Comparing to past headliners with similar fan bases, the last time DM played Chicago in 2023 they played 2 shows at United Center (7 months apart but still same tour), NIN played 2 shows at United Center this tour and The Cure 1 the same year they headlined Riot. So I would say they are definetly bigger than Weezer and Jack White, and they would be headliners by themselves. But also this is one of those instances where my non-US self have the idea that Depeche Mode are massive everywhere, as they played 3 sold out stadium shows in a row here in Mexico City back in 2024.
Depeche Mode would be a single headliner forsure, but if they were to co-headline Kraftwerk as the other headliner would be a fun, unique booking. Edit: DM is great live so I’m all for them headlining.
Lagwagon just announced the European summer leg of their Hoss anniversary tour. It ends in August. Makes me think they'll be doing a fall run for the album in the US. We won't know more until US tour dates are announced but that would be a strong add to the festival!
Depeche Mode and Kraftwerk are two bands that I'd love to see live, but would probably only ever get to see in a festival setting. I'm all for them both being there (although I doubt it).
Metallica seems like an “out of reach” band that’d be too big for Riot. But I mean… Now they’ve booked Foo Fighters and Green Day, so maybe they could be in the cards
I want to say this is just them being silly. But… It seems oddly specific. Haha. And they don’t have any other US dates this year. I could see them being in the mix. They did Boston Calling a few years back which about the same cap as Riot.
Im not reading into the font as any sort of hint but just going to the next festive time/cultural event on the calendar for their visuals, Christmas-> valentines->olympics. Metallica would be a perfectly serviceable headliner. Would gladly see them if there is nothing better but would skip if they booked an opposing banger
I mean, it's definitely an Olympics thing. The placement of the fork/knife just feels very deliberate. We got at least one additional clue ahead of the rollout last year (and if I recall - the last one was for the Pogues which was much more obvious than the others) so hopefully we'll get a better hint soon! As for Metallica - I have zero interest in seeing them or the impact it would have on the crowd for that day of the festival. A definite net negative for me. But I would be really curious to see how they curate the Riot/Roots stages on their day. On paper, Metallica could lend to some cool/interesting pairings.
The Flaming Lips, Joan Jett, and Cheap Trick are the obvious contenders. 4 Non Blondes would be kind of fun as a novelty booking. hey, nothing would also make a lot of sense I think for an early day act
Counting Crows please. Plain White T's would make sense. Surprised they've never played before considering they're local.
Squeeze and The Church would be fun afternoon sets. I could also see Tonic for an out of left field yet whelming booking.
On top of the other suggested acts, I’d put cracker as a possibility since camper played last year so the relationship is established maybe of monsters and men and definitely amigo the devil if there’s any sort of dark folk/ folk punk type stuff
FYI if you go to the summerfest site you can search lineups by date. Looks like 6/19 is gonna be the big pop punk day
I think it’s been brought up before (and I wasn’t too into the idea) but since he will be active this year…I wonder if they would book Post Malone, not for a regular set, but for like an Ozzy cover set (like at the Grammys this year) or even the Nirvana cover set. I don’t know if that rises to headliner status, but maybe it does just on Post’s name alone.