Riot Fest – a punk shindig so alluring that even boring Pink Floyd fans like me yearn to go!
There’s a reason why every festival lineup looks essentially the same these days.
It’s because most festivals are booked by the same handful of promoters.
In America, Live Nation and AEG seem to run the show. The latter controls Coachella, which is presumably why the organisers now obsess over social media metrics when compiling their lineups. Why make memories when you can make money?
Once such titanic promoters get involved, your beloved festival will quickly start to look and feel different. At first, the bland lineups will simply leave you feeling alienated and dispirited. But eventually it will feel like they’re sending a clear message: That you are not invited, and that you are certainly not welcome. Dare to attend and you will feel like an interloping pervert among the influencers, an unsightly human stain lurking in the background of their perfect selfies.
But some festivals manage to retain their independence. And when they retain their independence, they retain their dignity and identity. They still feel like something or somewhere, rather than just another fatberg glistening in a turgid river of grey sludge.
Yes, I am getting old.
Chicago’s Riot Fest is such an independent festival. Every year my brother and I send pictures of the lineup to each other, usually accompanied with such words as “Jesus Christ” or “for God’s sake”. It always looks good, you see. They always manage to put something special together.
