Riot Fest 2023 Tour

Now that the 2022 edition of the festival known as Riot Fest is coming to a close, it is time to start the discussion on the 2023 edition of the festival!

This coming years festival discussion will be unlike many others (sans COVID and the move to Douglass). For those unaware, residents in the area who call Douglass Park their local park are calling for an end to festivals in the park. Currently, Lyrical Lemonade Summer Smash, Heatwave Festival, and Riot Fest hold ticketed events in the park, taking up close to 50 days during the summer with set up, the festivals themselves, and teardown. Riot Fest held a community meeting with area residents prior to the start of the 2022 festival, but it did not go well and the Riot Fest representative who showed up to the meeting was fired for their conduct. Where the festival can move to is the big question should a move occur, and will be a large part of the discussion/speculation this coming year.

Aside from that, we are back to another year not knowing any of the headliners ahead of time. So there is room to speculate on three headliners versus just one this year!

My headliner predictions:
The Strokes
Paramore
Green Day
The Killers
Rage Against The Machine
Death Cab For Cutie (more likely to be second on the top line of one of the days vs a top 3 headliner)
Bright Eyes (see directly above)

I also would love for more women, POC, and LGBT performers next year, as I feel this is something that is always severely lacking at this festival.

Let the discussions begin!

 

As stated in the other thread, no dates and location in the end of festival social posts. This is highly up in the air.

 

Yep, I would say so. When Lollapalooza ended they gave dates immediately for next year. Granted, it had already been confirmed they were staying in Grant Park for the next 10 years so you knew it was going to happen in the same location, but still.

 

Very interested to follow the developments with the location. If the intention is to continue having it at Douglass, I want to see the festival have good faith engagement with the community. Right now though, I’m at least 60% sure it’ll move.

As far as headliner predictions go, Paramore and the Strokes seem like great options. I’d love the Killers too. Fall Out Boy is due for a return one of these years. Hole is my wild card pick but I think they’ve said they have no intention to play again.

 

And previous years of RF had dates at the end of the festival.

 

Next year I'm going to go to Toronto for TIFF for the first time, which always coincides with the same weekend as Riot, but I love the people who frequent this thread and love talking inside baseball about festivals, so I'll stick around!

 

With the way the social media posts are worded makes it seem like there will be no next year. Every year since it moved out doors and to a 3 day festival the first social media post usually says something like “thank you this year was awesome see you next year on September 11-13 20**

 

We still never got that “big announcement” they were teasing too. I really hope everything is good behind the scenes

 

I wonder if they need to reconcile financials to see if they even can do this next year on top of all the location drama they’ve enflamed.

 

Yep, I asked that in the other thread. Seems very ominous.

 

I don’t think there will be no next year. I *do* think there’s a high probability it does move locations though. The issue is there just are not any other spots that can accommodate all that Riot Fest has to offer, especially spots in the city. The soccer stadium in Bridgeview has been floated, but I personally think a move to the suburbs is a deathwish for the festival.

 

Also hell yeah time to join in on speculation for a fest I probably won’t end up going to again lol

 

I’m sure they made bank on this years especially if they way over sold Friday and actually had 65k attendance.

I feel like they always do well financially and is why they can book who they book year in and year out

 

Hard to say this time. I don’t know how they would handle people having tickets bought for 2020 that rolled over to this year in the books.

Making attendees pay a 3.5% processing fee for all card transactions doesn’t exactly scream confidence when prior years in which they took card they included it in the price of everything.

 

I want to say that while maybe some of the ways on which the people voicing their concerns are not the best (becoming hostile), I empathize with their anger about restrictive access to the parks during the summer. I live across the street from a decently sized park and one summer a museum I live near held a private event in the park to celebrate the museums anniversary and by doing so they fucked up the park (they field area) so bad it was closed for an entire year for repairs. It sucked because I could barely use a park I live directly across from for a long time. So I understand where these people are coming from for sure.

 

From a PR perspective, I actually think not announcing anything right now is the right move. If they were to come out of this weekend saying “see you here next year!” like everything is business as usual, it’d be a pretty bad look. Lay low(ish) and do the work to meet the community at least halfway on their concerns and announce next year’s fest later this fall with a real plan in place, or a new location.

 

Honestly, I’d love it if they went back to this being a multi-venue event like it used to be prior to 2012. It’s been 10 years of drama. Let’s get back to the basics.

 

I agree on the point of Bridgeview. If it moves there, this festival is dead.

 

Weather forecast looks good so far

 

I wish lollas new contract wasn’t so strict. They could use half of grant park and switch off what side they use every year. So they don’t completely tear it up after lolla being there a month and a half prior or whatever it is.

 

IF the festival does move, I’m going to compile a list of all spots and whether they are possible or not.

Grant Park (not possible, Lolla has exclusivity rights to it)
Union Park (too small plus they already host like 3 festivals a year there)
Adams/Medill Park (has hosted festivals in the past, namely EDM ones and Rudio Fest, but I’ve never been there so I don’t know if it’s too small or not)
Jackson Park (the Obama library is going to be built there and there’s a ton of community pushback against that happening so I can foresee the same pushback for a music festival happening there. Plus it’s on the south side and that will probably draw people away because of safety concerns)
Soldier Field (if the Bears were gone I would say this is likely as I’ve seen people float around the idea of the city turning Soldier Field into a dedicated events space, but it’s now not possible due to the festival occurring during football season and the Bears still playing there)
United Center (ya know, if the festival is down to be held in a parking lot, maaaaaybe, but I don’t think this is a big enough spot)

Am I missing anywhere? I only included places in the city.

 

They could always go back to humblot if the alderman is different. He was the reason they left in the first place

 

I live in the far south subs and it just started storming

 

I think they’re that strict with the contract now because they saw what happening in Douglas Park.

 

They could move it to tinley and tweeter center. They successfully held warped tour there for prolly 15 of the 20 years it was around


(I know a lot of people hate tweeter and where it’s at) it was just a thought tho