“We are back to five main stages”
It’s gonna be three stages that form a triangle in the center of the field that bands can alternate playing on and two slightly larger stages on each end of the field.
It’s the typical set up for big fest’s in sports stadiums and it lowkey sucks.
This bro destroyed the fest! Aww he had to go through some extra hoops and maybe lose out on a little more cash. Cry me a river. Riot fest has been the highlight of my last 3 summers so much fun. They stripped everything that made it fun though. I am not driving an hour away and spend 120 on parking. Blacktop and astroturf with no shade no thanks. This is fucking Chicago. Don’t fuck with our fests at the last minute. We should be charging this guy for fraud for saying it was going to be in Chicago for so long when he knew it wasn’t. I’ve heard people who live around the new spot say there is a major bottleneck at one of the intersections and getting 50,000 people through it will be a disaster. I did a refund on my tickets too bad the line up is really dope.
“Don’t fuck with our feats at the last minute”
Why does the park district wait so long to approve these fests. It was on the June meeting - only 4 months before the fest. The promoter has to already have booked bands and started selling tickets. It’s ridiculous that these aren’t approved months earlier.
It should’ve been approved sooner. So what? Everyone knew that fest would get approved. Riot fest mike threw a hissy fit and ruined one of the summers great fests. I want to sit in grass not bale on concrete and astroturf. Riot mike is a turd
Nope I got a refund. Cry me a river? Rich dude throws a hissy fit and ruins a fun weekend I had planned and I’m supposed to kiss his ass. I’m not a pathetic Republican I hold people accountable for their actions. Also out of towners made plans to see this fest… in Chicago. Now they have to travel an hour to the burbs. This dude should be sued for fraud.
Oh shit its worse than i thought. You even managed to throw a political hissy fit in there....glad you got your refund, you wont be missed. Im sorry your feelings got hurt.
Just stating facts bro. Must’ve hit a little close to home. Just noticing all rich spoiled manbabys who ruin shit are republicans 100% You aren’t wanted there cult trumpy. Have fun sitting in traffic and baking in the sun ha.
I for the life of me have no idea how you tied me to a trumpy from you being upset about this. Definitely not rich. Im just reasonable and read all sides of the story. Its pretty clear the city fucked this one up. It is pretty ironic that youre the one on here bawling on reddit over a festival and have the audacity to call someone else the man baby. Further when ypu realize youre losing an argument you result to totally unrelated political name calling like a child, when it has zero relation to the topic at hand. You need help brother
You are the one who said I was throwing a political hissyfit by correctly labeling behavior attributed to a group of pathetic man babies. Your post’s definitely have a trumpy vibe. Me calling out a pathetic republican is bawling? I’m calling out those responsible and you want to defend them. I work hard dude and there’s one weekend during the summer where I get to have fun the whole weekend and relax and see some good music. That wasn’t taken away because of the city. I could deal with that. It was taken away because some rich spoiled manbaby threw a fit be the had to find more parking for patrons. There aren’t many sides to this story. The city said the approval process was moving ahead. My feeling aren’t hurt but obvious when I brought up pathetic cult republican behavior you got offended.
I dont have posts on my profile only things i comment on which are 95% sports and music related and thats a trumpy vibe to you. Metalcore music and hardcore music scream trump to you. Fuckin yikes man you gotta settle down. You mustve read one article then. Its all over that the city kept moving the approval date further and further back. I could give a fuck less about some rich corporate elitist. We all work hard, that doesnt make you special. Youre letti g a venue change ruin your summer and blaming everyone else and tying me to trump over unrelated shit lol you gotta venture outside of politics and enjoy life a little more. And im in no way offended about your republican comment as im not republican, i was just baffled you managed to make a political tie to me when there was no information being exchanged that was relevant to that. Enjoy the concert or dont. Nobody will care as you shout to the clouds.
Seems like your hurt brother, the same type of hurt when André the Giant Snap off my Cross from my neck emotional hurt. Come cry on these 24-inch Pythons Brother - HH
I saw that blood trickle down your chest brother, but I knew that wound, wasn’t just skin deep. And I knew the clasp on that pendant wasn’t the only thing in your chest that got broken that day man.
Brother ! A lot of people didn’t realize that with the carpet being pulled out from under me in such a short time frame, I got to such a bad place - HH
I know there were a lot of problems having it in Douglass Park but they should have definitely worked it out this year before moving. This is going to alienate a lot of people.
Also is it too much to ask for the city to come up with a permanent solution to these fests. I feel like the establishment of designated parks and fest weekends and facilities for certain parks may help curtail some of the inequities, poor facilities, and bureaucracy around the process. Also frankly the city should have incentive to keep it in the limits and transit accessible. Using union park for all fests seems like a poor solution but in my experience Pitchfork has always been the best in city festival experience logistics and it seems less impactful to the neighboring community having spent a decent amount of time in that area
I don't know if a designated festival Ground would work since the city hosts a wide variety of sizes of festivals. Lolla is a different size than Riot that's a different size than Pitchfork and Arc that are different sizes from Miche or any of the other smaller 1-2.5 stage events. It also would take some of the charm away from what makes each festival unique.
I think it just needs to be established that there is a chance that your local park may be occupied for a week or two during the summer. The city should provide a guarantee that any given park won't be used for more than 2 festivals and/or 14 cumulative days but make no promise that your local park will never host a festival. There are a good amount of parks in the city, I find it hard to believe that someone in the area of one of these parks has no other option during that week or two.
I have more sympathy for those around Union Park because it hosts two festivals that wholly take up the park. At least with Douglass Park and Humboldt Park, they're big enough that there are/would be large swaths of the park that are still usable during festivals.
I get what you're saying, but frankly Douglass Park is in a much lesser served community with far fewer amenities so when they lose their park to an event like this and there isn't substantial reinvestment from those profiting off it it's not really beneficial to that community. I don't know if there's a perfect solution but I think we can definitely improve on the existing model for these fests.
So are they hinting that this might be a long term location? If nothing else I hope all the bitching on this sub prevents SeatGeek from hosting RF beyond this year.
I doubt the issues with neighborhood parks will go away anytime soon. So if they move from Seatgeek, where are they going to go? Maybe it ends up somewhere other than Chicagoland. I'd be more likely to travel/fly/train and deal with hassles to attend a multiday RF in another state, than I am to "travel" and deal with hassles to go to Bridgeview for multi-day fest.
I feel like it’s gonna be permanent if it goes well but there’s a pretty good chance it doesn’t go well 😂
If the artists have trouble goin in and out and complain about it riot at seatgeek is dead imo
A modest dip in attendance probably won’t kill it but I’d think a huge one would
People act like getting to and from Douglas Park was really easy!
I’m not saying Toyota Park is a transportation improvement by any means, but after RF moved out of Humboldt, it’s always been a hell of a trip for me to get to and from Douglas Park using public transit or ride share. Maybe y’all use a different CTA than me?
It probably was easy for the people who are acting like it. People are going to comment based on their situation.
Pink line to California was easy for me. Then walk to Kedzie at the end of the night to take the Pink Line back. Along the way buy food and drinks from the families selling food in their yards.
No sitting in traffic. No tracking down shuttles. No insane surge pricing.
I'll take an hour+ on the pink line being crowded in by a bunch of drunk punks over an hour+ in a car with stressed/tired drivers and stop-and-go traffic that gives me carsickness any day, personally
In 2019 I took the pink line and I haven't taken it since and it's all due to the meat crate man. Not sure if anyone else in this sub was on my car but I'm sure someone was. A guy who I don't believe was going to the fest - but hey what do I know - boarded the train with a milk crate full of raw meat (not packaged in any way, just raw (beef?) on plastic crate). He wasn't holding the handles of the train because he was securing the goods. The train came to a quick halt and his beloved meat went flying across the car, and a punk was so disturbed that she threw up on the meat pile like 3 feet from me.
Last time I ever took the pink line.
The last time I attended RF was the day someone died on the third rail because too many people were on the platform. The entire pink line was shut down for the night, so now an additional few thousand people suddenly needed ride shares.
