Riot Fest 2019 (September 13-15) Tour • Page 45

I can see them snagging a single album play from Against Me!, but I always wonder about bands playing multiple festival sets spread over two days. It's not so much "Can Riot Fest convince them to do it?" (because they can), but would Riot Fest want to take up two main stage slots like that?

Then again, they could have them later in the day on the side stage... I dunno. Hard to say.

If Riot Fest books Greta Van Fleet, the most exciting thing about that will be the Twitter thread that follows. No way that goes over well with the core.

 

I think AM! will play Riot and maybe do two aftershows with the album plays

I doubt they have them play two days

 

Redd Kross and the Melvins are out, unfortunately. Metro date on Sep 26. Melvins announce tour with Redd Kross and ShitKid

I believe this also rules out OFF! since they share a band member (Redd Kross will be in the PNW during Riot Fest dates)

edit:

In other news, Ride seems possible. They start a US leg on Sep 16th in Detroit and have no Chicago date. RIDE

 

I suppose the question at that point is "how difficult is booking for them this year?".

Might as well book Mumford at that point. Which, having now seen them, they would never fit Riot Fest but damn, they put on a show.

 

I mean, Against Me! would be playing somewhere between 2-4pm. Those slots aren't difficult to fill up.

Greta Van Fleet being on the bill, though... That's an indicator as to how difficult booking was this year. I'm not convinced that it would happen, but man, I kinda hope it does. Just to see the sort of reaction it would get.

 

The Cure have announced the lineup and date (August 31) of their Pasadena Daydream festival The Cure announce Southern California's Pasadena Daydream Festival

edit:

Also, we can probably count these bands out:



edit2:

Or maybe not count those bands out, we did share some of the lineup with Kaboo last year which was also on the west coast. Though of course I doubt we would get the Misfits when they just played Chicago, maybe Distillers or Damned or something

 

Looks like I’m actually going this year ! Can’t wait.

 

350 fest dropped what looks to be the rest of their lineup

 

Saturday would be really tight for that

 

Do we think Riot Fest is going to get hit badly like some of the other festivals (Epicenter, Sonic Temple, Open Air) with the bubble bursting? Not looking great for "rock" festivals this year but I feel like even with last year's issues Riot Fest is a lot more stable with location, infrastructure that it might be okay.

 

Hard to say cus even Lolla has taken a hit. But I like to think Riot taps into a market pretty different from even the hard rock festivals. And it’s way more reasonably priced. Open Air shot themselves in the foot with asinine ticket prices and being at an arena in the burbs.

 

Including the stability and infrastructure you mentioned, i think riot will be ok becuase those other fest shot themselves in the foot in a few ways. 2 of them on the same weekend, tons of crossover, pretty steep pricing and (specifically referring to Open air) weird seating set ups where the vip was practically the entire front area while GA was in the back, and being in a stadium, i dont think people want to go to festivals and be in seats- seems constrictive for entire days

 

I'm encouraged by the fact that Riot Fest matched the previous year's attendance in 2018, despite it's setbacks that year. I think they've carved out their own niche whereas a lot of those other festivals you've mentioned have a lot of similar lineups, people know they'll get an interesting and varied offering at Riot Fest. On top of that they tend to score meaningful reunions with frequency. If they can keep doing what they're doing, I think they'll be fine.

 

Riot will be fine. They were shaky as hell last year with the late lineup/scheduling ordeal, so I think they're on notice.

 

I agree with this. Three of the mentioned festivals are ran by DWP (Epicenter, Sonic Temple, Open Air) which means they are cutting corners all over the place at the expense of the lineup, experience etc. They should go away completely until they want to take festivals serious again.

Palooza just doesn't appeal to a lot of us anymore because they're gearing towards 16-24 moving forward versus the previous 18-49 target.

 

I know not everyone loves Douglass but it's a steady location and I've actually loved the experience at Douglass, it just flows so nice compared to the last year of Humboldt.

 

2013 and the 2014 albums were announced on this date 6 and 5 years ago... man I feel old. Those announcements made my world in high school.

 

I fully freaked out when I saw 2013’s lineup. I couldn’t believe it, a still fresh Fall Out Boy reunion and blink 182 with Tom (I have no issue with Skiba, I’m just glad I got to see the original lineup once) were enough to get me there, but then there was so much great stuff in the undercard.

 

2013 was the last time I went to Chicago RF, it was so great ... I went two years in Denver too but wish I'd went to Chicago instead, especially in 2014, Chicago had a way better lineup that year

 

I've been to Riot Fest five times now (2012, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018) and they've never had any of the logistical issues that many of those other festivals are having. The fact that people are coming from a variety of throughout the city and different means of transportation helps prevent a lot of the issues that people were having over the weekend.

I think Riot Fest has a handle on the locale more than most of the other organizers. Helps to be run by people who are local who "get" the area, I think, rather than having decisions made by some higher-up who has never set foot in the city.

That being said, I think Riot will be "fine" but I think they're going to see a slight hit in attendance like most of the others...

Their advantage over those other festivals is their niche (and loyalty to the brand). Those festivals all hinge on headliners. Headliners play a major part of Riot Fest, but people aren't going to go if they don't like the headliner but enjoy the rest of the line-up.

PS: Can we all agree to stop complaining when festivals drop the price or when festivals spike prices over time? It's just the way things work. And no, you don't deserve a "refund" for buying tickets early.

 

I’ve been getting Facebook memories about the lineups all week

 

I have been to Riot Fest in 2005 and then every year from 2010-2018.

I’m old.

 

That whole line-up looks like an absolute blast!

Eh. I feel like there's a bunch of people on this thread who are hovering around your age and a few years older (I'm 35). Riot Fest's demo definitely skews older than most festivals by a bit...

It's funny. I went to Warped Tour every year from 1999-2010 with like, a year or two off toward the end. And in 2007 I started going to the Fest, which I did every year until 2011... And then in 2012, Riot Fest released that line-up and I was like "It's like... Warped Tour meets Fest!"

One of the biggest draws for me, at this point, with Riot Fest is the fact that even if there's a schedule conflict? If you want to split the sets it's really easy to do that.

 

350 Fest a few years ago was great with the Menz, Bayside, and Mxpx except for most vendors at the festival running out of beer like halfway through.

 

Swap Zebrahead on Saturday for Suicide Machines and I would absolutely run down to that for the weekend. I'm still considering it, tbh.