Riot Fest 2021 (September 17-19, Chicago IL) Tour • Page 255

I'm honestly not sure what Riot is supposed to do RE: refunds and transfers at this point.

With bigger name acs cancelling and people concerned about COVID, it would feel reasonable to open up refunds. But from a business perspective I just don't see that working. It could potentially bankrupt the festival and effectively kill it. And TBH, I'm not sure that "being nervous" is a good excuse for wanting a refund. I know that sounds super harsh but... It's reality.

And, TBH, I've seen more chatter about Morrissey than people wanting refunds. Which is definitely saying something.

I just don't see it being as easy as "open up refunds again" given the current situation. There's no government reason to shut things down, cancelling the whole thing for two years straight would cause a cash flow issue (without the government aid to float them, this time around)...

Man, it must be rough over there. Not that it isn't rough for everybody these days, but I feel for whoever is answering those e-mails.

 

I'm curious how many people at the festival are actually local. Anyone traveling already would have their hotels/travel booked and would need a good reason to cancel with everything only being a few weeks away.

 

Barring any members contracting COVID, I doubt any of the local bands playing will drop (Ratboys, Melkbelly, Beach Bunny, Jackie Hayes, Pet Symmetry, Ganser, Facs, Airstream Futures) and those who have already been on tour (like Kississippi) but anyone else could drop out, unfortunately. We'll see what happens.

 

in my minimal searching, it kinda seems that the fan response is swinging back into Riot's favor. they were in hot water with the NIN/slipknot/morrisey stuff, getting shit on left and right. but it seems people have their back and are starting to empathize with them. a woman on the FB riot group posted an anti-riot sentiment and she is getting full on roasted for it.

edit to add - i do hope they open refunds for people, i do think its fair, i just dont know if the infrastructure is there to process refunds and then have time to put the newly open tickets back on sale.

 

Just as an example: On that recent CM Punk post, amidst the related replies there are 16 people calling for Morrissey to be banned and 2 people who took the opportunity to ask about/make a comment about refunds.

I honestly think the "refund because of COVID concerns" issue is a small, but vocal minority...

I'd love to see the stats for that. Not just for this year, but in general. I would imagine it skews heavily toward midwesterners but an almost equal portion is from other areas.

Well, bands like NIN and the Pixies can also afford to cancel. Some of these other acts are aching to get out and make a buck. They haven't been able to do that in over a year! Basically, I don't see any of the "working class" acts cancelling unless there's extenuating circumstances. And I would argue that's from the second line on the poster down for every day...

There's going to be a few more cancellations/replacements. But TBH, out of like, 70 some-odd bands there's been what? 5 cancellations? That's honestly not as bad as people are making it out to be...

Granted, two of those have been headliners they were able to replace them with somebody close to equal value each time.

 

The Morrissey thing is still bumming people out, but they do seem to be handling it with humor rather than venom at this point. I'm still really curious to see what they do with the rest of Thursday.

As far as refunds go, like I said above, I think it's a challenge. I do think it would be nice to open refunds for people with extenuating circumstances (e.g., COVID concerns due to a medical condition for themselves or a family member). But there's no way to gauge that impact so, unfortunately, I don't see that happening. Especially since offering refunds and then putting them back on-sale (for 3 day passes) would be rough from an infrastructure/timing perspective.

I know at least three people that would have been all over a 3-day pass 1-2 months back but so close to the date? They really can't get the time off from work, make the appropriate plans, etc.

Just kinda sucks all around.

 

The reason why I’m not going now is because everyone in my group isn’t comfortable traveling/attending Riot with the delta variant in the air (we’re all vaxxed too, I should add*). It would certainly be nice to be able to have a chance to be refunded, especially since the threat of delta is arguably worse now than it was when Riot dropped the rest of the lineup back in May. With the whole Morrissey situation and the fact NIN (and now Pixies) dropped, I honestly don’t believe I’m gonna be able to sell my passes

*I also forgot to mention that the person in my group that wasn’t getting vaxxed, wound up getting vaxxed! So that’s cool, not that it really matters now though…

 

Oof.

Short of a full cancellation, my group will arrive in Chicago on Thursday morning with tickets in hand. At this point I'm almost grateful that my circumstances are such that I don't really have a choice that involves selling my pass -- at least I can avoid the anxiety of making a decision like that.

