Celebrating its 20-year anniversary, Chicago’s annual punk rock music festival, Riot Fest, returned to Douglass Park on September 19th through September 21st, 2025 with hardcore music and guaranteed mosh pits. Headlined by Blink-182 (Friday), Weezer (Saturday), and Green Day (Sunday), this three-day event brings together a unique population of music fans. You’ll see families excited to share their love of music with their young kids singing along to Blink-182’s “All The Small Things” next to a fully tattooed, Liberty spiked emo couple.
Musical festivals are known to bring people together simply for the love of music but, in today’s political climate, this year’s Riot Fest had a different undertone to it. Finding a community we belong to is one of the hardest parts of being human. Riot Fest, however, seemed to make that process effortless. Despite what was going on beyond the gates of Douglass Park, festival-goers were buzzing with excitement from sun up and past sundown all three days.
In addition to the star-studded headliners, the daily line ups were filled with incredible acts. Artists like Rico Nasty and Rilo Kiley brought unique sets to accompany the many punk rock musicians Riot Fest is known to host. Other artists, like GWAR and Green Day, used their time on stage to share their political views. GWAR openly beheaded an “Elon Musk” figure and disemboweled a “Donald Trump” actor, which garnered a lot of attention — both positive and negative — from online viewers. Green Day changed the lyrics of their hit song, “American Idiot,” to ‘I'm not a part of a MAGA agenda.’ On the flip side, a band called Screeching Weasel, stood up for our country’s first amendment right to free speech while also kicking a man out of their crowd for flipping the lead singer off.
The popular theme for many acts this year were album plays, where artists would play through the entirety of a specific album during their stage time, along with hits fans are always excited to see. Weezer played their 1994 album, Weezer, more commonly known as their Blue Album. The Front Bottoms celebrated the ten-year anniversary of their LP, Back On Top, along with hits like “Tighten Up,” “Joanie,” “Outlook,” and “Twin Sized Mattress” to close out their set. Further, fans were treated to The Academy Is…’s Almost Here, Knuckle Puck’s Copacetic, Bad Religion’s Suffer, and The Ataris’ So Long, Astoria. The concept of album plays received mixed reviews amongst fans in-person and online. While some were excited to hear their favorite LPs played in their entirety, others mentioned how they were missing out on the large discographies some artists have.
The most memorable moment of the entire weekend was the surprise appearance of John Stamos. For years, Stamos has been a staple on the Riot festival grounds, albeit in “butter form.” Yes, there is a literal butter (well, plastic) statue of John Stamos in the middle of RiotLand. In order for Stamos to appear, he approached the festival organizers with a list of demands. For example, there needed to be a John Stamos look-alike contest scheduled, a special Riot Fest x John Stamos t-shirt needed to be designed, John Stamos masks needed to be printed and distributed for fans to wear, and no one was allowed to make eye contact with John Stamos’ hair, among many other requests. Whether all of his demands were met or not, Stamos made his official Riot Fest debut as the drummer of The Beach Boys. He shared his thanks for Riot’s love for him and noted how excited he was to finally grace the Riot Fest stage.
Even though I wouldn’t call Riot Fest’s hardcore, punk rock genre my typical type of music, the three-day festival was a great way to spend a long weekend. While Riot does bring together a certain type of music lovers, there were still acts scheduled that anyone could find themself enjoying. Along with this, Riot provides an array of activities for fans to experience, like a small vendor and antique market to peruse, festival rides to enjoy, and a variety of food and drink vendors to try out each day. If you haven’t been to Riot Fest before, it is definitely a must-visit Midwest festival to experience at least once in your life.
Riot Fest has already announced their dates for next year, noting they will return to Chicago from September 18th — 20th, 2026. In recent years, Riot Fest’s return to Douglass Park has stirred up a lot of controversy from the neighborhood it occupies. Nestled in the middle of an already tightly packed community, residents despise the crowds and noise that the festival brings before, during, and after their three-day stay. Organizers have tried moving the festival grounds to a new location before ultimately returning to Douglass Park, so it is unclear what future years may bring. Regardless of where Riot Fest lands next year or beyond, we highly recommend checking out all it has to offer!
Words and photos by Isabel Dowell
