Riot Fest 2021

Day 4 of Riot Fest Chicago was greased and ready to roll on Sunday, September 19 in Douglass Park. The lineup was a well balanced mixed between absolutely new and totally revered bands across the rock, indie, alt, and rap genre, depending on which stage you had the pleasure of visiting. 

Bouncing between stages from time to time had you in the mix of all sorts of artists including KennyHoopla with a skip and jump to Ice-T’s famed band Body Count, or more contrasted leaps of The Flaming Lips mellowing out the crowd while New Found Glory slammed the pop-punk button and had people jumping with fists in the air. 

Fever 333 talked social issues for POC & LGBTQ communities in between stellar jams,  Simple Plan helped us relive our childhoods, with many songs off ‘No Pads, No Helmets… Just Balls,’ Knuckle Puck and Thursday brought the energy and true grit of the mid-day shuffle, and DEVO helped us all put a notch in our belt of “Bands we thought we’d never see live.” 

Closing out the now infamous night was pop punk singer and rapper Machine Gun Kelly, who threw some national-news-garnering shade to the vocalist on the stage just to his right, Corey Taylor, who performed with Slipknot during the same time slot. It got so much attention, that if the world didn’t already know about Riot Fest, they sure know now. 

Aside from the acts on deck, the festival played many interests, from snagging food at Island Noodles, riding the ferris wheel, and even an area where festival goers were able to show off their “bad tattoos” in a Polaroid gallery. Let’s also not forget that 32 couples got married in the Riot Fest wedding chapel! 

Check out all the photos shot by Jacob Giampa of Between Two Bolts, and make a mental note or a calendar reservation for 2022, because this train is not stopping in terms of alt entertainment. 

Review by Ami Nicole ACRONYM