Riot Fest 2021 (September 17-19, Chicago IL) Tour • Page 249

Someone on Reddit pointed out that White Lung dropped from the lineup

 

The comments on those posts make my brain hurt (aside from obvi and warranted Morissey slander).

THURSDAY WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A SPECIAL DAY, NOW IT'S FOR EVERYONE?!

Like, who gives an actual fuck?

 

I mean the park is so crowded for the weekend that it would be cool to have a more intimate event with Riot-type bands. I was excited to have a bit of elbow room for a big act.

 

The only thing that rubs me the wrong way is the Preview Party situation. Morrissey is just... A bad pick. And he falls squarely into the "very specific" category.

Like, I know he's a big act. But I really don't think he has broad appeal. And for me, it's just sort of like that initial message about the Preview Party made it sound/feel like we were going to get one thing. And now it's another.

Instead of Riot Fest-lite we're going to be getting Moz & Friends. But I hope the thinking that it's just the one stage is correct. That would give me hope.

I don't mind that they're opening it up to all ticket-holders. But it feels way less exclusive/special and more of panic move to get people buying tickets.

 

Ahh I thought Thursday was always open to 3 day ticket holders.

Personally it works great for me. I only bought Friday and Sunday passes because I had to buy them individually and buying Saturday as well would've been too expensive. Now that I get to go Thursday makes me feel better than I'm spending essentially $900 to travel and attend some shows.

Hoping the Thursday lineup has some solid adds and I can leave before Morrissey.

 

yea across the few places ive been seeing: everyone tends to agree on 'fuck morrisey', but seems really split down the middle about the loss of exclusivity, which i guess i shouldnt be shocked by, just disappointed in people. is probably hanging on by a thread becasue of the last 18 months, so they are doing what they can to still be a functional business, and still acting like this is some slight against YOU is so odd to me.

 

Just want to reiterate how pumped I am for Slipknot!

I remember when we were speculating months ago about that third headliner and people were mentioning Slipknot, I was snickering to myself cuz I thought they would never book them for the fest. Happy to be wrong!

 

I said a similar thing on Reddit in a much less severe way and still initially got downvoted lol

 

and replaced with The Clockworks, who i have not heard of before.

 

Fwiw: A lot of people wanting refunds are demanding them for Covid concerns. Obviously, I see some because of the headliner and Morrissey situation, but it’s mostly because of the Delta. I’m really stressing out that I’m not gonna be able to sell my tickets because of everything

 

I'm sorry, I just think this is a really bad take. We didn't lose anything other than a vague sense of exclusivity, and kinda fuck the concept of exclusivity anyway. It was nice that they initially offered an incentive to "loyalists", but I'd rather see the festival succeed financially and continue for years to come than complain that I don't feel as special as I did when Thursday wasn't available to the general public. I'm not annoyed in the slightest, and I don't really understand why anyone else would be.

 

With all these complaints and with Morissey being a flop of an announcement, I honestly anticipate a lot of people might just stay home. I doubt sales are flooding in for that date all of a sudden.

At least I hope! That part I definitely agree with you on.

 

That’s super fucked up - glad I canceled this year for next

 

Also fuck morrissey

 

Putting aside how people feel about some of these artists, there's no denying that this top 10 is the most stacked Riot Fest has ever had (in terms of draw/starpower): Slipknot- Smashing Pumpkins- Morrissey- Run The Jewels - Machine Gun Kelly - Pixies - Coheed - Faith No More - Devo - Dropkick Murphys

It makes me think that they've really expanded their budget. Fingers crossed that NIN moves to 2022, cuz that would already be an absolutely insane Top 3.

 

Yeah i totally get your points here. I think I was just more frustrated about them booking Morrissey for this thing, but I get why the opened it up to all.

 

None of the headliners do much for me (in terms of being really motivated to grab a pass, although yes, it would be dope to see Slipknot live and maybe some of Pumpkins) and only some of the undercard appeals to me, so we'll see what I end up doing. Doubt I'll have any interest in Thursday though if I do end up going.

 

For sure. The loss of exclusivity seems odd to me, but I'm down for it. People also seem to be ignoring the fact that they are selling tickets to it now for charity. So clearly they aren't hurting for cash...

The only major bummer for me in all of this is Morrissey. The way they positioned the Preview Party initially led me to believe that it was going to be like Riot Fest-lite with a smattering of punk/emo acts. But knowing that Morrissey is having a hand in picking the acts in addition to performing is a bummer.

I went from hopeful to just being "meh" about Thursday. But I really hope I'm just being a pessimist because I'm super hungover today and whoever said it'll just be picking the acts he shares the stage with and there will be 2 other stages with artists more my speed.

It's telling that Thursday is free and they booked Morrissey. TBH, that is a far more expensive "get" than I expected them to pull in for that thing.

Yeah, it's pretty huge. And it's arguably the most diverse line-up of headliners they've had in terms of genres.

Metal, a 90s legacy alt-rock act, hip-hop, pop, indie legends, pure punk, prog-rock, etc.

 

It's such a weird look to open the Preview Party to everybody. There must have been a lot of early passes refunded and they want to be sure to pack the place out. I feel like it would have been a better look to have it still be free for people who kept their tickets and to offer an on-sale opportunity for other attendees. Maybe at a reduced price if you already bought a pass or something. More money would go to the charity that way, too.

A few things I picked up on looking at the description of the Preview Party on the ticketing site:

Doors will be at 3pm EST (assuming music will start at 4pm EST)
There will be a "handful of Thursday-only performances"
Morrissey will be "curating a selection of special guests" (so he won't be doing the full line-up, I don't think)
There will be exclusive merch for Thursday

 

My only wish is that the smaller undercard acts I want to see aren’t early in the day, which I know will be the case. If all the acts I want to see are mid day/evening I will be more enticed to go. Hopefully we get set times soon.

 

the entire conversation around passes and refunds and cancellations is very amusing to me since I won a pair of 3 day passes in January of 2020 lmao

 

Depending on what happens with Delta I legit might treat myself and upgrade from regular VIP to one of the ridiculous tiers. You can do that after the fact right?

 

You know, I’m not sure what’s worse. The principle of the fact that Riot booked Morrissey for the Thursday pre-party, or the fact they booked Morrissey over Weird Al

 

You should be able to. There's instructions on the FAQ but I don't think the approach they've mapped out would work because the 3-day VIPs are no longer for sale. I would e-mail [email protected] and ask about it.

Backed hard!