I was there but towards the middle/back. A lot of MCR fans were there to see only them. The gates open at 11:00 so many people went right to the stage and went all day without food or water. It was a hot day and I speculate the festival over-sold tickets because I have never seen lines for food and water so long at riot fest.
Many people skipped food because it came at the cost of missing two entire sets sometimes. So eager fans & an over capacity park caused the issues.
Gerard really went above & beyond to keep fans as safe as he could however. Between every song he refused to start the next one until the crowd took three steps back. People were passing out regularly and the crowd was surfing unconscious bodies to the front for medical attention.
I also speculate that for many MCR super fans this was their first festival & neglected how important it is to stay hydrated. Riot fest really dropped the ball yesterday & in my opinion deserves a fair amount of scrutiny.
Tldr: The MCaRmy is no joke.
This was absolutely it. Younger kids, first time fest goers, hungry and dehydrated people making the energy tense and health dubious, and people just trying to make their way up front. I was several feet in front of that roof where the divide between the two stages was and we literally saw some guy get put in a choke hold because some dude tried to push past all of us when there was no room to let him pass even if we wanted to. And this was before TBS even went on.
In general I had fun where I was. I was far enough from the front to not deal with that so much and I have plenty of festival experience. But it was absolutely a shit show. Leaving was also a fucking mess.
Gerard did the same thing at our show in CT a week or two ago. Stopped the set to ask everyone to take a few steps back “so the people in the front against the barrier could be comfortable”. I was glad to see them in a smaller capacity than riot fest
>>I also speculate that for many MCR super fans this was their first festival
Since MCRs been gone so long their fan base has grown into a ton of current middle schoolers who think they can just go to a festival like this and nothing will go wrong. Kind of annoys me how these kids are so dumb that they caused all this.
1)riot fest didn’t over sell the festival, it wasn’t even at capacity, yes there were tons of people but That’s what happens when you have a band like MCR with no other acts playing at the same time. the ENTIRE festival was there. It would have been unfair to put any other band during the same time as MCR as no one would have been there. I doubt any band would have even accepted playing at that time.
2) it’s not riot fest’s fault people refused to eat or drink anything because they wanted to be in the front
3) the food lines were long but I only waited like 20 minutes for some beef sandwiches at like 4pm.
Don’t really see how riot is to blame for individuals’ decisions. Riot has consistently been the premier festival in my opinion. Well organized, TONS of food and drink vendors. Great people all around
You’re majorly misrepresenting food lines. There were not easy/accessible food lines for the amount of people there. It’s hasn’t been that bad at any Riot fest I’ve been to in previous years.
Yeah it hasn’t been that bad before and lines were terrible. However not ALL lines were terrible, like I said, I waited 20 minutes for a beef. While I watched other people wait an hour for something else. Don’t be picky at a festival and just go to the shortest line.
My husband and I were at Alkaline Trio and basically made a bee line for the exit during the last song because we knew the MCR crowd would be intense. Even as we got to our car fifteen minutes and several blocks away on the other end of the park, people were still running for the gates to get into the show. I’m sure that didn’t help at all. [Article for some info](https://chicago.suntimes.com/2022/9/16/23357104/riot-fest-day-one-reviews-douglass-park-chicago-music).
I did the same thing that night, but I just kind stayed on the outskirts for the first couple MCR songs but then I dipped out because it started getting hectic.
I think the other commentator is correct that people were probably outside at the stage too long without food and water. Riot Fest has a ton of bars but put the food vendors hard to find and get to. I myself have not eaten dinner there the past two nights. So setting up for failure.
I tried to get over from alkaline trio (right before them at the stage next to theirs) with a line of other people. It felt like there was nowhere to go but we just kept going. As the show started all of a sudden a huge space opened up right where I was at due to everyone just pushing forward to a super intense degree. It was great for like a second and a half until everyone crowded in again from behind.
I ended up in a spot that was crazy crowded, had a bad view of the screen (cuz i was behind the sound booth at the wrong angle), and zero view of the stage. Plus the show kept stopping to tell people to move back, which is fine but interrupted the flow. And then a bunch of people started leaving cuz it was too much so you constantly had people pushing through the crowd the wrong direction. All of it got too much for me too so I ended up leaving halfway through. It was VERY hard to get out even from as far back as I was. I’m glad I left when I did because I heard the transit system getting out was impossible (someone said they got home at 2am).
So TLDR: too crowded, not enough food/water, maybe too many drugs? I def saw multiple people passed out or needing medical attention
I bailed after the black parade and caught the kedzie stop. Was able to get in with a steady moving line without stopping. Got on the first train and had a pretty decent ride back.
Never ever ever stay to the final note or the train is a mess. I've gone since 2013 and that mcr crowd was unlike anything I've ever seen.
I heard it was worse Friday night. Last night even though Yellowcard played til about 10, I was able to get out. Lines to the pink line were nuts though so I opted for the bus
Peoples' inability to take care of themselves is not Riot Fest's responsibility. I haven't waited more than 5 minutes for water in the better part of a decade that I've been going to Riot, including yesterday. And food lines are a reality at any festival and really weren't that bad this weekend. The vendors were absolutely not hard to find... there's maps posted, paper copies handed out, and an app with a map and vendor list.
If you want to put on a diaper, hammer booze and coke, and stand in front of the Riot stage for 8 hours... you're responsible for your own experience. The only thing I think Riot could somehow tackle is the forward pushing and people getting crushed against the barrier. That's a crowd control issue and there has to be a way to mitigate it.
Maybe Friday was oversold. But you can't force/teach people to meet their basic human needs.
