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One way that Riot Fest keeps getting people back is through the diverse group of acts that perform.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt changes every year, and there\u2019s always something for everyone,\u201d said Bill Brundies, who has attended every Riot Fest. \u201cEveryone can enjoy something. There\u2019s people here to see Weird Al and Blink-182 tonight, and tomorrow there will be people crowdsurfing to the Beach Boys.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This year\u2019s Riot Fest had a wide variety of acts, from Art Rock group Sparks to the classic Alternative Rock group Weezer, to Japanese Pop group Shonen Knife.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>This year\u2019s festival not only had established bands such as Green Day and The Effigies, but also newer bands such as The Paradox, The Linda Lindas, and Honey Revenge. The Paradox were the newest group to perform, having been founded in June 2024. The Linda Lindas released their debut album <em>Growing Up <\/em>in 2024, and Honey Revenge released their debut album <em>Retrovision <\/em>in 2023. The diverse lineup also plays a role in bringing people to Riot Fest.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The variety and the skill of the acts causes some people to not even worry about the lineup. Darren, a festivalgoer this year, said that he purchases his tickets every year before the lineups are even announced.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThey consistently have the best lineups,\u201d said Mattig. \u201cWhen I see the artists playing, I can go five lines down and see someone I want to see. You don\u2019t get that with Lollapalooza.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since it was the 20th anniversary show, this year\u2019s Riot Fest made sure to deliver some memorable moments. All Time Low announced they would be playing a free show in Chicago sometime in November, and local group The Academy Is&#8230; announced that in 2026 they would be releasing their first album since 2008. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One Riot Fest moment was over a decade in the making, as John Stamos made his Riot Fest debut after 12 years of jokes being made about it. In 2013, Riot Fest tried to get Stamos to appear by offering a set to Jesse and the Rippers, the band of the character that Stamos played on <em>Full House.\u00a0<\/em>Since then, Riot Fest created a lookalike statue of butter to get Stamos&#8217; attention, and held a John Stamos art show in 2017. Stamos always resisted appearing, until Riot Fest booked The Beach Boys, who Stamos tours with.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Riot Fest was also the time to say goodbye to a few acts. British post-punk group Idles played their final U.S. show before going on an announced hiatus, and Green Day\u2019s closing set on day three was the final show of their two-year-long Saviors tour.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For the local bands that play the festival, it is a big deal to have a large event like Riot Fest in Chicago.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe music industry knows Chicago has great fans,\u201d said Paul Zamost, the bassist for The Effigies. \u201cThey know this city will show out. Riot Mike (the founder of Riot Fest) is honoring all the early Chicago bands. It\u2019s all music, it\u2019s all good.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The event being in Chicago also makes it easier for the locals that want to attend it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI have friends all over the country and the world that come to see this event,\u201d said Mattig. \u201cI don\u2019t have to work in Dubai to be able to afford to travel and buy tickets for it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With events like Riot Fest, the end goal is leaving lasting memories for the people that attend it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cMy favorite Riot Fest memory is coming with my daughter and her best friend to see Blink-182 a few years ago,\u201d said Mattig. \u201cThat was the first concert I took them to when they were younger. Getting to see them grow up and have moments like that, it means everything.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For three days at the end of every summer, a relatively small park in Chicago is the home of tens of thousands of stoned and tipsy-to-drunk punk rock fans celebrating several decades of rock. What is normally an empty field for 362 days of the year is transformed as five stages and countless merch and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":7172,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-life-culture","category-showcase"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/73"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7153\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}