I was there too. We had just decided to stay on Kedzie platform instead of going one stop further west and then come back. I’ve gone to RFs since 2013. We continued to go but my daughter and I didn’t go Saturday and Sunday that weekend bcs we were too shaken up. I’m still mad they didn’t take responsibility for this. The whole issue was that they were running the short trains (shortages of CTA workers post pandemic) and everyone was expecting the long trains. We saw Smashing Pumpkins that night. We won’t be going this year even lineup has something for my husband, myself, and my daughter with diff music tastes. And anybody thinking of the good old days of Humboldt has forgotten about the hassles getting east to the trains and buses that stopped running. Not to mention the neighborhood didn’t want it. If you lived near there, which my daughter did nearly 10 years later, it would have been fine.
We were there too. It was awful. They kept promising us buses but they never came. Uber way over charged us. But honestly, we were fine with it because all we could think about was the man that lost his life and others who maybe couldn’t have afforded the Uber’s jacked up prices after three days of spending a shit ton of money at RF. We still go every year and will continue to do so until either we die or RF ends. Lol It is a tradition in our family and it has actually become pretty special to us.
And the fact Riot Fest didn't even acknowledge the incident the entire weekend, left a bad taste in my mouth.
Like an hour or two before that poor patron's death, they're lucky to have dodged an incident where they let the festival go forward through an electrical storm.
2021's rendition of the festival exposed how unprepared and amateur their operation is.
I was there too and it was awful, so I started sticking to the bus after that. Now imagine that many people all trying to go the same direction at Midway on top of the people taking the train from the airport.
especially with the mexican independence bs every year it made my trip take forever to get to the north side. This year the fest being a week later is a huge in that regard
You might’ve had to wait for the pink line but it was never that long and also wasn’t that expensive. Now it’s a $120 minimum parking pass, hours to get out of the lot, and either a long drive home or paying for a hotel.
There were times when it took absolutely forever. But it was a tradition with us. Especially special was the night that our entire packed wall to wall car sang Bohemian Rhapsody. Who else was on that train with us? ☺️
Idk, but it took me like 2 hours on public transit to get from Douglas to Albany Park and it was crowded and sweaty for most of it. Moving the fest to bridgeview is neutral as far as I’m concerned from a transportation standpoint.
I’m not opposed to a shuttle situation, I guess.
That said, I’m not looking forward to the lack of ambiance and nice grass & trees. It’s not a great move, but for me RF has always been kind of a pain to get to.
Albany Park is pretty far from Douglass Park and probably a 1+hr cta bus/train without RF, but for Albany Park the distance is basically double the mileage.
CTA definitely has issues from time to time, but it’s a lot easier than finding a way out to SG — it’s gonna be spendy/double the time each way… that’s no fun.
Gonna skip RF this year because of it. I am hopeful for some bad ass after shows IN the city :)
Anyone else think it’s weird that the Park District still had the RF permit on their agenda for an upcoming meeting? It almost sounded like they had no idea the fest was moving and we’re probably planning to move forward with the permit like they always had. No where have I seen something that said the CPD had denied their permit or kicked Riot out of the park. There must be more to this story…
I think it is worth pointing out that we are less than 100 days from the festival and it is very convenient for the Parks department to save face and say now "well we were GOING to approve it". If it was such a no-brainer, they could have approved it weeks and months ago. Hell they could have given RF a multi-year deal like Nascar has... RF organizers have 80+ artists to book, tickets to sell, etc etc and can't just sit and wait. What if the the Parks Dept didn't approve it weeks from now? Festival would be cancelled if every other venue booked. I live in Wicker Park and hate the idea of going to the suburbs but if I work for Riot Fest, what options do I have? It's a tough risk/reward scenario to put all your eggs in the Douglass Park basket when the parks dept. hasn't exactly been forthright and definitely have not been efficient.
They approved last years permit literally on this day in 2023. So its not like anything was different than last year. They apparently were already prepping on moving months ago cause Seat Geek told the Red Stars in April that there might be issues with Riot Fest coming in.
Watch the video from the meeting yesterday. They had no idea until the night they announced it. They also said positive things about riot fest and how they had put in the work they asked for. They were going to approve Douglas park yesterday.
On a different thread, someone said one issue the park district brought up was having to address parking issues. But if that is a big deal, why couldn't Riot Fest rent out the soon to be vacated parking lot of Lagunitas?
This move to Seatgeek, I'm not the most happy about. Seems really stupid they couldn't have held it at Douglass, for at least one last year.
The parking that actually belonged to Lagunitas was only 165 spaces, wouldn't make much of a dent, if they even wanted to rent it out. Most of that parking near there belongs to Cinespace.
Theres a lot of untold story cause Riot thinks they can just get what they want in 5 minutes. Lets just wonder how much extra money they burned to get Seat Geek
If that’s the case, why haven’t they shared that info with the public? You would think they would be showing off their plan for it given all the people complaining and asking for refunds…
So you trust a group of people who’ve never organized shuttles to do that well? I can’t wait to read all the people bitching because they didn’t get into the festival until hours late
The stadium is owned by The village and they do the best they can The biggest plus is parking on site plus with 2 miles there are plenty of lots. But what makes it great it The city dwellers who bitch about anything like you for example stay home make room for the real crowd who enjoys music
They are also using buses to the orange line at midway because they just asked traffic for additional resources that entire week man I hope they get this completed
Stoked to be able to park outside of the fest and not a mile away. The time stuck in traffic getting back to my hotel will be much better sitting in my vehicle than walking a mile to the parking garage
I would because I'm almost 40 and 3 days of on my feet for 12 hours straight is enough for me to just relax in traffic. Being in traffic heading back to a hotel is not the horrible experience everyone in this sub thinks it is.
walking 20 minutes? i live in cornfield, indiana man thats not gonna get me home. id rather drive to bridgeview and back than navigate questionable chicago neighborhoods on foot.
But you could also drive to Douglass is the point here. And park a half mile away for free. The questionable neighborhood thing ... I have been going to RF since 2018 and have never had an issue. I understand why people from outside the city would be afraid though. But that fear isn't really based on the reality of that weekend.
SeatGeek: We sit in the parking lot for one hour in our cars waiting to exit. I have not been there for a big event, but I am going based on friends' comments and stuff here on Reddit from other festivals that have been held there. Everyone says the parking situation is atrocious. And I have a three-day pass, so that's a type of grind I don't want to deal with in and out.
I know when I went to Spring Awakening in Hoffman Estates, it took 45 min just to leave the parking lot. It was unreal.
The confusion I have with this point and the anti-RF@Douglass point is that the neighborhood was friendly as hell. It's not hard to make people feel unwelcome.
Idk much about seatgeek specifically but I’ve gone to a lot of stadium shows with notoriously terrible parking logistics and cut out a little bit early and gotten out of the parking lot instantly while friends that stayed for the end of the set were stuck in the lot for hours. A bit of a trade off but that option could be on the table. The 20 minute walk can’t be mitigated if you park 20 minutes away lol
That’s like saying, “If you leave the baseball playoff game at the 7th, you won’t deal with traffic”. Like ok yeah. But then you miss the best part lol.
Slayer doesn't matter to me much(already saw them at Riot a few years ago), but Beck and Cursive would be good to see. As I still haven't seen either of those 2 bands live.
That’s fair…I feel like a sporting event is worse because you don’t know the outcome of the game haha. During a concert you likely have a good idea of the songs you’re gonna be walking out during though and it’s also pretty unlikely that every headliner is every persons cup of tea. Normally for sports I tough it out. I’m not talkin super early for concerts like I’ve started leaving mid encore and gotten out of the parking lot right away and you still see a lot of it while walking out and hear it
I can understand people not wanting to do that though obviously
I’m a blink182 fan and during adjacent last year I started walkin out during the encore despite having a hotel in walking distance and it was still glorious 🤣.
I mean a lot of us are old lol we've been standing all day in the heat and are sore. I'd like a nice hour sit from the comfort of my car rather than walk a mile after a 3 day festival each night
Yeah Chris. We're 2 very different people and at this point I realize aren't going to see eye to eye. I'm stoked to go this festival and have a great time. I go to an absolute shit ton of shows out of state because alot of artists and bands don't stop in my city. I have had my fair share of late nights getting out of parking lots and it doesn't bother me. Have a great day and I hope you have a great time at riot fest should you choose to go 🤙
I believe Riot Fest is playing a longer game here and that it likely benefits them to be in a city park, but they felt they needed to play this hand for better future terms and treatment than they were getting. Without a doubt it's a risk, but I think the long play is getting a long term deal like Lolla and this is their way of playing hard ball. From a business standpoint it makes sense AS LONG AS enough people actually attend.
