For three days every year, punk rock fans from all over gather in Chicago, Illinois for the Riot Fest music festival. Bookings for complete album performances, reunions, and special appearances are well recognized. One of the biggest privately held music festivals in the country is still Riot Fest.
Riot Fest was founded in 2005 in Chicago by Mike Petryshyn and Sean McKeough, with the latter also helping to produce Motoblot. Riot Fest utilized multiple venues throughout its first seven years, including the Metro, Subterranean, Double Door, Cobra Lounge and Congress Theater. The festival would present different bands over a three-day weekend period - some of which included Social Distortion, Danzig, Cock Sparrer Weezer Alkaline Trio Mighty Mighty Bosstones Bad Brains Dead Milkmen Fun Lawrence Arms Bad Religion Murder City Devils Butthole Surfers Suicide Machines and more.
Riot Fest features reunion performances by Naked Raygun, Wax, Blue Meanies, Articles of Faith, Plow United, the Jesus and Mary Chain, Chiodos, Misfits, Jawbreaker, and the Replacements in addition to punk, rock, indie rock, alternative, psychobilly, metal, skate punk, and ska genres.
In 2012, Riot Fest changed locations and relocated to Chicago's Humboldt Park, where it was rebranded as Riot Fest & Carnival and featured amusement rides, games, professional wrestling, and food vendors. The festival expanded across North America in 2012 as well, with subsequent events taking place in Brooklyn, Toronto, Dallas, and Denver. Since McKeough's passing in 2016, Riot Fest has continued to take place in Chicago once a year.
The event kicked off on Friday night at the Congress Theater and featured two days of music in Humboldt Park on September 15 and 16.
In 2013, Riot Fest & Carnival made a comeback to Chicago's Humboldt Park and featured satellite events in Toronto (August 24–25) and Denver (September 21–22).
The final Riot Festival & Carnival visit to Humboldt Park took place in September 2014.
After 33 years, the Misfits lineup of Glenn Danzig, Jerry Only, and Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein would come together and headline Riot Fest in Chicago and Denver in September 2016, it was announced on May 12.
On March 17, 2017, Riot Fest announced that it would not be returning to Denver. The announcement cited the inability to focus on more than one event in 2017 due to the passing of co-founder Sean Mckeough in November of 2016.
Chicago's Douglass Park once again hosted Riot Fest from September 14–16.
Chicago, Illinois' Douglass Park, September 13–15, 2019. The festival celebrated its 15th birthday this year.
Chicago, Illinois' Douglass Park hosted Riot Fest from September 17 to 19, with a pre-party on September 16.
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