We're in a day and age when everything seems to cost more while getting shittier, and live music is along for the ride along with everything else we enjoy while everything burns around us. Tickets are scooped up by robots and even nosebleeds can cost you upward of $700 on the secondary market. Artists are pulling their music entirely from certain platforms for political reasons and for 'not getting paid much of anything' reasons. And with multi-day music festivals being a big upfront cost you have to pay before even seeing a very...whelming lineup.
These days, it's hard to find anything that's even as good as it was five years ago, let alone getting better with time.
And then there's Riot Fest. Much like Chicago celebrates its reputation as the Second City, Riot Fest has always been the 'little brother' festival of the city behind the 4-day extravaganza that is Lollapalooza. Tucked away in mid to late September every year, it's one last hurrah of rock and hip hop, metal and techno, punk and emo, before the summer ends and we wrap up the outdoor music season. What started as a multi-venue punk rock festival and has gone through a few venue changes (and one almost venue change in 2024) celebrated its 20th year last weekend. And much like a fine wine or the Ernest movies, it only gets better with age.
You can't talk about a music festival without talking about the headliners, and Riot Fest went all out for their 20th birthday. Blink 182 took time out of their stadium tour to close out Friday night. Weezer played a career-spanning set that culminated with playing their best album (the blue one, duh) front to back. And as if that wasn't enough, Green Day was the festival closer on Sunday night. For those of you not super plugged into the online Riot Fest community, Green Day was the 'there's no way Riot Fest would shell out the money for them' band that everyone used after they couldn't mention Fall Out Boy or Foo Fighters anymore. Not sure who fits the bill now. Maybe that's the best birthday present Riot Fest could've gotten: not having to hear about what bands are 'too big' for Riot Fest anymore because the answer seems to be none. This being Riot Fest's 20th anniversary was fitting considering Green Day's closing night set came exactly 21 years to the day from the release of American Idiot.
Top level headliners are great and everything, but we need some depth to our festival lineup to truly maximize our value, and Riot Fest delivered that in spades. No disrespect to Weezer, but Jack White gave an absolute "wait, he wasn't a headliner??" performance. I've been lucky enough to catch Mr. White do his thing a few times over the years, but never in a festival setting. And as much energy and volume as he has in a smaller venue, he somehow impossibly pushes it to another level or ten when faced with a festival crowd.
Ranking just behind Jack White for 'Set of the Weekend' was the absolute madness on Sunday afternoon that was IDLES. The band's final performance on the TANGK tour was an incendiary set with an absolute mob scene of a pit erupting as soon as the band hit the stage. It was loud and violent and angry and all about love and acceptance in the most ridiculously amazing combination possible.Post-punk that you can slam your body into a brick wall to and dance to? Oh, they also BROUGHT JACK WHITE OUT TO PLAY 'Never Fight a Man With a Perm'!!!!! It's the kind of performance that Riot Fest attendees are going to be talking about for years to come. It's also a testament to Riot Fest's ability to pick a lineup when it's so strong one of the previous night's acts sticks around till late afternoon the next day for a set.
Big names aside, the very best thing about Riot Fest and the truly eclectic mix of bands that it brings together is that you're going to get exposed to something you've never seen before - and chances are you're going to love it. This was never more true at Riot Fest than Friday's 'Weird World' stage. With Weird Al Yankovic himself closing the stage out that night, his own curated stage full of oddities and throwbacks hosted by comedian Emo Phillips got the audience primed throughout the entire day. Kicking things off was Mac Sabbath, who look exactly like you would initially think upon hearing their name, before immediately questioning if such a thing was possible. A drive-thru themed metal band delivering a spot on tribute to one of the originators of the genre (heavy metal, not drive-thru related music). And they were amazing! Keeping the theme of 'fears of my childhood that continue into adulthood', the next act was also clown-based: Puddles' Pity Party. It's a sad clown that croons to slowed down versions of pop songs, covering everything from Black Sabbath's 'Crazy Train' to Los Lobos' 'Estoy Sentado Aquí'. It was high class and totally absurd and that was the entire point, so it was perfect. And just as cool as discovering new emerging weird acts was seeing an entire new generation witness the madness and joy that is a Sparks live set. Longtime fan-favorites like 'This Town Ain't Big Enough for the Both of Us' and 'When Do I Get To Sing "My Way?"' hit an entirely new under-40 crowd with a straight shot of the best BritPop of the 70's and 80's from an American band.
With its roots so deeply intrenched in punk rock and punk rock being very pro-inclusion, Riot Fest has always been an extremely welcoming place. Throughout the weekend, you'll mix with what is a truly all-ages crowd. There will be toddlers there and there will be grandparents there and every age in-between. They'll be dancing in the same mud pits as a guy in a leather dog mask and another dressed as an inflatable dinosaur. And no one is going to bat an eye.
And with that spirit of inclusion and 'everyone is welcome' at an all time high, Riot Fest convinced long time nemesis and now best friend John Stamos to appear live and in the flesh as opposed to butter statue form like so many years before. Sitting in with The Beach Boys and sounding every bit as good as he did with the Rippers, Stamos made his presence felt throughout the rest of the festival, with a Stamos Lookalike Contest being hosted in the main RIOTLAND area under said Stamos Butter Statue and even sitting in on drums with Hanson on Sunday for 'Mmm Bop'.
And that's just scratching the surface of everything you're going to get from a Riot Fest weekend. Did I mention there's also independent wrestling? Carnival rides? That doesn't even mention other blistering sets from bands like All Time Low, Inhaler, Bad Religion, Say Anything, Cobra Starship, Alkaline Trio, Militarie Gun, Knocked Loose, or Chicago hometown heroes Harm's Way, Footballhead, and Knuckle Puck.
And again, the entire day kicked off with seeing a certain fast food clown reach into his pants, pull out an 8 foot long plastic straw, and use it as a beer bong. It wasn't even 1:00 in the afternoon yet. I don't care who you are...that is rock and roll.
The best news of all? If any of that sounds good to you, tickets for 2026 Riot Fest are already on sale here.
