Riot Fest is moving. Again.
Back in June, when the punk and metal festival Riot Fest announced it’s 2024 lineup, they also announced their move to Seatgeek Stadium in Bridgeview, Illinois, about 10 miles from the festival’s home from the past few years of Douglass Park. This looked, at the time, to be a logistical nightmare for people who had already booked hotels in Chicago near Douglass Park.
To polish this massive turd, the festival tried to put a positive spin on the whole thing and dub the new festival home “Riotland” which they described as being an immersive “Choose Your Own Adventure” experience. I assume the choice was whether to take the adventure of traveling out to the Chicago suburbs to go to Riot Fest or staying the fuck home. The festival was also offering shuttles from Chicago to Bridgeview which I’m sure wouldn’t have gone horribly wrong at all.
Well, yesterday, Riot Fest announced that the nightmare was over and a new nightmare had begun, as they have secured a new deal with the city of Chicago and the Chicago Park District to return to Douglass Park next month. Technically it’s “pending provisional approval by the Park District Board next month,” but it looks like everyone’s confident that this whole thing will go through.
The festival’s organizer, Mike Petryshyn, a.k.a. Riot Mike, told the Chicago Tribune that there was a reversal with the experience of working with the Park District:
“We loved working with them recently. It’s gone through this 360.”
Okay, but a 360 isn’t a reversal. A 360 would put you back where you started. Did you mean a 180? Or were you trying to subtly tell us all that nothing has really changed? Blink twice if the Park District is making you say this.
As someone who took the trip out to Chicago to go to Riot Fest in 2023, I have to say that I was not crazy about entering the park considering that I had to walk past so many spray painted messages saying things like “Yuppies go home!” and “Riot Fest out of our park!” I can tell when I’m not wanted and, by some of the people in Chicago, Riot Fest is clearly not wanted.
However, according to the Chicago Tribune, Ald. Monique Scott, 24th, the city of Chicago and the Chicago Park District claimed her constituents were mostly in favor of the festival and that the opposition to the festival stemmed from a “false narrative” from a small number of people, some of whom aren’t even from that neighborhood. However, the Tribune did speak to local residents about the festival back in 2021 and described the feelings as “divided” with some complaining of the noise, the damage to the park, and a festival that doesn’t really fit into the neighborhood, with others saying that the festival “brings vitality” whatever the fuck that means.
So the original move to Bridgeview was a logistical nightmare for everyone who had originally bought tickets with the expectation of the festival being in Douglass Park, and now everyone who has since bought accommodations in and around Bridgeview is screwed instead. But hey, there’s, um…Slayer?