 

Would've been cool to see the Pixies again, but I was always anticipating them to conflict with Slipknot anyway.

Every cancellation of acts I'm pumped for obviously hurts, but honestly I've just been so desperate to take a trip and for live music again that it doesnt even matter to me anymore who plays lol

 

Good for them taking the plunge, but really sucks that you can't go. To be clear: I'm not saying I blame people who are uneasy for whatever the reason. I'm just saying I get it from the festival's perspective that it must be a difficult/challenging decision.

 

On the topic of refunds, has anyone looked at the official fan-to-fan exchange Riot Fest has for passes?

Lyte — Pre-registration

I didn't look at it super closely, but from what I read it doesn't seem like the seller sets their price.

 

Also this, more bands to come.

 

Maybe I'm a big sucker but I'm genuinely encouraged by the wording of that latest post.

 

Oh yeah, I totally get what you’re saying. I imagine everything is super difficult for not only Riot, but ALL festivals, for that matter

We signed up for this. Hopefully we can sell through here

 

Can you let us know if/how it goes?

 

Will do!

 

Also: I just realized there’s a few bands (LTJ, Senses Fail) who will be around that weekend who aren’t on. It would be low hanging fruit to pick them up as well.

Not the same as the Pixies but… Still on brand.

 

Hell, might as well throw Hawthorne Heights in the mix too

 

Hah. I forgot about them because I'm biased/hate their whole vibe. They seem like perfectly nice dudes in interviews, but yeah... Not my thing.

Reflecting on it for a few minutes, and looking at that latest update: I wonder if they might just bump Devo up a slot and add Alkaline Trio? They will have rehearsed/played Slam Dunk earlier in the month so they'll be ready to go. If they add them along with LTJ, Senses Fail, and/or Hawthorne Heights? That might actually do a decent job of appeasing a certain number of people bummed about the Pixies cancelling.

It won't appease the diehard NIN/Pixies fans. But honestly, I don't know that there's a way to appease a person who is saying "I only wanted to see those two bands" anyway... Might as well double-down on their base.

 

I get it. I do dig them, but the whole “late 30’s/early 40’s dudes trying to recapture/bring back early 2000’s screamo” thing is kinda cheesy. So I don’t blame you. Haha

And hell yeah get ALK 3 in here

 

I mean, my biggest thing with Hawthorne Heights is that they felt like a second-tier band at the time in terms of quality and songwriting compared to most of their peers. But that's probably an age thing with me. Didn't they like, add the screaming in when they changed the name to Hawthorne Heights too? I don't think it was such a big part of their sound until it got popular...

Another, potentially more appealing to Pixies/NIN fans options that I just thought of too: Jane's Addiction! They have that gap in their festival schedule the weekend of Riot that's been there for a while. Same thing with the Offspring (though that's less appealing to NIN/Pixies fans hah).

I know that festivals will sometimes have bands "on hold" to jump in when situations like this pop up. But I really don't think that's the case here. Otherwise, we'd be getting an announcement today with a new band.

 

Oh yeah! I totally forgot about Jane’s! I FOR SURE thought they were gonna be added since they had no Chicago date on their brief run of shows. And they didn’t play Lolla this year, so I think they could be a good bet, and also in the same level as Pixies

 

Part of me is wondering if Jane's or the Offspring are on the "replacements list" and that's the reason for the gaps. From what I've heard, festivals will often have artists essentially on retainer in case something like this happens. It's usually acts that might want to play but came to them late or something. Again, I'm kind of doubting that's the case but those gaps seem super blatant to me.

Honestly, reflecting on all of this? The best bet in terms of keeping people happy would be: Slot Jane's Addiction into the Pixies slot, add Alkaline Trio between Mr. Bungle and NFG on that second line, toss Senses Fail or LTJ further down the line-up (not necessarily on Sunday), and toss another Chicago punk/rock/indie band on the bill.

That would give them a decent balance. You're replacing the Pixies with an equally influential legacy act from the same era, adding an influential punk band (who has overlap with NIN fans thanks to the darker aesthetic) while also doubling down on the core fanbase all at once.

 

Just spit balling here, but what about a Weird Al set where he parodies a song from each band that's dropped? I genuinely think he could pull it off and they'd save money cause other bands wouldn't matter if they had this.


CAKE WITH A HOOOOOOLE (in the style of NIN but it's about donuts)

 

Not gonna lie. This would be amazing.