Riot Fest 2022 (September 16-18, Chicago IL) Festival • Page 165

I’m off today and can reasonably get to metro! Announce tickets!

 

It seriously pains me that Green Day continually plays Lolla and does decidedly fun things for a decidedly unfun, predictable festival.

 

The festival (Lollapalooza) has definitely changed over the years, but I wouldn't call it unfun. It's honestly what you make of it. I've gone in recent years and had a great time. Plus this is a Lolla/Metro tradition anyways, and is definitely one of the unique things that sets the festival apart from some others.

 

I'm sure people who attend have fun. But on paper, there's kind of no denying that the line-up is (a) relatively predictable each year, (b) similar to what other major festivals book in terms of the formula, and (c) caters more toward generic festival culture than anything else.

Which makes sense because that's kind of what you need to do to maintain the size and ticket sales that they do. It's not even a criticism, really. But nothing about the festival seems even remotely fun to me. It's all subjective, blah blah blah.

 

It's become just the midwest Coachella. Not necessarily a knock, but just not for me.

 

its genuinely refreshing to see the riotfest person be active AND helpful/sincere on the weekly 'ask your questions' threads on reddit.

 

Hah! I didn't even know this was a thing. But I'm digging into it now. Really cool!

EDIT: Also awesome to see that we might be getting the schedule earlier than usual.

 

While I don't go every year now, I still find Lolla fun and that they're mostly a good neighbor. They bring a lot of people to the city and I'm happy to have them for as long as they want to be here. Their support for local venues during this the festival week has greatly increased from the early days and I appreciate that they have so many aftershows at so many venues.

This is what happens when Livenation books so many festivals throughout the US every year.

 

Also:

 

Wouldn't expect anything different, haha

 

My interview with Mo Doron, the graphic designer for Riot Fest, is tonight! If anyone has any questions for them (that aren't are more bands getting announced, when are aftershows getting announced, etc), I'm all ears!

 

Ask what kind of behind the scenes challenges go on during the actual festival and how they respond to them.

It’s to riot fest’s credit that every time I’ve been, everything seems to run smoothly. But I’m sure that with all the moving pieces of logistics, permits, weather, and eccentric artists, there has to be a lot of in-the-moment problem solving going on.

 

This is probably under etc and if you don't want to ask understood.. but my question would be to ask if Riot Mike's "special announcement that will change Riot" will come before or after this year's festival (perfectly fine with a vague answer)

 

riot fest person on reddit gave us the schedule layout! so no more figuring out which stage is randomly cramming an extra band or 2!

and of course, could always be a troll, and subject to change.. personally id wager only 8 on Saturday rise and then saturday rebel has 6.

 

Oh, that's good! It's also general enough to assume that it's not a troll... And, FWIW? The number of slots on Rebel on Saturday lines up with what we previously sorted out from the TikTok leak: GWAR, Madball, War On Women, Bridge City Sinners, and No Trigger. Five slots!

The one thing that seems off for me is having 9 acts on Rise on that same day. But I wonder if that's the stage with JXDN, PoorStacy, etc. I'd imagine some of those younger/newer acts might have shorter sets.

EDIT: If anybody has all of those old stage designations from said-TikTok video? Now's the time to put 'em into play!

 

Well SHIT after the interview I have a project for tonight!

 

How did Riot Fest not get this? I feel like it would have been perfect for the Riot demographic.

 

Interview with Mo was AWESOME and will be out on August 8!

linktr.ee/filmsforthevoid

 

Stoked to listen! Any interesting tidbits you can share or are you gonna keep it tight-lipped until the release?

See all of the recent conversations about the value-add of the festival for bands of this ilk. The band probably stands to make more on their own doing it this way and play to people who primarily care about them...

Versus an aftershow during a very crowded weekend making less money and/or playing at 1pm to an empty field.

 

I think if Allister was on the Rebel stage, they'd have a decent crowd..

but yeah, probably a combination of timing and money

I saw Pinkshift have a Chicago date on their first headlining tour in October which was probably one of the factors into them not getting booked

Not sure what's up with Sparta or Charly Bliss.. if that schedule is remotely accurate, there are slots for them on Saturday

(and I still think Elliott is playing an aftershow with Alexisonfire)

 

I'm not sure what the draw would be if they were slotted in the late afternoon on Rebel. They'd probably do alright, but the "deal" to do a headliner is probably better for them. I would also posit that in both the case of Allister and Pinkshift? If those shows sell well, they could come back next year and leverage the "sell out" or whatever to get better stage/time slotting.

Based on the Riot Fest Redditor, all bands have been announced, so I wouldn't expect to see any additional bands added. If Sparta or Charly Bliss were coming... They would have been part of wave #2.

Doesn't mean they won't pop-up on aftershows, but they won't be on the festival proper.

 

No doubt, I don't expect any more bands to be announced per se but I wouldn't be completely shocked if one or two bands end up added to the schedule as either replacements or fitted into open slots last minute

 

Oh, for sure. I'm anticipating at least 3-4 bands wind up having some sort of COVID-related cancellation in the weeks coming up to the festival. And those bands are easy to slot in if the bands dropping are on the smaller tip.

Looking at last year though, did any of the smaller bands actually drop other than Fucked Up? That's the only one I can think of.