Riot Fest 2018 - September 14-16 - Douglas Park, Chicago Tour • Page 103

yea just hope more than anything that its a one time bump in the road year and not a sign of things to come

 

If it was MCR the festival would sell out before they even announced daily lineups lol

 

Every year for the past 3-5 years, I've seen people saying things like "the festival is on its last financial legs" and "the line-ups aren't what they used to be" and "I know a ton of people who just don't go anymore and they used to go every year for reasons X, Y, and Z."

But somehow, every year, tens of thousands people are still showing up... And I'm willing to bet that when September rolls around? The turnout will still be decent. Not what it's been the last few years, but decent.

I just think it's going to hurt overall turnout this year unless they happen to have something really, really huge up their sleeves. And even then? The delay is going to do some damage.

I just hope the festival is smart enough to adapt/shrink if they need to next year.

The silver-lining here is that they didn't book like, fucking Rammstein or some shit that's going to bankrupt them a la Rockfest up in Quebec.

 

Definitely. And I feel like, if/when MCR ever get back together? They'll do their own thing first.

 

I like to think they are REALLY confident about the last headliner. That or the one they had (lat's say Op Ivy) said they won't play and they had a hard time finding another headliner

 

Genuine question, how does Chicago support three festivals that are geared, in a sense, towards alt/indie/punk? Between Lollapalooza, Pitchfork and Riot Fest it seems like there is a fair amount of crossover in potential talent though they each have their specific niches. I imagine having those two festivals in the same city around a similar time affect sales.

 

In my mind, it's a combination of two things:

1) We're still the third largest metropolitan area in the country. There's a lot of fucking people here.

2) There's less overlap between the three than you think. To put it in lay terms: Lolla covers "popular" music. Pitchfork covers "indie" music. Riot Fest covers "rock" with a few notable exceptions. This is probably an overly simplistic way of looking at it because there's a fair amount of crossover (e.g., Basement playing Lolla this year), but sentiment still reigns. Their niches are very carved.

And that's not even including all of the lower to mid level festivals we have (Wicker Part Fest, Chicago Open Air) and the big touring packages we get through here. It's just a hyper competitive landscape, period.

 

That's what I figured in terms of the genres they specialize in but it still seems like a LOT of options for the consumer. I live in NYC which is market #1 and of the 2 big popular music festivals here, pretty sure the one in July (Panorama) is shutting down due to poor attendance. I think Riot Fest probably has the most dedicated fanbase in that their tastes likely aren't catered to as much by Pitchfork and Lollapalooza which hopefully helps.

 

That's a pretty spot-on breakdown of the three "major" festivals. I think, with Lolla too, you'll get some of those "rock" bands crossing over... But they probably won't ever play it again unless they have a major bump in popularity. It happens when they're a "buzz" band, but that's that. Riot tends to get repeats with those same bands (see also: The Menzingers).

Riot Fest has a dedicated fanbase, mostly because it's the only major festival of its type. Although, I'd imagine Pitchfork has an equally dedicated (if not slightly smaller) base of folks.

Lolla is too "broad" to really get that kind of devotion, I think, because it's going to duck and weave with whatever's popular that year. But they have the brand recognition/mainstream appeal to pull it of. Ironically, the Riot Fest line-up pretty much looks like what the Lollapalooza line-ups looked like in the early 90s when it was a traveling festival. Haha.

I think the concept of "festival fatigue" is a very, very real thing. And I think a lot of that is driven by how similar the line-ups are. I just took a look at Panorama's line-up, and what would the motivation be for anybody to attend that festival versus any of the others? It's not identical, but by and large it's many of the same acts who have played most of the other major festivals in the last 1-2 years.

 

The other challenge for Panorama and in NYC in particular is that EVERY act plays here, usually multiple times per cycle. The Killers and The Weeknd had been here fairly recently. Add that to a not-that-strong undercard and undesirable location (Randalls Island is real ugly), it was bound to be a disaster. Governors Ball is in the same spot but functions more like Lollapalooza in that they book a ton of popular pop/EDM/hip-hop which gets the numbers.

 

Yea each of the festivals here really cover unique niches in my opinion. There’s definitely crossover but they all have a very different vibe both in terms of acts they book and the actual atmosphere of the festival. Like a typically Riot band is only getting booked on Lolla if they have a lot of buzz around them. Someone who will play a 6:30 slot at Lolla is going to headline pitchfork. And a bunch of other differences like that make them all stand on their own.

