Didnt see you... I'm standing against the black fence next to the truck Edit: Was standing Edit 2: I'm at the far right side of the stage, right behind the guy with the orange shirt. If you are around come say hi, name is Ethan
i’m sitting at the front of the truck now (the one on the back forty brewing fence). I’m guessing you like ten feet to my right on the other side of the watermelon shirt guy haha
Continually impressed by the lineup. I ooened the day with All Get Out who sounded like a main stage band. Follow that with full sets from He Is Legend, Cartel, Mae, Touche Amore, stretch arm strong, taking back Sunday and partial sets from beloved, glassjaw, further seems forever. Just wow. Andrew WK dropped from Sunday, and Turnstile moved to his set time and stage. Smart move cause the small stage could not handle turnstile.
Negative. Only drove over for Friday. I did an hour bike ride close to home before leaving for the show though! Speaking of the covered stage(Plugyourholes), yeah its way to hard to see let alone try to get into it if you're trying to bounce between stages. I was lucky to get a spot on the railing during 18V and that's the way to watch sets at that stage. Too bad maybe only 40 people can fit on the railing.
I want to add that the Every Time I Die show, for me, was a borderline religious experience. Absolute next level.
FYI they moved turnstile to the plug your holes headliner slot since I assume Andrew WK puked out. Good for them but sucks for my schedule.
I’m 95% sure I’m skipping today. Friday and Saturday wrecked me, my only must is Showbread, and I still have a four hour drive home afterwards. 5:30am tomorrow would come way too fast getting home that late.
Please don’t miss Showbread. Would have loved to fly over from the UK just to see them alone play this show, haha! (Equally, stay safe if you are driving late)
Fair shout! If I hadn’t seen them 5-6 times in the No Sir/Age of Reptiles eras, missing them wouldn’t even be an option. My buddy is still asleep so we’ll see how he’s feeling about today before making any decisions.
As soon as I started to look for you, my buddy called and I had to take him some medicine across the venue. Sorry for ghosting, haha.
What were people's thoughts on the fest as a whole? Definitely interested in going next year, but would love to hear thoughts on parking/lodging/etc.
It was a really great experience for me. I booked a hotel about 15-20 minutes from the festival early enough in the process that it was both affordable and also a quality place to stay. I purchased parking on the clutch app, and the entrance for a 3 day pass holder is right there by the car- so I was free to walk out to my car whenever I wanted to. I’ve been to festivals where there is no on site parking or maybe the on site parking is so far away from any entrance that it isn’t really possible to walk out to the car without missing music… in this case, if you bought the main parking pass they offered, you could theoretically watch the main stage from your car. Smart punk offered vinyl valet which made it easy to not have to worry about my vinyl baking in my hot car as well. Reminiscing about the festival itself, the fact that the stages were in close proximity to one another was really awesome if I wanted to split sets, the merch all being in a nice alley that is covered was awesome because I could take a break from the action and cool off a tiny bit even… the only gripe I had all weekend was about the drink lines being super slow on Friday, and that was a non issue the rest of the days. There’s even a brewery right across the street if you want to take a break for a while and grab drinks, food, etc. I plan to do it again next year assuming they can put together another great lineup. It was a really great experience.
That's all super encouraging, especially the on sight parking! :) That's my main gripe about Riot Fest, which has really discouraged me from going back tbh.
The whole experience was amazing. We street parked for free all 3 days within 10 minutes walking distance of the entrance. Hotel was 15 minutes away and was reasonably cheap. I hope they keep it at the same capacity next year because it made it feel super special. The only drawback is the overlapping sets so you have to make some tough choices. Will definitely go again next year if the lineup is similarly stellar.
Yeah, the Clutch parking was an immense buy. Immediately felt worth the price when I could walk out the gate, put stuff in my car, and be back inside within two minutes. Even after the headliners, within 10 minutes I was on the interstate and experienced no traffic. My main complaint is the food situation. They need about quadruple the vendors. On Friday night I had a two hour gap of time, and I spent 90 minutes of it waiting for food (at least you could “watch” the main stage from the vendors for the most part). On Saturday, my gap in time was not so generous. We stood in line from the end of Mae to 6:45, ordered, then my friend waited while I went to watch Touche Amore for a bit, came back, we abandoned the food truck to go watch Anberlin (zero regrets), and came back and our order still hadn’t been called two hours later.
I'm at the airport, about to fly home... It was one hell of a weekend. I have 2 hours flight to O'Hare to sleep and try to process everything that happened. I will give my thoughts later but one thing I can mention now is that just like Garrett mentioned, the reserved parking was such a lifesaver. Being able to taje an hour break and go lay in the car with the AC on saved days 2 and 3 for me.
Yeah I basically agree with what everyone said. Great experience, well laid out, felt clean and safe. Food and drink lines were long Friday, but they realized the issue and brought in a ton more vendors for both the rest of the weekend and lines were a lot more tolerable. Close parking and re entry also helped, as we would go back to the car and eat a quick sandwich, then refill water bottles with beer and head back in.