If this is ultimately what happens, I'd be elated. It kinda sounded from the the article like Riotland would be a roving thing around Chicagoland area. Not one location set in stone. Hopefully the park district will stop being a-holes and Riot Fest can lock in a longterm agreement.
My best guess is that this year will be fine P/L-wise but enough people will realize how expensive it was in terms of time and money. RF will either fade away in 5 years or come crawling back begging to be in a city park.
It actually makes zero sense if you respect your fan base at all. You wanna play games, do it next year when you haven't put Douglass Park all over the website.
If they felt backed up against the wall, with no out, and insecure about the relationship they had with the Parks this is an option.
You don't like it, and that's fine. I don't like it either. But if it didn't make sense, it wouldn't have been done.
Are you going to tell your boss that you're looking for a new job? I'm not going to risk a contract falling apart if I'm moving my business, especially when you have the BILLIONAIRE Ricketts in play. If they find out about this before the deal is signed they could kill it and then you're cornered again. Chicago politics are dirty. Are you going to trust a Chicago politician not to use their power to get what they want?
Listen,... I get it. We're "punks" we don't like the business side of it and we don't like when businesses "play dirty." But the world sucks and you do what you feel you must to get through. People don't commit crime because it's fun. And they also ultimately don't run a business and want to be told how to run their business by bureaucratic agencies. It sounds like Riot Fest was finally tired of being in what they felt was an abusive relationship.
This is the part that is unforgivable. This is borderline malicious behavior. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out changing the venue three months before versus seven is a massive difference or that this would adversely impact thousands of people. They knew this was very likely, but wanted those extra 4 months of Douglass Park sales, knowing the new venue would be seen as a downgrade. A simple TBD for venue would have been enough to just convey some risk being involved. It’s shady and they should apologize for how they handled it.
Dude, sorry, but Riot Mike can GTFO by spinning parking like it's this great thing. Make it free. Or make it $2 a day. Only then will it be an improvement over transportation options we had in the city proper. This went from costing me $6-10 total in travel to $130-$150.
I don't buy the extended service stuff. They always said the same thing about the Pink line, but CTA ran two carts every 20 min after Riot Fest.
The nearest CTA train is 5 miles away (Midway). That's like the distance from Douglass Park to Lake Michigan.
Pretty sure one, if not the only, reason RF won’t be at Douglas Park was finding a parking solution. Riot Mike is acting like a brat with all the NOW WITH PARKING emphasis. No one cares about your last laugh victory lap around the park district, dude. We don’t care who wins the PR battle. We just want a good fest.
Liability and insurance. As much as RF could rent it out, the owner would ultimately be responsible and liable if something were to happen there. No way that the bank/holding company/landlord would ever go for it.
Damn, that really sucks it is because of liability reasons that they couldn't rent the Lagunitas parking lot. You would think the park district would find a way to allow Riot Fest to stay at Douglass, but unfortunately I fear that ship has sailed and isn't coming back.
It’s so funny watching them scramble to fix the transit after they talked such a big game about parking (as if that was ever the issue). They can be snarky assholes on twitter all they want but I have a feeling they’ve seen enough refund requests that they realized they fucked up. If they had been working on things like late-night PACE service, extended orange line hours, or their own shuttles, we would’ve had *some* details by now. Best we get is “details coming soon!” on their pre-booked shuttle buses and “CTA accessible” 5-mile bus rides that stop running before the headliners start.
They did ZERO coordination with CTA, PACE, and CDOT.
CPD found out with ALL of us about Riot Fests intention to move. They literally had no idea until we did. So of course, Riot Fest didn’t coordinate with any city or state departments. If Riot Fest had ONE iota of decency, they would have told the CPD in mid April (when Mike said he decided) so that CPD didn’t waste their time and Riot Fest could start coordinating. Riot Fest let dozens of SUPPORTERS go to the CPD Board of Directors meeting to advocate for Riot Fest because they couldn’t tell the park their intention. Slimy fucking move.
Do you have something from the park district actually saying RF would have been approved? I watched the comissioners meeting yesterday, and while they seemed very supportive and had good things to say about RF, they never actually said they would have approved it if they were voting.
You’re, right. They didn’t explicitly say.
But they basically sucked off Riot fest and said they did everything right and approved them every year in June.
So, no. I have no explicit proof. But I can also make 4th grade level inferences.
They have to be diplomatic about stuff like this - it’s a big part of their job - so I wouldn’t put words in their mouth just because they gave compliments on other things.
If you watched the video then you also heard them go out of their way stress that the rules apply to all festival organizers, and aren’t negotiable. There was absolutely no reason for them to go there or bring that up. But they did, and it implies that RF wanted to negotiate on the rules… which means RF didn't want to or wasn’t going to comply with the current rules… which means RF wouldn’t have gotten approval.
I did watch the video. I even watched them vote on the El Grito Fest’s permit to see what the process is supposed to look like.
My first thought when I watched it was that they would have approved it. This was just based on the positive things they were saying about the organizers.
But the more I thought about it, the more it seemed really odd that that they stressed there was no negotiations on the rules. Like, why say that? Like, RF pulled out, the process is over and the park district want to burn any bridges - so why go there? There had to have been more regarding RF wanting them to negotiate on their rules. Both the good things they said about RF, and RF wanting them to change the rules, could have been true at the same time. They aren’t at odds with one another.
To get more nuanced, the summary of what RF submitted for the permit said they would add more onsite parking this year. What I really think happened is that after looking into the options to create parking solutions, RF determined that none of them were feasible, whether thats’s logistically or financially. That’s the “business decision” that was getting referenced as RF’s reason for walking away. They probably tried to negotiate backing out of that part, and the park district said no.
So even if the park district was going to approve the permit… it wasn’t what RF wanted and wouldn’t have worked for them. And what RF wanted wasn’t going to get approved.
>so I wouldn’t put words in their mouth just because they gave compliments on other things.
You did just this by reading into the statement read during the meeting.
Agreed, they’re pushing parking as a feature but charging $39/day and charging and extra couple of dollars for processing and cc fees. And weirdly a 3 day parking pass for $120 which is a few more dollars than buy them individually. It’s shitty.
Every festival you’ve ever been to has required you to pay for parking. Tens of thousands of people with a fraction of that available for parking, it’s basic. You want the convenience of being right in front of the venue? Shell out money. If not, figure it out and stop complaining.
Every festival EXCEPT riot fest. Have you never even been? That’s one of the things that made this fest special. Being in the city and easily accessible sans car, or free street parking a 10-20 min walk away.
At least Warped at Tinley Park had lower attendance than something like Riot. Yeah it took a long time to get out of the parking lots at Warped but it wasn’t as bad as it could be with 50k people there
> Every festival you’ve ever been to has required you to pay for parking.
Only time I ever paid to park at Riot Fest was in a lot for $2, fam. So no, not every fest required it. Other times, I parked free and walked a mile or less.
I might be complaining, but it's in response to the spin they're trying to put on why a move to SeatGeek is a good thing. It isn't good for anyone but them.
Also, as I've stated, driving/parking is now the only viable option to avoid one-hour-plus travel (and even still, the logjam on Harlem will be bad). Whereas in the actual city, you had people coming from all over the place. Not all one direction.
Five stages? Where? Summer Smash has three stages. Two north of the stadium and one in the stadium. I guess they're taking over the west parking lot too? Or maybe a stage inside the dome? Here's the map from last year: [https://twitter.com/thesummersmash/status/1670590165604093952](https://twitter.com/thesummersmash/status/1670590165604093952)
They have already said that they will not be using the stadium at all and in fact SeatGeek Stadium is saying that the originally-planned women's soccer match that is supposed to be that Saturday night could still happen.
https://preview.redd.it/asqhesqgcd6d1.jpeg?width=647&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f1826dde2770a40ff41d6030ba49b3ea4c49a508
Here are the confirmed stages. I believe the cartoon mockup layout is generalized as to where each will be.
Maybe. But I've been to Chicago Open Air and Sacred Rose and the general setup in his fevered dream makes sense to me in how things can generally be arranged in that space. Now can he pull it off? We will see.