 

That's a great point too. Although, the Killers and Queens of the Stone Age had both played Boston within 9 months or so of Boston Calling this past summer... And they were still pretty hyped acts on the bill. But I think that's a situation of "headliners plus the undercard all being solid."

Boston Calling does a decent job of not booking undercard acts who have been in the area recently.

The one festival I went to in NYC was actually at Randall's Island. Granted, that was forever ago and the line-up was insane (Rock the Bells: Rage Against the Machine, Wu-Tang Clan, Cypress Hill, Public Enemy, Brother Ali, Felt, Blueprint, Cage, and a slew of others) but I had a pretty fantastic time. Haha.

I think you just outlined the problem. A lot of these larger festivals are pretty much carbon copies of one another, just shuffling around acts year to year.

And a big part of that is "This really worked for Festival X! Let's just copy that!"

I really think, and maybe this is optimistic, but you're going to see a lot of festivals call it quits over the next few years... But the ones that try to branch out a bit and get more "niche" are going to sustain, albeit on a smaller scale.

 

I just received the PDF of my 3-day pass from the holiday presale.

 

Me too! I'm so hyped now!

 

Honestly, I just think it's a down year for headliners. But, a symptom of the larger problem is that they're a niche festival and it shows in the booking. They moved outdoors in what 2012? How many acts repeat every couple years? Blondie, Trio, Blink, Wonder Years, Underoath, Cypress Hill, some combination of Wu Tang, etc. etc. etc. It's personally not a big deal for me, but it's not hard to see how people may be burned out on this year's edition. Especially when Blink was just here last summer and Jerry Lee Lewis doesn't seem to be exciting anyone.

 

It's a down year for headliners, across the board. And you could say the same thing for most festivals, both in terms of headliners and repeats.

It doesn't bother me, especially since I'm okay with seeing certain acts multiple times at the same festival over a few years (and frankly, with a band like Lagwagon--I'm happy to see them twice this year because they don't tour very often).

But when things start to repeat, I do think it lessens the appeal for most people who travel to a festival. Unless you're talking about something like Fest where it has more of a "communal" vibe.

 

Anybody know when those typically get sent out?

I don't know that I've ever actually been mailed anything physical by Riot Fest in all the times I've gone, haha.

 

Is there any chance Riot is waiting for Lollapalooza to end for the 2nd wave?

 

I hope so, because I want to see Chromeo, dammit!

 

One half-baked thought I just had was I feel like the pool of "HOLY SHIT" headliners gets shallower and shallower each year. There are always going to be bands that will move the needle in a big way if they get back together (The Smiths, Op Ivy come to mind immediately - the latter more likely than the former i'd say) but between the myriad other festivals out there, reunions that have already happened and the ability for a band to "come back" how they want (I see MCR doing something special and bigger than RF), it's just getting harder and harder to gobsmack people.

 

Probably not. I see little to no overlap between the two festivals. And I wouldn't think any of the acts that might overlap would play two major festivals in the same market so closely to one another.

I don't know that that's "half-baked" so much as just... Logical. Haha. There's only so many bands of a certain caliber that can reunite and "move the needle" as you put it in a big enough way that they're worth the price of booking.

And with Riot Fest, where they tailor to a demographic that's a bit more specific than most festivals? They have an even smaller pool of options.

They've done a great job to-date, and honestly? I think this year's line-up is still pretty strong for somebody who enjoys 90s punk rock, emo, what passes as "classic alternative rock," and louder music in general... But it doesn't have that small handful of "HOLY SHIT!" acts on the bill that are normally the driver for certain people.

In that top tier of bands (going as low as 5 lines deep) the acts are all pretty strong as far as general draw goes, but in the context of a major festival? There's no real shockers or "HOLY SHIT! THEY GOT 'EM!" acts there.

It's mostly bands who still tour with some sort of regular frequency. And those who don't tour so much (Beck) have done or are doing a full US tour, anyway.

 

Like others have said, there's not much overlap. We're also such a central area to the nation that a lot of people will travel to here for a festival. That used to matter more before there was a festival in every city.

 

There's still a part of me holding out hope that the second wave is waiting for Gaslight to roll through town but I know that's extremely unlikely.

 

Those shows have been sold out for months, so I'm doubting that's the case. But I'd be way into it if it were!

 

There's only one show in Chicago.