Riot Fest marked its 20th anniversary this weekend (9/19–9/21) at Douglass Park in Chicago, a milestone for the independent festival founded in 2005 by Mike “Riot Mike” Petryshyn and the late great Sean McKeough.
The pair were known in Chicago’s punk and alt-rock circles for booking legacy rock and punk acts alongside rising alternative bands and for keeping the operation independent even as it grew.
Rare for festivals these years, the event has always rocked, was typically diverse in many ways, and usually made attendees ask “why doesn’t this happen in more places around the country?”
Over its double decades, Riot Fest has booked headliners rooted around our old pal the electric guitar. We’re talking The Replacements (2013); The Cure (2014); the Original Misfits reunion with Glenn Danzig, Jerry Only, and Doyle (2016); Jawbreaker (2017); Nine Inch Nails (2021); and this year’s top-liners Blink-182, Green Day, and Weezer.
read more at: Setlist.fm