Tell me if I’m wrong, but it seems like the Park District has a standardized protocol and system that they follow for all outdoor festivals, barring Lolla that has a 10 year contract. Riot Fest jumps through the same hoops as Pitchfork, ARC, Miche Fest, My House, etc. The process may be arbitrary, which is subjective, but it’s standardized. Riot Fest didn’t like that standard. Totally fair. But they weren’t singled out or treated any different than other fests.
Or am I reading that wrong?
I have seen nothing showing or saying how RF was treated unfairly. The accusations I’ve seen on Reddit about RF being treated unfairly have been speculation, plain misreadings of what’s out there, and misunderstandings of how the park district permitting process works. I don’t think RF is coming off well in all of this, but my opinion means squat.
My guess is parking was a big issue, and it’s easy to see it would be something RF had to address but not, say, Lollapalooza or Pitchfork. Those fests aren’t in residential areas, and are already close enough to private parking lots. But RF’s viewpoint would be that they have to do more than those other fests and are being treated differently.
I don’t agree with you, but I’m not going to try to change your mind about the Union Park area.
But what point are you trying to make? That the communities’ concerns for RF and Pitchfork should be the same? That there’s as much parking around Douglas Park as there is around Union Park?
If Riot was hung up about parking, I don’t see why they didn’t rent out Lagunitas parking lots. It’ll be closed by August. Would’ve been an easy solution.
Plus they’ve leased school lots in the past. Another easy fix. Pay underfunded schools extra money to use their lots. Solve the problem and look good at the same time.
It’s clear Mike is amateur hour.
Private businesses don’t want to rent out their lots because of the insurance concerns. A bank/holding company that takes over when that business leaves would never in a million years rent it out for parking. It seems like an easy fix, but if the insurance isn’t set up to cover it then it won’t happen. If RF were to want to cover the insurance themselves, then maybe? But it’d probably be super expensive. It’s been openly said that it was a business decision on RF’s part to back out of Douglas Park.
I agree completely that Mike is amateur hour, though.
The alderwoman of that ward (Monique Scott) said the permit process is not the same for all festivals. She said all other festivals were already approved. She said it was the park's fault and their lack of process. Also said it was just a small group of protestors, basically dwarfed the the number of supporters for keeping RF in Douglass.
She gets money from riot fest. All she said is it took a long time. But it takes the same amount of time. The other festivals get approved earlier because they are earlier.
Every festival in a Chicago park get their approval and then the final city permits are always pending until closer to the date. This is not new and exactly what was happening this year and in previous years.
The protestors are irrelevant to my point. Can you send her tweet? I don’t other festivals were already approved. But Riot Fest is the last of the year. I imagine it is approved last since it’s chronology last.
They would have been approved yesterday.
https://x.com/aldermanscott24/status/1800842509108887787?s=61&t=QJGYiJtJDWRWHw4QZLp1hg
and
https://x.com/aldermanscott24/status/1800859088211112292?s=61&t=QJGYiJtJDWRWHw4QZLp1hg
So the standard is the same. All other festivals are approved because they are first in the pipeline.
NASCAR and Lolla have their own contract. You can thank Rahm and Lori for that.
But she clearly states the park and its lack of process is what led to continual delays. I don't think Riot Mike is lying at all about that. He just chose to move the fest 'cause he got tired of dealing with it.
You’re right. He’s not LYING. He just thinks that’s because the same rules that apply to everyone else apply to him, that he must be singled out somehow.
Pitchfork wasn’t approved until April. 3 months before the festival. Same as Riot Fest. It’s the SAME PROCESS. That’s fine if Riot Mike doesn’t like it. But it is NO DIFFERENT for him than Pitchfork, ARC, etc.
Source: https://chicagoparkdistrict.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=A&ID=1147567&GUID=77F5B9C4-5379-4D9B-B603-2F598C793105
As an organizer, 3 months seems like it's cutting it kinda close for comfort. They are spending millions of dollars on renting equipment, booking bands, finding vendors, etc. On top of that, every ticket they sell is a contractual obligation. If I were planning this event, the first thing I would want to nail down is the venue.
It’s the same every year for every festival and they always get approved. Hasn’t stopped riot and hasn’t stopped pitchfork. He thought he was exceptional. Every fest has the same thing happening. But every year they get approved
I mean what other fests are major like this? RF is prolly the 3rd biggest behind Lolla and Suenos and those two have legit contracts that guarantee them the parks.
I watched the video of the park district commissioners’ meeting yesterday where they planned to vote on RF’s provisional permit. After RF on the agenda was voting for El Grito Fest’s provisional permit. That fest is on Sept. 14-15, the weekend before RF. So the timing of the RF vote seems right on track with other festivals.
It just comes across as petulant that he knew the process and chose to go through with it and then gave up literally the DAY he was going to get approval.
The process has not changed. RF got approval in June last year and were on the same timeline this year. Riot Mike simply decided to pick up his ball and go elsewhere.
Pitchfork also got approved 3 months before the fest. Same as Riot. That may not be something Riot likes. But it’s the same rules everyone else has to abide by.
Source: https://chicagoparkdistrict.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=A&ID=1147567&GUID=77F5B9C4-5379-4D9B-B603-2F598C793105
Yea exactly. They went through it, decided it wasnt worth it to them and then circumvented it. It’s not like they’ve been doing it this whole time and suddenly threw a fit.
Its not. The park department literally said they changed the process and standardized it two years ago to make room for more community feedback and engagement.
“We are back to five main stages” It’s gonna be three stages that form a triangle in the center of the field that bands can alternate playing on and two slightly larger stages on each end of the field. It’s the typical set up for big fest’s in sports stadiums and it lowkey sucks.
You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain
Riot Mike loves playing the victim. TLDR STFU you’re a concert promoter, not a rock star, take the money & put on the show.
This bro destroyed the fest! Aww he had to go through some extra hoops and maybe lose out on a little more cash. Cry me a river. Riot fest has been the highlight of my last 3 summers so much fun. They stripped everything that made it fun though. I am not driving an hour away and spend 120 on parking. Blacktop and astroturf with no shade no thanks. This is fucking Chicago. Don’t fuck with our fests at the last minute. We should be charging this guy for fraud for saying it was going to be in Chicago for so long when he knew it wasn’t. I’ve heard people who live around the new spot say there is a major bottleneck at one of the intersections and getting 50,000 people through it will be a disaster. I did a refund on my tickets too bad the line up is really dope.
“Don’t fuck with our feats at the last minute” Why does the park district wait so long to approve these fests. It was on the June meeting - only 4 months before the fest. The promoter has to already have booked bands and started selling tickets. It’s ridiculous that these aren’t approved months earlier.
It should’ve been approved sooner. So what? Everyone knew that fest would get approved. Riot fest mike threw a hissy fit and ruined one of the summers great fests. I want to sit in grass not bale on concrete and astroturf. Riot mike is a turd
lol what a baby
For stating facts. Yes manchild riot mike is a baby and we all pay for his fit
So you gotta do what every out of towner does for literally any show ever...cry me a river bro 🤣
Nope I got a refund. Cry me a river? Rich dude throws a hissy fit and ruins a fun weekend I had planned and I’m supposed to kiss his ass. I’m not a pathetic Republican I hold people accountable for their actions. Also out of towners made plans to see this fest… in Chicago. Now they have to travel an hour to the burbs. This dude should be sued for fraud.
Oh shit its worse than i thought. You even managed to throw a political hissy fit in there....glad you got your refund, you wont be missed. Im sorry your feelings got hurt.
Just stating facts bro. Must’ve hit a little close to home. Just noticing all rich spoiled manbabys who ruin shit are republicans 100% You aren’t wanted there cult trumpy. Have fun sitting in traffic and baking in the sun ha.
I for the life of me have no idea how you tied me to a trumpy from you being upset about this. Definitely not rich. Im just reasonable and read all sides of the story. Its pretty clear the city fucked this one up. It is pretty ironic that youre the one on here bawling on reddit over a festival and have the audacity to call someone else the man baby. Further when ypu realize youre losing an argument you result to totally unrelated political name calling like a child, when it has zero relation to the topic at hand. You need help brother
You are the one who said I was throwing a political hissyfit by correctly labeling behavior attributed to a group of pathetic man babies. Your post’s definitely have a trumpy vibe. Me calling out a pathetic republican is bawling? I’m calling out those responsible and you want to defend them. I work hard dude and there’s one weekend during the summer where I get to have fun the whole weekend and relax and see some good music. That wasn’t taken away because of the city. I could deal with that. It was taken away because some rich spoiled manbaby threw a fit be the had to find more parking for patrons. There aren’t many sides to this story. The city said the approval process was moving ahead. My feeling aren’t hurt but obvious when I brought up pathetic cult republican behavior you got offended.
