Riot Fest 2019 (September 13-15) Tour • Page 102

Question, how have people been leaving the park every day? Did y'all drive yourselves? Take transit? Take Lyfts? Take the bus?

 

Been ridesharing. It was way easier this year than in years past

 

Uuuugh, that guarantees I won’t make it for the third year in a row. Having a late Labor Day and this slightly earlier is brutal for my schedule.

 

I always hop on a northbound bus to get away from the park and then get off and get a lyft or Uber.

 

First time in Chicago. Took public transit pink line back to the loop. Super easy

 

We've always done Lyft back to our hotel/Airbnb after and it's never a huge issue. Service seemed to be bad this year even with us having two different phone carriers, but it's mostly been okay!

 

The Starting Line was set of the weekend for me.

 

This was goddamn fantastic as usual. If I had to rank sets...

5. Bloc Party
4. Less Than Jake
3. Turnstile
2. Against Me!
1. Manchester Orchestra

Weather was perfect, crowds were great, I had the damn time of my life. I love this festival.

 

Any idea what attendance numbers were? I felt like every day was crowded compared to the past couple of years.

It really seemed like a success for RF. Which is great considering the ticket sale problems with some big rock festivals this year.

 

Overall I had an okay time. There were some great sets for sure, but I think I'm just kind of over big three-day festivals at this point - just not really my thing to have to pick and choose between really big bands/deal with the sound issues/big crowds/etc. Not a dig on the festival at all, but I don't think I'll go back next year (I felt the same way last year, even though I had a better time), but I'm glad I saw the really good sets that I did.

Favorite sets of the weekend were The Story So Far, Descendents, both days of Against Me!, Turnstile, Angel Dust, Jawbreaker, and American Football.

 

Manchester Orchestra
Against Me!
Bloc Party
Slayer
Blink // Village People

It was my 6th time seeing MO and they absolutely DE-STROYED.

 

Had an amazing time this year. I think the favorite set of the weekend was Grandson, which really surprised me.
Glad everything seemed to work out this year for RF. Already put next year's dates in my calendar!

 

My favorite sets of the weekend were The Raconteurs, The Get Up Kids, Against Me!, Cursive, Dave Hause, and Rise Against. Besides the sound issues on Friday, I thought this year was really great. The weather was about as good as you could hope for. Seemed like attendance was up from last year, and more people were coming earlier in the day than usual.

The Pink Line is still a shitshow after 9:00 PM, but I mostly avoided that this year - took the bus or walked to the Kedzie-Homan Blue Line stop on the nights I was leaving with a group. I actually had an easier time getting to and from the fest this year now that I live in the west suburbs.

My one layout complaint from every year still stands: They need a second water filling station. They one they have was better organized than in past years and even when the line was long it moved, but it would still be better to have one closer to the main stages.

 

post-Riot Fest at work. love that we get some cool stuff here every now and then. also have Rise Against stuff here.

 

Ended up taking the Pink Line two stops west after Blink and got a seat, completely filled up at Kedzie

 

Agreed on the water. Ended up skipping the pedialyte fill up stations and went to a little drinking fountain by the portapotties near the rebel stage and there was never a line

 

Water stations have always been a problem in Douglas Park. Not sure why they haven't been able to figure it out.

 

Yeah two water stations would have been nice but they did a pretty good job of keeping the line moving for sure.

 

Found no issue with the water stations this year really. Didn't wait more than a few minutes any of the times we went but maybe we just got lucky. A second on the other side of the park would be a big help though.

 

I was going to fill up after Damned Things but the line was snaking well into the Radicals stage area. That was the only time I had an issue and I just bought a water then.

I feel like it’s a safety thing though - it wasn’t absurdly hot this year, but Chicago can easily get heat stroke-inducing weather in September, and water should be freely and quickly accessible for everyone.

 

Even without the heat, you've got people drinking alcohol all day which accelerates dehydration...

 

Was it just me or was VIP Waaaaaaaaaaay more crowded this year?
I've done VIP the past couple of years and it seemed much more chill and far less crowded. Usually there was no line for beer, the terrible VIP food, and bathrooms.

This year, there were huge lines for the AC bathrooms and lines for the porta-potties, huge beer lines (15 minutes to get a beer? What am I trying to be? Sober?), and at one point about a 40 person deep line of sad sacks about to be horribly disappointed in Bacci pizza.

It might just be me and I was in the VIP area during very busy times this year and not in year's past. Anyone else make that observation?

 

Never paying full price for pedialyte again.

 

idk how far in advance riot books their headliners if its anything like what lolla dose they are already booked. lolla books their headliners a year in advance

 

Pssst...

Riot Fest 2020 (September 11-13, Chicago IL) • forum.chorus.fm