Final week, Coachella dropped its 2025 lineup and, unsurprisingly, it sparked fairly a little bit of discourse. Echoing sentiments lobbed at Lollapalooza in earlier years, many felt like Coachella’s three pop star headliners marked a shift away from the competition’s different roots. Fortunately, there’s a competition within the Windy Metropolis that has dug its toes into the bottom, remained unbiased, and saved the ethos of its founding days intact: Riot Fest.
The punk-leaning occasion celebrated its twentieth anniversary this previous weekend at Douglass Park in Chicago, boasting a pop punk holy trinity of headliners in Blink-182, Weezer, and Inexperienced Day, in addition to a formidable undercard consisting of each scene veterans and thrilling newbies. The entire shebang was definitely grander in scale than Riot Fest’s earliest editions, however its spunky core stays — RIOT FEST SUCKS, as they are saying. Acts like The Effigies, Alkaline Trio, Smoking Popes, Unhealthy Faith, and a bunch of others had been even ripped proper from lineups of Riot Fest’s previous; say what you need about punk rockers, but when Riot Fest has confirmed something over the previous twenty years, it’s that they’re remarkably constant.
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With a deep lineup, an eternal spirit of rebel, and the ultimate payoff for years of John Stamos jokes, this 12 months’s version was a celebration to be happy with. Higher but, it was a celebration that was rattling enjoyable to participate in.
For these seeking to relive the three days of festivities, or who missed out on the entire hoopla, right here’s every part that went down at Riot Fest 2025 (plus, scroll on for a photograph gallery of motion pictures).