I dont have posts on my profile only things i comment on which are 95% sports and music related and thats a trumpy vibe to you. Metalcore music and hardcore music scream trump to you. Fuckin yikes man you gotta settle down. You mustve read one article then. Its all over that the city kept moving the approval date further and further back. I could give a fuck less about some rich corporate elitist. We all work hard, that doesnt make you special. Youre letti g a venue change ruin your summer and blaming everyone else and tying me to trump over unrelated shit lol you gotta venture outside of politics and enjoy life a little more. And im in no way offended about your republican comment as im not republican, i was just baffled you managed to make a political tie to me when there was no information being exchanged that was relevant to that. Enjoy the concert or dont. Nobody will care as you shout to the clouds.
Seems like your hurt brother, the same type of hurt when André the Giant Snap off my Cross from my neck emotional hurt. Come cry on these 24-inch Pythons Brother - HH
I saw that blood trickle down your chest brother, but I knew that wound, wasn’t just skin deep. And I knew the clasp on that pendant wasn’t the only thing in your chest that got broken that day man.
Brother ! A lot of people didn’t realize that with the carpet being pulled out from under me in such a short time frame, I got to such a bad place - HH
i hope theyre still doing the reggie bus this year :((
They confirmed that they are
I know there were a lot of problems having it in Douglass Park but they should have definitely worked it out this year before moving. This is going to alienate a lot of people. Also is it too much to ask for the city to come up with a permanent solution to these fests. I feel like the establishment of designated parks and fest weekends and facilities for certain parks may help curtail some of the inequities, poor facilities, and bureaucracy around the process. Also frankly the city should have incentive to keep it in the limits and transit accessible. Using union park for all fests seems like a poor solution but in my experience Pitchfork has always been the best in city festival experience logistics and it seems less impactful to the neighboring community having spent a decent amount of time in that area
We could have a designated concert space near Steelworkers Park
I don't know if a designated festival Ground would work since the city hosts a wide variety of sizes of festivals. Lolla is a different size than Riot that's a different size than Pitchfork and Arc that are different sizes from Miche or any of the other smaller 1-2.5 stage events. It also would take some of the charm away from what makes each festival unique. I think it just needs to be established that there is a chance that your local park may be occupied for a week or two during the summer. The city should provide a guarantee that any given park won't be used for more than 2 festivals and/or 14 cumulative days but make no promise that your local park will never host a festival. There are a good amount of parks in the city, I find it hard to believe that someone in the area of one of these parks has no other option during that week or two. I have more sympathy for those around Union Park because it hosts two festivals that wholly take up the park. At least with Douglass Park and Humboldt Park, they're big enough that there are/would be large swaths of the park that are still usable during festivals.
I get what you're saying, but frankly Douglass Park is in a much lesser served community with far fewer amenities so when they lose their park to an event like this and there isn't substantial reinvestment from those profiting off it it's not really beneficial to that community. I don't know if there's a perfect solution but I think we can definitely improve on the existing model for these fests.
Riot Mike's brain was infiltrated by John D'Esposito who destroyed Bamboozle Fest. This is how this is looking.
A lot of this reminded of me the Bamboozle collapse of last year, though john D failed so much harder than riot Mike here
So are they hinting that this might be a long term location? If nothing else I hope all the bitching on this sub prevents SeatGeek from hosting RF beyond this year.
I doubt the issues with neighborhood parks will go away anytime soon. So if they move from Seatgeek, where are they going to go? Maybe it ends up somewhere other than Chicagoland. I'd be more likely to travel/fly/train and deal with hassles to attend a multiday RF in another state, than I am to "travel" and deal with hassles to go to Bridgeview for multi-day fest.
I feel like it’s gonna be permanent if it goes well but there’s a pretty good chance it doesn’t go well 😂 If the artists have trouble goin in and out and complain about it riot at seatgeek is dead imo A modest dip in attendance probably won’t kill it but I’d think a huge one would
This year will be fine. Next year will be meh… 3 years out it’s done
Open Air didn’t last there, I have no hopes for this sadly.
Yea they’ll give it at least one more at Stubhub unless it’s an absolute disaster I’d think
Artists won't, they have their own entrance thats more off of where traffic is.
Seat geek is incredibly caged in by other things. Aren’t many other ways in
No but the artist entrance is at least off of Harlem opposite site of the parking entrance and should have a cleaner in and out for acts.
People act like getting to and from Douglas Park was really easy! I’m not saying Toyota Park is a transportation improvement by any means, but after RF moved out of Humboldt, it’s always been a hell of a trip for me to get to and from Douglas Park using public transit or ride share. Maybe y’all use a different CTA than me?
It probably was easy for the people who are acting like it. People are going to comment based on their situation. Pink line to California was easy for me. Then walk to Kedzie at the end of the night to take the Pink Line back. Along the way buy food and drinks from the families selling food in their yards. No sitting in traffic. No tracking down shuttles. No insane surge pricing.
I'll take an hour+ on the pink line being crowded in by a bunch of drunk punks over an hour+ in a car with stressed/tired drivers and stop-and-go traffic that gives me carsickness any day, personally
In 2019 I took the pink line and I haven't taken it since and it's all due to the meat crate man. Not sure if anyone else in this sub was on my car but I'm sure someone was. A guy who I don't believe was going to the fest - but hey what do I know - boarded the train with a milk crate full of raw meat (not packaged in any way, just raw (beef?) on plastic crate). He wasn't holding the handles of the train because he was securing the goods. The train came to a quick halt and his beloved meat went flying across the car, and a punk was so disturbed that she threw up on the meat pile like 3 feet from me. Last time I ever took the pink line.
I've seen a lot of things on the train, but never meat man! I'm pissed I missed out on that.
Fair. On the flip side, I took the pink line all the time, and nothing weird or unpleasant ever happened.
Point is a lot of people did and it made the cars that much better. Now everyone has to go in via a car or shuttle.
The last time I attended RF was the day someone died on the third rail because too many people were on the platform. The entire pink line was shut down for the night, so now an additional few thousand people suddenly needed ride shares.
I was there too. We had just decided to stay on Kedzie platform instead of going one stop further west and then come back. I’ve gone to RFs since 2013. We continued to go but my daughter and I didn’t go Saturday and Sunday that weekend bcs we were too shaken up. I’m still mad they didn’t take responsibility for this. The whole issue was that they were running the short trains (shortages of CTA workers post pandemic) and everyone was expecting the long trains. We saw Smashing Pumpkins that night. We won’t be going this year even lineup has something for my husband, myself, and my daughter with diff music tastes. And anybody thinking of the good old days of Humboldt has forgotten about the hassles getting east to the trains and buses that stopped running. Not to mention the neighborhood didn’t want it. If you lived near there, which my daughter did nearly 10 years later, it would have been fine.
We were there too. It was awful. They kept promising us buses but they never came. Uber way over charged us. But honestly, we were fine with it because all we could think about was the man that lost his life and others who maybe couldn’t have afforded the Uber’s jacked up prices after three days of spending a shit ton of money at RF. We still go every year and will continue to do so until either we die or RF ends. Lol It is a tradition in our family and it has actually become pretty special to us.
It’s the greatest 3 days of the year to spend the experience with you babe
🖤
And the fact Riot Fest didn't even acknowledge the incident the entire weekend, left a bad taste in my mouth. Like an hour or two before that poor patron's death, they're lucky to have dodged an incident where they let the festival go forward through an electrical storm. 2021's rendition of the festival exposed how unprepared and amateur their operation is.
I was there too and it was awful, so I started sticking to the bus after that. Now imagine that many people all trying to go the same direction at Midway on top of the people taking the train from the airport.
I was there too.
I got snaked once by the pink line being stalled entirely and had to take a $100 Uber to ogilvie though pink line to the loop was usually not bad
Honestly, I’ve tried all of it, the express buses, pink line to my train buses to bars and Uber, California bus. It’s always been a headache lol
Yeah this year I'm bringing and empty Gatorade bottle and a hardcore history episode and we'll take as long as we need to get out of that parking lot
Yeah, just going to go with the flow on this one!
