Riot Fest is Dead. Long Live Riot...Land? Your Pressing Questions (Maybe) Answered

When the release of the Riot Fest lineup was nowhere to be found by Memorial Day weekend, there was speculation that the delay was due to some big news. But holy shit, I don't think anyone expected this.

Riot Fest isn't in Douglass Park anymore. Riot Fest isn't at any Chicago park anymore. Riot Fest doesn't exist at all anymore, at least not in the way you might be used to seeing it. Riot Fest is dead, and in it's place is...Riotland?

No longer will Riot Fest be posting up in the city limits of Chicago. Instead, it will be taking its talents southwest to Bridgeport, the location of Seatgeek Stadium, former home of the Chicago Fire and current home of the Chicago Red Stars. While not happening inside the stadium (more on that in a minute), apparently Riot Fest will now be building an entire, well...Riotland with everything from five stages to a casino to a wedding chapel. Here are the highly scientific renderings released of the proposed site:

And just like your favorite cable browsing habits as a teenager in the late 90's, there's an After Dark version...

This is HUGE news. And before we even get to the lineup announcement (which we will), just this location move is a massive update and potentially complicates just as many things as it tries to simplify. I'll just jump right into some of those things now:

THINGS THAT, ON THE SURFACE, WORRY ME AND HOW THEY COULD POTENTIALLY BE ADDRESSED:

1. Getting to Bridgeport

Like many Riot Fest goers, I live in the city of Chicago. And while getting down to Douglass Park from the north side wasn't always the easiest or most convenient thing to do, I could always get there using only public transportation if I wanted to, which is important to a lot of people during a potentially expensive festival weekend. So can I take public transportation down to Riot Fest this year? Yes. And no. Kinda.

That's the way to get to my place in Lincoln Park down to Seatgeek Stadium. Brown line to Orange line? Not much different than the Brown-to-Pink line I would have to do to get to Douglass Park. But from the Orange line termination to Seatgeek? That's where things get complicated. The bus that makes up the last leg of this trip is a Pace bus that, as of right now, is not scheduled to run past 7:00 PM during the weekend of Riot Fest. RF has said they're working on getting the bus to increase and extend service, which would not only help but seems like a necessity. That's a 4.7 mile journey from the Orange line to Riot Fest. Walking is out. It's not bike friendly. If the Pace bus isn't in service and/or gets too full, there are going to be a LOT (potentially thousands) of people calling for Ubers at once at a time of night where there may not be the peak number of drivers on the road.

In years past, there have also been shuttles to and from various places in the city down to Riot Fest. I worry about those since the round trip is going to take a lot longer now. Are they going to be able to make enough of a dent to actually help? RF says there are more shuttle details to come, so fingers crossed. Oh, there's also another HUGE update:

THERE WILL BE DEDICATED ON-SITE PARKING

Yes, it sucks that it's $40 a day. Yes, it's better than either getting towed, keyed, or blocked in. But man, being able to drive my own car down, bring a little cooler to eat lunch out of and cut down on at least one meal needing to be bought inside...that's gonna be nice. If they still let VIP tickets leave and come back in, that might be worth the price of the upgrade on its own in having a car you can go out to multiple times a day. Especially if that saves you on having to rent a locker.

Now the elephant in the room when it comes to parking...historically it's been an absolute bitch to get out of Seatgeek after an event. Horror stories of taking 1-2 hours just to get out of the parking lot bubbled up on the Riot Fest groups on Facebook and Reddit. So if you are planning on driving this year, maybe think about cutting out while the headliner is still onstage.

And even with the amount of time it takes to get out of Seatgeek, is it really going to be much longer than walking down Ogden for over a mile until you can actually get an Uber? Or the amount of time you have to wait to smash your body onboard the Pink Line? If I can take that time and sit in an air conditioned car with a friend or two, I'll absolutely count that as an upgrade.

2. Throwing Some Shade

One of my favorite parts of each day of Riot Fest is finding the late afternoon gap in my schedule to grab some food, sit in some shade on some grass, and just take a load off. Here's the overhead view of Seatgeek and the surrounding area:

The parking lots on the bottom and to the right is where Riot Fest says their parking is:

So most of the stages are going to be to the west and north of the stadium. I'm not seeing a whole lot of shade. And those parking lots are concrete. Not conductive to moshing and definitely going to bounce to sun's heat right back at you.

The good news? Shade and plastic coverage for the concrete surface can both be brought in. Here's hoping for lots of both.

3. Crowded House

No, the popular 80's band isn't opening the Roots Stage on Saturday. But the current tenants of Seatgeek Stadium (the Chicago Red Stars) do have a home game scheduled for the Saturday of Riot Fest. This...seems not ideal. How would parking be shared? How would the logistics of coming and going work? Would the Fest and the game really be able to be kept apart? Seatgeek Stadium said they told the Red Stars back in April they might have to move, which is all fine and good but the Red Stars said there's nowhere else for them to play. Apparently Soldier Field is booked for something even with the Bears on the road that week. Hopefully something works out because the thought of a soccer game going on at the same time as the second night of Riot Fest seems like a disaster waiting to happen.

THE VERDICT:

Like all unexpected changes, this one caught me off guard and I still feel like I'm coming to terms with it, even almost a week later. I'm sure there will be just as many unexpected things that annoy me about the new venue as there were at the old venue and if I had to make a prediction, I bet I have a great time as always and dutifully sign up for my 2025 ticket as soon as it goes on sale.

Oh yeah...and the lineup kicks total ass:

Diving into this lineup is deserving of its own post, and will have many highlighting a lot of these kickass bands as I sift my way through them. But regular readers of our site will recognize some familiar names we've either covered in concert already this year or raved about some other way. Spiritual Cramp. Winona Fighter. Waxahatchee. Sincere Engineer.

Dang dude, I still have to wait THREE more months??