Riot Fest 2023

If bonzai can sneak in boob booze, one of you can sneak in a pants cheeseburger.

My one gripe with the lineup was the Foo Fighters headlining slot given I’ll see them at Roo, but I imagine seeing them with a riot fest crowd would be pretty fun. Is there typically counter programming to the headliners?

when do they typically release full album playthrough info?

Congrats!

Charlie here (fka summerteeth214).

Been a while, but I need people to talk music with.

This is, imo, one of the best American festival lineups I have seen this year. If I wasn't currently broke & unemployed, I would definitely consider going.

Fake Names is quite the supergroup:

Dennis Lyxzén (Refused, INVSN, The [International] Noise Conspiracy)
Brian Baker (Minor Threat, Bad Religion, Dag Nasty)
Michael Hampton (S.O.A., Embrace)
Johnny Temple (Girls Against Boys, Soulside)
Brendan Canty (Fugazi, Rites of Spring)

Like Rafi, you always gotta have a pocket dog ready for consumption

RF is my mom's birthday weekend, would be the perfect excuse...

This is my first year seriously looking - when does Riot usually sell out? Trying to hold out to see who's on the Homecoming lineup

The Cure + Mars Volta is pretty sexy. When do daily lineups get released?

This might be the best lineup of 2023. This also feels like one of the only unique festivals in 2023 even with Foo Fighters playing.

Kinda sad they weren't able to book Till Lindemann. Blue Ridge got him as an exclusive US performance. He would've been a great booking for Riot Fest.

I was talking with Teddy Flair earlier about this and since there's a lot of people who are interested in coming to this from out of town for the first time, here's

~*shuck's guide to going to Riot Fest*~

(I have a feeling some other Chicago people may disagree with me on a few things here. they're wrong, but that's okay.)

Okay, so Riot Fest takes place at Douglass Park, located on the city's West Side. Douglass Park is enormous, bisected by Ogden Avenue (this will be important later). The festival takes place exclusively in the park's southern end. Most people that I know that have come in from out of town to go to this festival stay downtown or just west of downtown, mostly because that's where the trains are; because of the way Chicago is structured, all the train lines wrap around in a loop downtown (which is why it's called the loop) and radiate outwards north, west, and south. As such, I will assume most of you are staying downtown or just west of there, but I'll make slight notes if you're coming from elsewhere.

The #1 way that you will be encouraged to go to Riot Fest is by public transit. This is good, because public transit is good, but unfortunately it is also bad because the CTA does not run additional transit service after Riot Fest ends, which means buses and trains both become horribly crowded. Plan ahead, and more importantly: a lot of you will be drinking so please be careful in large crowds. You can Uber to and from the festival, but I'd recommend walking at least to the north end of the park before calling an uber. Note that Ubers will be very, very expensive, especially if you're heading back to the north side. You may want to consider calling a taxi (which, from my experience, is generally cheaper for these sorts of events) or taking an Uber to a different train station instead.

Trains:

The best way to get to Douglass Park by train is to take the pink line to the Kedzie station, which is closer to the entrance. When you arrive earlier in the day, a lot of people will get off at California. Don't do that. The difference isn't great, but it's a little bit quicker to get to the entrance from Kedzie and you will appreciate the additional one minute you have to enjoy the train with half the people off of it.

On its way to Riot Fest, the pink line passes through the west loop before heading through the Pilsen neighborhood and then towards Lawndale. If you're staying in the West Loop (and enjoying its myriad attractions like the McDonald's that serves food from other countries), you have a few options for getting on the pink line at the Morgan, Clinton, or Ashland stops. If you're staying directly in the Loop, you ideally want to get on the pink line at Washington/Wells, where it'll immediately head west instead of circling around the loop (which it does starting at Clark/Lake. For a better visualization of this, please consult this map.) The blue and green lines also go west but they will not go anywhere near Douglass Park.

If you're coming from south of the loop: take the red line to Jackson and transfer to the pink line at Harold Washington Library. If you're coming from north of the loop: take either the brown line to the loop or take the red line and transfer to the brown line at Belmont or Fullerton before transferring to the pink line at Washington/Wells.

Getting back: hoo boy. You may have to wait a long time depending on how fast you leave. If you leave with plenty of time before the headliner ends, you can reasonably get on the pink line at California heading back to the loop. Any other time than that, it'll be crowded. My best advice is to walk a bit further west of Douglass Park after the festival ends, getting on the pink line at Pulaski or Central Park heading east to the loop OR get on at Kedzie and then take a train heading west (towards 54th/Cermak), ride it down a few stops, and then catch another, more empty train heading east towards the loop. If you're taking the red line home from Riot Fest, take the pink line to State/Lake and transfer there.

Buses:

I have only ever taken buses north or south heading to Riot Fest lol. If you're staying in Humboldt Park or Logan Square or something like that, it will be super convenient to take a bus. Bus routes are numbered and usually labelled by what street they're on. There are bus routes heading north and south on California (#94), Kedzie (#52) and Western (#49, but it's a hike to get over there). Going east/west, there's the Roosevelt bus (#12); Roosevelt border the park on the north side and heads towards UIC. Buses are fine heading to the festival and I only managed to successfully get on one leaving the festival once in 2019. good luck!

Parking:

Having taken Ubers to Riot Fest and having driven around the area quite a bit before: when traffic builds up around here, it fucking sucks. Driving here kind of sucks for the same reason. However, people in the neighborhood will offer paid parking in the land around where they live and there is first come first serve unmetered street parking on the north end of Douglass Park on California and Albany, both north of Ogden Avenue. Do not park on Ogden! Parking is nowhere near guaranteed though so get there early and good luck lol.

and that about covers it. I don't have hotel recommendations. I barely eat out so I can't really say where to eat, but if you're in the west loop there's Kuma's Corner, a metal-themed burger joint, and also I love the okonomiyaki at Gaijin. ok that's it for now.