Riot Fest 2021

[BlackFoxx]

 

Bought a ticket coming from the UK. Will be my first time to Chicago and this festival. Thought I'd start a thread here in case anyone else is interested/has been before and can offer any advice. Thanks!

[FloorFiller]

Not going but that lineup is stacked for my personal taste. Wish we could have something like that in the UK that had that level of headliners/wasn’t Slam Dunk.

[Memory Man]

I’ve been! Arrive early each day, good acts on from early and it finishes at 10pm

after parties are not worthwhile as difficult to get to after everyone leaves at the same time and you’ll be tired from a long day

it can be very, very warm by UK standards. by contrast if it rains there is no cover. All open air. If hot you need hat and suncream big time.

the circus sideshow freak show thing is amazing and a must see

stay near a metro station ideally on the pink line or in “the loop” (city centre) as transport after can be an arse. Chicago is unfathomably huge. Book your accom early and do your research.

book your flights early too, expect to pay around £400 return. £350 or under is a great deal. Go direct from Heathrow, its better than changing planes in my experience. BA likely to be cheapest.

Get there a couple/few days before to get used to the time difference. 6 hours behind is a lot. Use these days to sightsee, acclimatise, get used to time difference and go to a baseball game. Food and beer scenes are amazing. Great holiday and decent festival. Come with plenty of money if youre a big drinker, festival prices are expensive for food & drink and exchange rate is shocking.

Edited June 18, 2020 by Memory Man

[Henrik]

Seriously debating this.

That line-up is incredible. And so much more to come!  

[BlackFoxx]

On 6/18/2020 at 10:12 PM, Memory Man said:

I’ve been! Arrive early each day, good acts on from early and it finishes at 10pm

after parties are not worthwhile as difficult to get to after everyone leaves at the same time and you’ll be tired from a long day

it can be very, very warm by UK standards. by contrast if it rains there is no cover. All open air. If hot you need hat and suncream big time.

the circus sideshow freak show thing is amazing and a must see

stay near a metro station ideally on the pink line or in “the loop” (city centre) as transport after can be an arse. Chicago is unfathomably huge. Book your accom early and do your research.

book your flights early too, expect to pay around £400 return. £350 or under is a great deal. Go direct from Heathrow, its better than changing planes in my experience. BA likely to be cheapest.

Get there a couple/few days before to get used to the time difference. 6 hours behind is a lot. Use these days to sightsee, acclimatise, get used to time difference and go to a baseball game. Food and beer scenes are amazing. Great holiday and decent festival. Come with plenty of money if youre a big drinker, festival prices are expensive for food & drink and exchange rate is shocking.

Hi Memory Man, thanks so much for the help here.

I'm looking at accommodation now, and likely will be coming over on my own for this as a postgrad student so trying to keep everything on a budget is key. I've found a reasonable looking hostel thats about £200 for 7 days, so feels like a decent deal, but its located near Lincoln Park so quite a bit further North than Douglas Park/Riot Fest (although good for the zoo/sightseeing around Chicago afterwards). It looks like its close to a metro station on the brown line, which can take me into the centre to change onto the pink line and to Douglas Park in about 50 minutes or so. Do you think that's a dealbreaker in terms of ease of getting to the festival or not. I'm 23 so feel I've still got the stamina to get up early and leave about 10/11am to get to the festival site each day without missing any bands, but its more if its really busy leaving at 10pm and a hassle with public transport at the end of this day its going to be a bigger problem or not?

[Memory Man]

To be honest you’d be commuting from the north east of the city to the south west so you could make it a lot easier for yourself. However for non riot fest activities lincoln park would be a great place to be, the zoo is great! 
if its in your budget and you’re young & full of energy then go for it.

getting there is easy but leaving at the end can be a bit time consuming with everyone trying to get on the metro at the same time

[BlackFoxx]

On 7/12/2020 at 10:09 PM, Memory Man said:

To be honest you’d be commuting from the north east of the city to the south west so you could make it a lot easier for yourself. However for non riot fest activities lincoln park would be a great place to be, the zoo is great! 
if its in your budget and you’re young & full of energy then go for it.

getting there is easy but leaving at the end can be a bit time consuming with everyone trying to get on the metro at the same time

Thanks for this, its got a free cancellation policy so I went for it so I at least have something in budget. Then if something better becomes available I can always let it go and take the place more central/closer to Douglas Park.

[pete76]

Won't find a better lineup this year 

[FloorFiller]

20 minutes ago, pete76 said:

Won't find a better lineup this year 

Goddamn do I want to go to this. NIN in for MCR is about as good of a switch as you could hope for (for me). 

[Karlos12345]

This is beautiful. Really tempted. But going across the pond…

[thewayiam]

54 minutes ago, pete76 said:

Won't find a better lineup this year 

A few bands there I can see being booked for Download/Slam Dunk so definitely getting those two weekends booked off incase.

[BlackFoxx]

16 hours ago, Karlos12345 said:

This is beautiful. Really tempted. But going across the pond…

I'm based in the UK and bought a ticket last summer. They've listed on their website that international ticket holders have until 20th August to decide whether to keep their tickets or roll them over to 2022. Great customer service from the festival and should allow longer to see how things play out with international travel corridors over the summer. Fingers crossed! 

[BlackFoxx]

[pete76]

2 hours ago, BlackFoxx said:

Sunday already sold out

[FloorFiller]

Nine Inch Nails out - Slipknot in.

Also Morrissey is now playing the Thursday.

[jump]

2 hours ago, FloorFiller said:

Nine Inch Nails out - Slipknot in.

Also Morrissey is now playing the Thursday.

Really? I thought Morrissey refuses to play festivals now unless they stopped serving meat and I take it the yanks don’t really care about his Nigel Farage love.

[FloorFiller]

12 hours ago, jump said:

Really? I thought Morrissey refuses to play festivals now unless they stopped serving meat and I take it the yanks don’t really care about his Nigel Farage love.

I think he tried that for a while before realising that most festivals would rather just go without him than comply with his demands so he soon backtracked. 

[thewayiam]

On 8/19/2021 at 7:06 PM, FloorFiller said:

Nine Inch Nails out - Slipknot in.

Also Morrissey is now playing the Thursday.

Definitely enough that I'd have gone if living across the pond. Some of the UK tours this year are kicking arse for my style too.

[pete76]

Patti Smith & Flaming Lips been added 

[thewayiam]

13 hours ago, pete76 said:

Patti Smith & Flaming Lips been added 

For me this isn't just the amount of acts but who they are. If I lived stateside I'd definitely be going. Actually temped to head over one year to Chicago as it's meant to be very nice. September is after the horrible summer and rain season. Added to that I want to go to Cedar Point too which is relatively close considering.

[jump]

So Against Me!’s Laura Jane Grace has started a petition to get Operation Ivy to reform for Riot Fest. I’d love to see them!

 

 

[jump]

Lol

https://www.nme.com/reviews/live/morrissey-at-riot-fest-review-chicago-3048341

As common with festivals that Morrissey plays, meat is not for sale at most food stands – although there is one stand selling Turkey legs that didn’t receive the memo until about an hour before his set – and one fan, wearing a shirt that reads “Shut up Morrissey,” holds a half-eaten Turkey leg and smiles as a big F.U. to the crooner.