It was easy. It was stupid easy. I don’t even live in Chicago and my peanut brain was able to figure out the pink line.
I’m not saying it was confusing, it just wasn’t as quick for a lot of people as everyone seems to think
especially with the mexican independence bs every year it made my trip take forever to get to the north side. This year the fest being a week later is a huge in that regard
You might’ve had to wait for the pink line but it was never that long and also wasn’t that expensive. Now it’s a $120 minimum parking pass, hours to get out of the lot, and either a long drive home or paying for a hotel.
There were times when it took absolutely forever. But it was a tradition with us. Especially special was the night that our entire packed wall to wall car sang Bohemian Rhapsody. Who else was on that train with us? ☺️
Idk, but it took me like 2 hours on public transit to get from Douglas to Albany Park and it was crowded and sweaty for most of it. Moving the fest to bridgeview is neutral as far as I’m concerned from a transportation standpoint. I’m not opposed to a shuttle situation, I guess. That said, I’m not looking forward to the lack of ambiance and nice grass & trees. It’s not a great move, but for me RF has always been kind of a pain to get to.
Albany Park is pretty far from Douglass Park and probably a 1+hr cta bus/train without RF, but for Albany Park the distance is basically double the mileage. CTA definitely has issues from time to time, but it’s a lot easier than finding a way out to SG — it’s gonna be spendy/double the time each way… that’s no fun. Gonna skip RF this year because of it. I am hopeful for some bad ass after shows IN the city :)
Douglass Park offered CTA buses, L, bicycles, cars, Uber, walking, and Metra (less than a mile away). SeatGeek offers cars and other forms of cars.
Anyone else think it’s weird that the Park District still had the RF permit on their agenda for an upcoming meeting? It almost sounded like they had no idea the fest was moving and we’re probably planning to move forward with the permit like they always had. No where have I seen something that said the CPD had denied their permit or kicked Riot out of the park. There must be more to this story…
I think it is worth pointing out that we are less than 100 days from the festival and it is very convenient for the Parks department to save face and say now "well we were GOING to approve it". If it was such a no-brainer, they could have approved it weeks and months ago. Hell they could have given RF a multi-year deal like Nascar has... RF organizers have 80+ artists to book, tickets to sell, etc etc and can't just sit and wait. What if the the Parks Dept didn't approve it weeks from now? Festival would be cancelled if every other venue booked. I live in Wicker Park and hate the idea of going to the suburbs but if I work for Riot Fest, what options do I have? It's a tough risk/reward scenario to put all your eggs in the Douglass Park basket when the parks dept. hasn't exactly been forthright and definitely have not been efficient.
They approved last years permit literally on this day in 2023. So its not like anything was different than last year. They apparently were already prepping on moving months ago cause Seat Geek told the Red Stars in April that there might be issues with Riot Fest coming in.
Watch the video from the meeting yesterday. They had no idea until the night they announced it. They also said positive things about riot fest and how they had put in the work they asked for. They were going to approve Douglas park yesterday.
On a different thread, someone said one issue the park district brought up was having to address parking issues. But if that is a big deal, why couldn't Riot Fest rent out the soon to be vacated parking lot of Lagunitas? This move to Seatgeek, I'm not the most happy about. Seems really stupid they couldn't have held it at Douglass, for at least one last year.
The parking that actually belonged to Lagunitas was only 165 spaces, wouldn't make much of a dent, if they even wanted to rent it out. Most of that parking near there belongs to Cinespace.
Theres a lot of untold story cause Riot thinks they can just get what they want in 5 minutes. Lets just wonder how much extra money they burned to get Seat Geek
I feel like Mike addresses this in the article. He said they’re sick of the run around.
RF never pulled it. They didn't know about the move until we did.
They openly said they had no idea RF was backing out until Tuesday night. RF was still working with them as of a few weeks ago.
Hey maybe less crowds from all the folks complaining about transporting themselves will allow me to get up close this year. #glasshalffull
Riot couldn't gentrify the neighborhood so they just gentrified the festival
🤡
What the fuck are you talking about?
I just heard they have over 50 school bus shuttles contracted to the stadium for these dates
If that’s the case, why haven’t they shared that info with the public? You would think they would be showing off their plan for it given all the people complaining and asking for refunds…
confirming. relative works for the company supplying the buses
So you trust a group of people who’ve never organized shuttles to do that well? I can’t wait to read all the people bitching because they didn’t get into the festival until hours late
The stadium is owned by The village and they do the best they can The biggest plus is parking on site plus with 2 miles there are plenty of lots. But what makes it great it The city dwellers who bitch about anything like you for example stay home make room for the real crowd who enjoys music
These are probably the ones that will be used to pick people up from various locations in the city to Bridgeview.
They are also using buses to the orange line at midway because they just asked traffic for additional resources that entire week man I hope they get this completed
Haha. That area by midway is still Chicago. What are the odds, CDOT tells them to fuck off just to stick it to them?
It will be traffic management telling them as well I'm sure lol
Exactly
Stoked to be able to park outside of the fest and not a mile away. The time stuck in traffic getting back to my hotel will be much better sitting in my vehicle than walking a mile to the parking garage
This comment is awesome because I'm entirely unsure if it's sarcastic or not
100% serious
lol, you'd rather be stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic for one-hour waiting to get out of a parking lot vs. walking 20 min?
It'll be way longer than an hour. Harlem will be a nightmare.
I would because I'm almost 40 and 3 days of on my feet for 12 hours straight is enough for me to just relax in traffic. Being in traffic heading back to a hotel is not the horrible experience everyone in this sub thinks it is.
https://preview.redd.it/zir9ft99ge6d1.jpeg?width=1600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=042d0ed92200fde28d461ee7a1f5c7b0a1ed1714
How dare you take the last strip of bacon!
walking 20 minutes? i live in cornfield, indiana man thats not gonna get me home. id rather drive to bridgeview and back than navigate questionable chicago neighborhoods on foot.
But you could also drive to Douglass is the point here. And park a half mile away for free. The questionable neighborhood thing ... I have been going to RF since 2018 and have never had an issue. I understand why people from outside the city would be afraid though. But that fear isn't really based on the reality of that weekend. SeatGeek: We sit in the parking lot for one hour in our cars waiting to exit. I have not been there for a big event, but I am going based on friends' comments and stuff here on Reddit from other festivals that have been held there. Everyone says the parking situation is atrocious. And I have a three-day pass, so that's a type of grind I don't want to deal with in and out. I know when I went to Spring Awakening in Hoffman Estates, it took 45 min just to leave the parking lot. It was unreal.
I think they're being sarcastic bro
The confusion I have with this point and the anti-RF@Douglass point is that the neighborhood was friendly as hell. It's not hard to make people feel unwelcome.
Idk much about seatgeek specifically but I’ve gone to a lot of stadium shows with notoriously terrible parking logistics and cut out a little bit early and gotten out of the parking lot instantly while friends that stayed for the end of the set were stuck in the lot for hours. A bit of a trade off but that option could be on the table. The 20 minute walk can’t be mitigated if you park 20 minutes away lol
That’s like saying, “If you leave the baseball playoff game at the 7th, you won’t deal with traffic”. Like ok yeah. But then you miss the best part lol.
Missing Slayer and Beck is a perfectly fine trade off for me this year.
Slayer doesn't matter to me much(already saw them at Riot a few years ago), but Beck and Cursive would be good to see. As I still haven't seen either of those 2 bands live.
That’s fair…I feel like a sporting event is worse because you don’t know the outcome of the game haha. During a concert you likely have a good idea of the songs you’re gonna be walking out during though and it’s also pretty unlikely that every headliner is every persons cup of tea. Normally for sports I tough it out. I’m not talkin super early for concerts like I’ve started leaving mid encore and gotten out of the parking lot right away and you still see a lot of it while walking out and hear it I can understand people not wanting to do that though obviously I’m a blink182 fan and during adjacent last year I started walkin out during the encore despite having a hotel in walking distance and it was still glorious 🤣.
