Just responding to these posts - it's more about the fact that this festival has been in an established location in the city for YEARS before pulling a location change 24 hours before an iteration of it. Half of the appeal for me when I was in Chicago of doing it was being able to stay in the entire city for a weekend, experience it, and then catch an aftershow. It changes the entire logistics of it from an experience perspective. I don't want to navigate driving or transit in an area where it's a fucking shitshow to do so versus just being able to pull up to the spot and have a good time...especially when Chicago is a fucking nightmare to commute or navigate around on a good day that's apparently only gotten worse since I moved away. This also pretty much kills all the aftershow possibilities because seeing bands like Dillinger Escape Plan at Cobra were some of my best memories of Riot weekends in the past. Lineup is pretty solid, but I wouldn't try to navigate to it if I still lived there IMO. edit: grammar
Now that I’m thinking about it more, there’s a few other bands in for sure thought would be a lock but didn’t get booked. Pretty Girls Make Graves were a band I thought Riot would get. I also expected a lot more crossover with Best Friends Forever Fest
They tried to bring it back but it was a disaster and got cancelled. So my point is just that this setup, while not ideal, will obviously work. I have no doubt Riot Fest will still happen this year.
I'm stoked for all of you who are excited and are going to go. If this lineup was in Douglass Park I'd be all for it. Can't warrant the stress of getting there and back for this. I'll wait for aftershows to be announced and hit those instead.
All of this perfectly sums up why I'm a no-go this year too; dicking off with my friends/strangers doing the same between the fest & the aftershows have been some of my favorite memories of young adulthood. I'm about to upgrade my hotel for When We Were Young & just ball out a little harder there
now to start sorting through daily line up bread crumbs - Laura Jane put on her IG post she is playing on sunday and Health said in a comment they are on saturday
Definitely get why people wouldn't want to deal. Being from out of town I'm not as familiar with the area around SeatGeek and what that might look like for this. Really hoping they nail it with the shuttles, though. The commute back after the MCR night a couple years was god awful and I hope it's nothing like that was, ha.
As much as I'd say this lineup is solid, I don't think there's an MCR-like draw for any band on this lineup. That said, if Summerfest and events in Tinley taught me anything, it's that getting out of a parking lot after an event like this is hell.
This year feels very undercard-heavy. Last year it seemed the headliners were hard-hitters and the undercard was cool but not mind-blowing. This year, the headliners are cool, but the rest of the lineup is where it’s at
Yeah that's my assumption too. Just wasn't sure how things might look now with the new venue, even without a draw like that. I'm very excited nonetheless!
I'm really stoked on Fall Out Boy, Pavement, Sublime, Sum 41, Waxahatchee, Tierra Whack (was not expecting that one), Basement, Something Corporate, LJG Op Ivy Set, Sincere Engineer, Slaughter Beach Dog, Fiddlehead, Drug Church, Sweet Pill, Spiritual Cramp. And also looking forward to watching stuff at the NOFX stage, Manchester set even though I'm not overly wild on an all Cope set, St. Vincent, Taking Back Sunday and LS Dunes, idk there's a lot I want to see so this should be a great time. I'm making the choice to be excited, the details will work out (right?)
For those who have been here before, is parking in the area around the stadium a viable option? It's going to be rough getting out of their lots and they're $40 a day so if I can street park to save time and money I would 100% do that. I don't mind a 20 minute walk