I think the general consensus is getting some form of virus at a festival is almost inevitable. Some are worse than others and some may not go away depending on who you spent time with. So, hope everyone is healthy and had a blast like I did! This was great to have back!
Happy to wake up 7 days after my first night of Riot Fest and still feel great. I wonder if we'll ever get stats on the amount of attendees who provided vax status as opposed to just a negative test, like Lolla did.
Been exhausted and also starting a new job so just getting to my riot fest post, but man what a weekend. Felt so damn good to be back. The lineup was killer this year, I didn’t even fully realize until I was there how much I liked it. Friday was especially sick. Circa Survive, Kississippi, Motion City, and Beach Bunny all crushed it and ending with Pumpkins was a good time. Motion City’s crowd was one of the best I’ve ever been in for them. Might’ve been my favorite set of theirs besides the first time I saw them and their “final” show. Saturday highlights were Citizen, Rancid, and Run the Jewels. Sunday was not as strong overall, but Slipknot was so awesome. I was pretty excited already but they exceeded my expectations. And ending the weekend with TBS at the Metro just felt right. Idk I just love this festival so much and I already can’t wait until next year
First covid test was negative, taking another one tomorrow to be sure. only times i wore a mask was when i was in dense crowds, ordering from a vendor, and at the the aftershow i went to. feels good, already miss it and already formulating my wishlist for 22, haha
2021's line-up was great in that even if the bands they had were repeats? They are consistently great live acts who know how to bring it in a festival setting. Genre-wise, it was also pretty diverse so it felt like I was seeing stuff I might not normally go out of my way to on the daily. I'm hoping that 2022 has a few more deep cuts, surprises, smaller-scale reunions, or whatever but Riot Fest pulled off a very impressive feat in 2021 and I can't wait to see what they do next year!
and at least from what ive seen, it feels like the refund rage in the last few weeks leading up to the fest died almost the second the fest started, but the new conversation is has riot out grown douglas park/the anti-riot locals seem to be a bit louder this year (or im just reading about it more). i like it in Douglass but would be open to them trying out a new, bigger space, if thats possible, because i get the frustration as just recently i was stopped from walking my dog on our daily route because the park was being set up for an Irish festival and it pissed me off and as i was walking away though 'oooh i do get how some of the neighborhood residents feel now'
TBH, nothing about this year gave me the vibe that the festival has "outgrown" the park. If anything, it felt a bit less congested than usual inside the festival. As far as the anti-Riot Fest locals go, I can't even pretend to understand that situation. I'm not a local and every time it comes up in an article it seems to be a very vocal minority. Similarly, whenever it comes up in any FB groups or whatever for every person saying "OMG it's the worst!" there's at least one more saying "Nah, the locals are cool with it." Which is kinda the same way it's always been as I recall. Even back when it was in Humboldt. It all feels kinda like just another year to me, as far as that stuff goes.
Every year I feel bad for those who need to take the pink line for their normal lives and get stuck in the chaos that is people getting to/from the park.
You would think someone would acknowledge that a festival was going in the area and respond with better train service
Yeah, but hopefully they can play the festival and maybe an aftershow like what happened with the Bayside and the New Found Glory tours.
Honestly, the vitriol for the Twitter person seemed real at first. Imagine if they get booked for 2022. But not at the festival. At a Not-Riot Fest Late Night Show. Or at a Rival Fest Late Night Show. That is promoted by Riot Fest.
Not sure if this means anything to anybody else on this thread but me... But 155-Pod just realized a crossover episode with the P.O.D.Kast where they break down the Slipknot/MGK feud and this is going to be m favorite podcast of 2021 I can tell already.
Emailed Riot to see if they had any more pictures from our wedding ceremony and they emailed like 15 more pictures over :') Again, I love this festival so damn much