(Courtesy of Riot Fest)
The Chicago Park District Board of Commissioners approved a special event permit for Riot Fest on Wednesday, a decision that did little to bridge the divide between residents of Lawndale who welcome the fest and those who want to oust it from Douglass Park.
“I’m absolutely disappointed,” said resident Denise Ferguson, one of fest’s staunchest opponents.
Disappointed, but hardly surprised, Ferguson added, noting that prior to the board meeting, trucks had already moved into the park to begin setting up for the fest, scheduled for Sept. 20-22.
Ferguson was one of several people who spoke out against the festival in advance of the board’s vote on the permit application.
Their complaints, which they’ve reiterated at board meeting after board meeting for the past several years, have remained the same: chiefly that the festival represents a private takeover of a public space.
According to opponents, not only does the fest monopolize the community’s only green space for weeks at a time, including setup and teardown, it also creates traffic and parking logjams, and is a safety hazard for emergency vehicles attempting to reach nearby hospitals.
“They take the playgrounds, the tennis courts, the basketball courts, it’s all fenced off,” Ferguson told WTTW News.
The fest’s violation of the city’s “quiet zone” ordinance around hospitals is particularly galling to Ferguson.
But Ald. Monique Scott (24th Ward) characterized those opposed to the fest as “activists.”
“Most of the people that spoke against Riot Fest, I have never seen in my community,” Scott said. “I am not an activist, I am a resident. I bleed Douglass Park. I bleed North Lawndale. It is my home. … We stand for a festival that gives us hope, that gives us opportunity.”
Commissioner Robert Castaneda, himself a Lawndale resident, said he has friends in the neighborhood on both sides of the issue.
“I definitely hear the side of the community who isn’t for it, because of the harm, the damage, it causes the park,” Castaneda said.
Opponents of Riot Fest rally outside Chicago Park District headquarters, Sept. 11, 2024. (Patty Wetli / WTTW News)
A month ago, the matter of community support appeared moot, as Riot Fest made the surprise decision back in June to decamp from Chicago and move to suburban Bridgeview’s SeatGeek Stadium.
Then came the announcement in August that Riot Fest intended to return to Douglass Park after all.
George Herrera, Riot Fest’s director of community relations, was in the hot seat as commissioners grilled him on the switcheroo.
“In June you decided to leave and of course we read about that in the paper,” said Modesto Valle, board vice president. “And so there was some disrespect there in terms of the board not being informed, in terms of staff not being informed. I wanted to understand, what changed between now and then?”
Herrera described a sense of frustration in June with what felt like constantly shifting goalposts, driven in part by “a small group of people” who continually challenged Riot Fest’s presence in Douglass Park.
“We felt like the process wasn’t fair to us. We wanted our voices to be heard, we wanted the community’s voices to be heard,” he said, adding that there was “that feeling of no matter what you do, it’s never good enough.”
Following the announcement of the move to Bridgeview, members of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s staff reached out to Riot Fest, Herrera said.
The mayor sat down with Riot Fest founder Mike Petryshyn to get a handle on the situation, a conversation that “allowed us to come back to the table,” Herrera said.
Though commissioners weren’t necessarily satisfied with Herrera’s responses, Scott’s support weighed heavily on their decision to approve the Riot Fest permit, as did assurances from Rosa Escareño, Park District CEO and general superintendent, that “difficult and tough” conversations had taken place behind the scenes in which “we’ve cleared a lot of the confusion.”
Commissioner Coya Paz Brownrigg made it known, however, that her “aye” vote was cast grudgingly.
“I was very surprised to find out that Riot Fest deciding to leave didn’t reset the process, but it didn’t,” she said. “I’ve been told over and over again that we have to follow the process as it exists currently for this vote, and Riot Fest has met all of the criteria for this process, for this vote.”
“I think I personally have questions about what it means to hold community meetings; what kind of metrics we’re looking for; what kind of environmental and economic impact we’re looking for, and who is evaluating that? Who is reporting that?” she continued. “Those are questions I will look forward to bringing to future conversations.”
Commissioners also shut down rumors of a new multiyear deal for Riot Fest. The permit approved on Wednesday is for 2024 only.
Contact Patty Wetli: @pattywetli | (773) 509-5623 | [email protected]