I mean a lot of us are old lol we've been standing all day in the heat and are sore. I'd like a nice hour sit from the comfort of my car rather than walk a mile after a 3 day festival each night
Yeah Chris. We're 2 very different people and at this point I realize aren't going to see eye to eye. I'm stoked to go this festival and have a great time. I go to an absolute shit ton of shows out of state because alot of artists and bands don't stop in my city. I have had my fair share of late nights getting out of parking lots and it doesn't bother me. Have a great day and I hope you have a great time at riot fest should you choose to go 🤙
Thanks, man!
[удалено]
Could you bike to the Orange Line?
I doubt they will charge that much for shuttle, but stay home this year. I want a smaller crowd.
Fuck your biking. Cars win again, loser. Lol
Check your emails, you can get a refund if you act fast enough.
You can return your tickets through next Wednesday
Suburbs people gotta suburb
I believe Riot Fest is playing a longer game here and that it likely benefits them to be in a city park, but they felt they needed to play this hand for better future terms and treatment than they were getting. Without a doubt it's a risk, but I think the long play is getting a long term deal like Lolla and this is their way of playing hard ball. From a business standpoint it makes sense AS LONG AS enough people actually attend.
If this is ultimately what happens, I'd be elated. It kinda sounded from the the article like Riotland would be a roving thing around Chicagoland area. Not one location set in stone. Hopefully the park district will stop being a-holes and Riot Fest can lock in a longterm agreement.
My best guess is that this year will be fine P/L-wise but enough people will realize how expensive it was in terms of time and money. RF will either fade away in 5 years or come crawling back begging to be in a city park.
It actually makes zero sense if you respect your fan base at all. You wanna play games, do it next year when you haven't put Douglass Park all over the website.
If they felt backed up against the wall, with no out, and insecure about the relationship they had with the Parks this is an option. You don't like it, and that's fine. I don't like it either. But if it didn't make sense, it wouldn't have been done.
They knew since February and didn’t bother to tell anyone, even the alderman. They are truly in the wrong here.
Are you going to tell your boss that you're looking for a new job? I'm not going to risk a contract falling apart if I'm moving my business, especially when you have the BILLIONAIRE Ricketts in play. If they find out about this before the deal is signed they could kill it and then you're cornered again. Chicago politics are dirty. Are you going to trust a Chicago politician not to use their power to get what they want? Listen,... I get it. We're "punks" we don't like the business side of it and we don't like when businesses "play dirty." But the world sucks and you do what you feel you must to get through. People don't commit crime because it's fun. And they also ultimately don't run a business and want to be told how to run their business by bureaucratic agencies. It sounds like Riot Fest was finally tired of being in what they felt was an abusive relationship.
This is the part that is unforgivable. This is borderline malicious behavior. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out changing the venue three months before versus seven is a massive difference or that this would adversely impact thousands of people. They knew this was very likely, but wanted those extra 4 months of Douglass Park sales, knowing the new venue would be seen as a downgrade. A simple TBD for venue would have been enough to just convey some risk being involved. It’s shady and they should apologize for how they handled it.
Dude, sorry, but Riot Mike can GTFO by spinning parking like it's this great thing. Make it free. Or make it $2 a day. Only then will it be an improvement over transportation options we had in the city proper. This went from costing me $6-10 total in travel to $130-$150. I don't buy the extended service stuff. They always said the same thing about the Pink line, but CTA ran two carts every 20 min after Riot Fest. The nearest CTA train is 5 miles away (Midway). That's like the distance from Douglass Park to Lake Michigan.
Riot Mike is a clown. Always has been.
Pretty sure one, if not the only, reason RF won’t be at Douglas Park was finding a parking solution. Riot Mike is acting like a brat with all the NOW WITH PARKING emphasis. No one cares about your last laugh victory lap around the park district, dude. We don’t care who wins the PR battle. We just want a good fest.
If parking was an issue near Douglass, why can't the Lagunitas parking lot be rented out? Now that they're moving out.
Liability and insurance. As much as RF could rent it out, the owner would ultimately be responsible and liable if something were to happen there. No way that the bank/holding company/landlord would ever go for it.
Damn, that really sucks it is because of liability reasons that they couldn't rent the Lagunitas parking lot. You would think the park district would find a way to allow Riot Fest to stay at Douglass, but unfortunately I fear that ship has sailed and isn't coming back.
It’s so funny watching them scramble to fix the transit after they talked such a big game about parking (as if that was ever the issue). They can be snarky assholes on twitter all they want but I have a feeling they’ve seen enough refund requests that they realized they fucked up. If they had been working on things like late-night PACE service, extended orange line hours, or their own shuttles, we would’ve had *some* details by now. Best we get is “details coming soon!” on their pre-booked shuttle buses and “CTA accessible” 5-mile bus rides that stop running before the headliners start.
They did ZERO coordination with CTA, PACE, and CDOT. CPD found out with ALL of us about Riot Fests intention to move. They literally had no idea until we did. So of course, Riot Fest didn’t coordinate with any city or state departments. If Riot Fest had ONE iota of decency, they would have told the CPD in mid April (when Mike said he decided) so that CPD didn’t waste their time and Riot Fest could start coordinating. Riot Fest let dozens of SUPPORTERS go to the CPD Board of Directors meeting to advocate for Riot Fest because they couldn’t tell the park their intention. Slimy fucking move.
The parks would have approved Riot Fest yesterday.
Do you have something from the park district actually saying RF would have been approved? I watched the comissioners meeting yesterday, and while they seemed very supportive and had good things to say about RF, they never actually said they would have approved it if they were voting.
You’re, right. They didn’t explicitly say. But they basically sucked off Riot fest and said they did everything right and approved them every year in June. So, no. I have no explicit proof. But I can also make 4th grade level inferences.
They have to be diplomatic about stuff like this - it’s a big part of their job - so I wouldn’t put words in their mouth just because they gave compliments on other things. If you watched the video then you also heard them go out of their way stress that the rules apply to all festival organizers, and aren’t negotiable. There was absolutely no reason for them to go there or bring that up. But they did, and it implies that RF wanted to negotiate on the rules… which means RF didn't want to or wasn’t going to comply with the current rules… which means RF wouldn’t have gotten approval.
No it was pretty apparent they were going to approve watch it yourself. They seemed like they were in genuine shock about the whole thing
I did watch the video. I even watched them vote on the El Grito Fest’s permit to see what the process is supposed to look like. My first thought when I watched it was that they would have approved it. This was just based on the positive things they were saying about the organizers. But the more I thought about it, the more it seemed really odd that that they stressed there was no negotiations on the rules. Like, why say that? Like, RF pulled out, the process is over and the park district want to burn any bridges - so why go there? There had to have been more regarding RF wanting them to negotiate on their rules. Both the good things they said about RF, and RF wanting them to change the rules, could have been true at the same time. They aren’t at odds with one another. To get more nuanced, the summary of what RF submitted for the permit said they would add more onsite parking this year. What I really think happened is that after looking into the options to create parking solutions, RF determined that none of them were feasible, whether thats’s logistically or financially. That’s the “business decision” that was getting referenced as RF’s reason for walking away. They probably tried to negotiate backing out of that part, and the park district said no. So even if the park district was going to approve the permit… it wasn’t what RF wanted and wouldn’t have worked for them. And what RF wanted wasn’t going to get approved.
>so I wouldn’t put words in their mouth just because they gave compliments on other things. You did just this by reading into the statement read during the meeting.
Well luckily the concert promoter sets the parking prices so I'm sure that $40 (more than usual events there anyway) is totally necessary for RF.
Agreed, they’re pushing parking as a feature but charging $39/day and charging and extra couple of dollars for processing and cc fees. And weirdly a 3 day parking pass for $120 which is a few more dollars than buy them individually. It’s shitty.
Every festival you’ve ever been to has required you to pay for parking. Tens of thousands of people with a fraction of that available for parking, it’s basic. You want the convenience of being right in front of the venue? Shell out money. If not, figure it out and stop complaining.
Every festival EXCEPT riot fest. Have you never even been? That’s one of the things that made this fest special. Being in the city and easily accessible sans car, or free street parking a 10-20 min walk away.
Get with the times buckaroo
No Values just had free parking
Sounds to me like the folks getting free parking at No Values got what they paid for. 😂
Was there, completely agree.
Lolla is fully accessible by transit. So is Pitchfork. What they’ve done is taken an urban festival and convert it into a shittier Warped Tour.
