Riot Fest Leaving Douglass Park and Moving to Bridgeview’s SeatGeek Stadium

Patty Wetli | June 12, 2024, 2:07 pm

(Courtesy of Riot Fest)

Riot Fest has announced it’s leaving its longtime home in Chicago’s Douglass Park and is setting up RiotLand in Bridgeview’s SeatGeek Stadium for the 2024 event, set for Sept. 20-22.

The lineup will feature headliners Fall Out Boy, Beck, Slayer, Pavement and Public Enemy.

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Founder Mike Petryshyn (aka Riot Mike) teased the venue change in a social media post Tuesday evening and released details about the new site Wednesday morning.

“Our exodus is solely because of the Chicago Park District. Their lack of care for the community, you (fans), and us, ultimately left us no choice,” Petryshyn said in a video statement.

“Several weeks ago, I had enough. I was tired of Riot Fest continually being the lowest hanging fruit. I was tired of playing their games. I was tired of watching something I love being continually used to deflect away from their own internal deficits,” he said. “This prevented us from giving you the experience you deserve.”

Opposition to Riot Fest’s location in Douglass Park — its home since 2015 — has grown in recent years, compounded by other music festivals also setting up camp in the park and effectively closing it off to residents for weeks at a time during the peak summer season.

In addition to complaints about traffic, noise and damage to the park, opponents said holding a music festival near neighborhood hospitals was both a safety hazard — in terms of emergency vehicles having to navigate street closures — and an insult to patients.

The Chicago Park District Board of Commissioners implemented a new process for approving festival permits in 2023, largely in response to issues raised around Riot Fest.

In 2023, the Heatwave music festival as well as Lyrical Lemonade Summer Smash opted not to apply for permits in Douglass Park. Riot Fest stuck with the site and was approved by commissioners at a contentious meeting in June 2023.

Ald. Monique Scott (24th Ward) threw her support behind Riot Fest at the meeting, marshaling busloads of residents wearing “Beyond the Fest” T-shirts.

In a statement to the Chicago Tribune regarding Riot Fest’s decision to leave Douglass Park, Scott said a “false narrative” drove the conversation and said opposition came from “only a small group of people.”

Petryshyn praised Scott as “righteous.”

“The hardest conversation I’ve had regarding our departure was with her,” he said in his statement. “It was filled with tears and sadness because Riot Fest has real meaning within the 24th Ward and vice versa.”

While the choice of SeatGeek didn’t come as a total surprise — it was a top guess among prognosticators prior to the announcement — it wasn’t entirely popular with Riot Fest fans, many of whom have already booked lodging and wanted the fest to stay within Chicago’s city limits.

Also caught off guard: the Chicago Red Stars women’s professional soccer team, which had a game scheduled at SeatGeek for Sept. 21.

Club President Karen Leetzow issued a statement on social media, saying the team is “working diligently to find a solution,” while adding that it “is unfair and unfortunate to have our club put in this situation.”