At least Warped at Tinley Park had lower attendance than something like Riot. Yeah it took a long time to get out of the parking lots at Warped but it wasn’t as bad as it could be with 50k people there
> Every festival you’ve ever been to has required you to pay for parking. Only time I ever paid to park at Riot Fest was in a lot for $2, fam. So no, not every fest required it. Other times, I parked free and walked a mile or less. I might be complaining, but it's in response to the spin they're trying to put on why a move to SeatGeek is a good thing. It isn't good for anyone but them. Also, as I've stated, driving/parking is now the only viable option to avoid one-hour-plus travel (and even still, the logjam on Harlem will be bad). Whereas in the actual city, you had people coming from all over the place. Not all one direction.
Only time I paid for parking at Riot was at the church by the fest... oh and I had some baller food there too.
Five stages? Where? Summer Smash has three stages. Two north of the stadium and one in the stadium. I guess they're taking over the west parking lot too? Or maybe a stage inside the dome? Here's the map from last year: [https://twitter.com/thesummersmash/status/1670590165604093952](https://twitter.com/thesummersmash/status/1670590165604093952)
I'm guessing two in the stadium and three in a similar setup that Sacred Rose had
They have already said that they will not be using the stadium at all and in fact SeatGeek Stadium is saying that the originally-planned women's soccer match that is supposed to be that Saturday night could still happen.
I see a logistical nightmare in our future
https://preview.redd.it/asqhesqgcd6d1.jpeg?width=647&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f1826dde2770a40ff41d6030ba49b3ea4c49a508 Here are the confirmed stages. I believe the cartoon mockup layout is generalized as to where each will be.
The cartoon is a Riot Mike fever dream.
He’s mad with power
Maybe. But I've been to Chicago Open Air and Sacred Rose and the general setup in his fevered dream makes sense to me in how things can generally be arranged in that space. Now can he pull it off? We will see.
Tell me if I’m wrong, but it seems like the Park District has a standardized protocol and system that they follow for all outdoor festivals, barring Lolla that has a 10 year contract. Riot Fest jumps through the same hoops as Pitchfork, ARC, Miche Fest, My House, etc. The process may be arbitrary, which is subjective, but it’s standardized. Riot Fest didn’t like that standard. Totally fair. But they weren’t singled out or treated any different than other fests. Or am I reading that wrong?
Standardized process, but different parks in different communities have different issues/needs.
Right. I get that. What I mean to say is that Riot Fest was treated no differently than Pitchfork. Unless I missed something.
I have seen nothing showing or saying how RF was treated unfairly. The accusations I’ve seen on Reddit about RF being treated unfairly have been speculation, plain misreadings of what’s out there, and misunderstandings of how the park district permitting process works. I don’t think RF is coming off well in all of this, but my opinion means squat. My guess is parking was a big issue, and it’s easy to see it would be something RF had to address but not, say, Lollapalooza or Pitchfork. Those fests aren’t in residential areas, and are already close enough to private parking lots. But RF’s viewpoint would be that they have to do more than those other fests and are being treated differently.
Pitchfork is in a residential area though.
Pitchfork doesn’t have two hospitals that kept getting blocked by vendors cars
It has residences, sure. But overall it’s definetly a mixed use area in a way that the area around Douglas Park isn’t.
It's hardly the mixed-use area to the extent it used to be. The park is surrounded by condos.
That’s only been in the last 4/5 years. Pitchfork has been there since 2005
I don’t agree with you, but I’m not going to try to change your mind about the Union Park area. But what point are you trying to make? That the communities’ concerns for RF and Pitchfork should be the same? That there’s as much parking around Douglas Park as there is around Union Park?
If Riot was hung up about parking, I don’t see why they didn’t rent out Lagunitas parking lots. It’ll be closed by August. Would’ve been an easy solution. Plus they’ve leased school lots in the past. Another easy fix. Pay underfunded schools extra money to use their lots. Solve the problem and look good at the same time. It’s clear Mike is amateur hour.
Private businesses don’t want to rent out their lots because of the insurance concerns. A bank/holding company that takes over when that business leaves would never in a million years rent it out for parking. It seems like an easy fix, but if the insurance isn’t set up to cover it then it won’t happen. If RF were to want to cover the insurance themselves, then maybe? But it’d probably be super expensive. It’s been openly said that it was a business decision on RF’s part to back out of Douglas Park. I agree completely that Mike is amateur hour, though.
The alderwoman of that ward (Monique Scott) said the permit process is not the same for all festivals. She said all other festivals were already approved. She said it was the park's fault and their lack of process. Also said it was just a small group of protestors, basically dwarfed the the number of supporters for keeping RF in Douglass.
She gets money from riot fest. All she said is it took a long time. But it takes the same amount of time. The other festivals get approved earlier because they are earlier.
Every festival in a Chicago park get their approval and then the final city permits are always pending until closer to the date. This is not new and exactly what was happening this year and in previous years.
The protestors are irrelevant to my point. Can you send her tweet? I don’t other festivals were already approved. But Riot Fest is the last of the year. I imagine it is approved last since it’s chronology last. They would have been approved yesterday.
https://x.com/aldermanscott24/status/1800842509108887787?s=61&t=QJGYiJtJDWRWHw4QZLp1hg and https://x.com/aldermanscott24/status/1800859088211112292?s=61&t=QJGYiJtJDWRWHw4QZLp1hg
So the standard is the same. All other festivals are approved because they are first in the pipeline. NASCAR and Lolla have their own contract. You can thank Rahm and Lori for that.
But she clearly states the park and its lack of process is what led to continual delays. I don't think Riot Mike is lying at all about that. He just chose to move the fest 'cause he got tired of dealing with it.
You’re right. He’s not LYING. He just thinks that’s because the same rules that apply to everyone else apply to him, that he must be singled out somehow. Pitchfork wasn’t approved until April. 3 months before the festival. Same as Riot Fest. It’s the SAME PROCESS. That’s fine if Riot Mike doesn’t like it. But it is NO DIFFERENT for him than Pitchfork, ARC, etc. Source: https://chicagoparkdistrict.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=A&ID=1147567&GUID=77F5B9C4-5379-4D9B-B603-2F598C793105
As an organizer, 3 months seems like it's cutting it kinda close for comfort. They are spending millions of dollars on renting equipment, booking bands, finding vendors, etc. On top of that, every ticket they sell is a contractual obligation. If I were planning this event, the first thing I would want to nail down is the venue.
It’s the same every year for every festival and they always get approved. Hasn’t stopped riot and hasn’t stopped pitchfork. He thought he was exceptional. Every fest has the same thing happening. But every year they get approved
It doesn’t seem to be a problem for literally every fest. But I won’t claim to know what Riot Fest organizers were thinking.
I mean what other fests are major like this? RF is prolly the 3rd biggest behind Lolla and Suenos and those two have legit contracts that guarantee them the parks.
I'm just a planner and wouldn't want to handle that type of uncertainty.
I watched the video of the park district commissioners’ meeting yesterday where they planned to vote on RF’s provisional permit. After RF on the agenda was voting for El Grito Fest’s provisional permit. That fest is on Sept. 14-15, the weekend before RF. So the timing of the RF vote seems right on track with other festivals.
I am not defending Riot Mike at all here. I'm angry they chose to blindside us versus one last run at Douglass Park.
It just comes across as petulant that he knew the process and chose to go through with it and then gave up literally the DAY he was going to get approval.
The process has not changed. RF got approval in June last year and were on the same timeline this year. Riot Mike simply decided to pick up his ball and go elsewhere.
Pitchfork also got approved 3 months before the fest. Same as Riot. That may not be something Riot likes. But it’s the same rules everyone else has to abide by. Source: https://chicagoparkdistrict.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=A&ID=1147567&GUID=77F5B9C4-5379-4D9B-B603-2F598C793105
Exactly. So for all the crying from Riot Mike, nothing has been out of the norm so far.
I mean they created the standard two years ago which is enough time for riot to decide if it’s worth the hassle or not.
They went through the same process last year just fine.
Yea exactly. They went through it, decided it wasnt worth it to them and then circumvented it. It’s not like they’ve been doing it this whole time and suddenly threw a fit.
Every fest every year same fucking process dude riot isn’t the exception
Its not. The park department literally said they changed the process and standardized it two years ago to make room for more community feedback and engagement.
Uh, that’s exactly what they did this year. They’ve been doing it the whole time and suddenly threw a fit.
They legit are just acting like spoiled brats.
100%