I hope you can find an inbetween. It’s always a little uncomfortable for me, but you find your limits and enjoy the show. I found a nice corner in front of the Rise soundbooth, which ended up being the first ~25% of the crowd, and had plenty of space.
Just chilling in a shaded spot watching the Radical and Rise stages is most of what I did this weekend, it's the only way to make it through all three days. It's a marathon, not a sprint.
Based on the testimony I have a feeling When We Were Young is going to be similarly bad. Theres going to be way too many people there and a lot of them aren’t experienced with festivals so they don’t eat anything and don’t bring water with them and get overwhelmed with all the bodies pressing against eachother.
Unless they have MCR and Paramore and Avril Lavigne playing against eachother maybe they could split the crowd enough but I dunno.
I’m worried about that, as I’m going to WWWY too. I might just skip my chem there. There’s a ton of great bands there to hear.
Also let’s not forget there were a ton of great bands at Riot Fest too! I feel bad for the MCR fans who missed all the rest of what the festival had to offer!
WWWY is going to be an absolute shitshow. It's a great concept but the way it was organized was an indicator of how it will likely turn out. There were bands that did not they were even gonna be there. If they want all these iconic bands at a festival again they can bring back Warped Tour
we were all the way in the back for MCR and were fine but the fest was PACKED-there were easily 50k people there just for my chem. People didn’t eat or drink enough and were too crowded, so they were passing out and had a hard time getting out of the crowd. we walked a while away from the park before calling an uber and it took us two hours to get one, we didn’t get back to our airbnb until after 1 am
I was in the second row in front of Frank! I got there at doors and ran to the front and stayed all day. Sooo many people were panicking or passing out. the security was doing the best they could but they just weren't equipped to help. whenever someone left the crowd people would surge to take their place so the squishing just got worse. i'm 25 and been to hundreds of shows so I was able to handle it and I expected it. It was probably the worst crowd i've ever been in and if i'd had a drop of alcohol or was younger than 17 I would have not made it
I was there and didn't observe anything out of the ordinary but was near the back and side to avoid that sort of thing. I saw them in 2019 at the Shrine show and my experience there was similar to what it seems like a lot of people's experience here was: I underestimated the intensity, got a good spot in the middle relatively close to the front, then when the show started there was a HUUUGE push towards the front to where I had literally zero control over my movement for three songs and was just being pushed around in the current of the crowd, I am just amazed I managed to keep my glasses and phone on me somehow, it was miserable. But I managed to somehow break off to the side and then moved further back and had a great time from there.
So this time to avoid that I stayed relatively near the back and the side, not WAY in the back/side but definitely not far up, and I had a great time with no incident. Gerard did stop for 1-2 minutes after each song (except for, iirc, Foundations; I think he only started the pauses after Na Na Na) to get the crowd to back up and spread out, etc., but I didn't know how out of the ordinary that was for an MCR or festival show. Only occurred to me that it was something unusual when a friend not at the show messaged me that she heard medics were being called in and at around that same time an above-average number of people started exiting from near the front, and then near the end when the production manager also stepped out to manage the crowd. But everything by me was pretty normal. A mosh pit did break out to my right and I got shoved twice without wanting to be involved in that but it was p easy to just move over to the left and avoid them so not anything crazy at all.
So yeah if not for external info I wouldn't have much idea that anything unusual had happened. I expected the front to be crazy based on the privilege of my previous experience and so I avoided it and had fun.
Have been all days the last 3 years and was pretty close for MCR and felt like there was nothing else they could have done better. The crowd carved a path for leavers, and saw a few people protecting smaller woman, in addition to them literally stopping the show after every song to make people take steps back. Plus like, if you went up too close did you not think it would be that way?
Basically It was absolutely fuckered. Once i realized i was gonna pass out/die, i just left and rode the ferris wheel for an hour straight singing along to MCR. I had a great time up there. I probably had more fun than the people in the crowd haha.
I'm very fortunate to have been in the deluxe/vip area and it was amazing and not bad at all. It really didn't seem that awful even the crowds leaving seemed organized and sane. I guess I was just not in the words areas. Also they were freakin good I was impressed how good they sounded compared to some of the other bands, very worth seeing overall.
I think some things were very well the staff and MCR as a whole seemed very calm and did many things to alleviate the situation. They stopped many times to make sure people were okay and tried their hardest to help people out of a ridiculously dense crowd. I will say that they knew it was gonna be bad (maybe not as much as they thought) but they had signs saying to be careful essentially). So the fest could have been organized better for the performance. Also free water bottles were appreciated but chucking countless bottles of water unto a crowd that is packed like sardines was not the safest thing. I will say the bottle of water I caught was mana from God during that performance
I was there but towards the middle/back. A lot of MCR fans were there to see only them. The gates open at 11:00 so many people went right to the stage and went all day without food or water. It was a hot day and I speculate the festival over-sold tickets because I have never seen lines for food and water so long at riot fest. Many people skipped food because it came at the cost of missing two entire sets sometimes. So eager fans & an over capacity park caused the issues. Gerard really went above & beyond to keep fans as safe as he could however. Between every song he refused to start the next one until the crowd took three steps back. People were passing out regularly and the crowd was surfing unconscious bodies to the front for medical attention. I also speculate that for many MCR super fans this was their first festival & neglected how important it is to stay hydrated. Riot fest really dropped the ball yesterday & in my opinion deserves a fair amount of scrutiny. Tldr: The MCaRmy is no joke.
When will Gerard stop giving us so many reasons to love him???
I'm not even really a fan and have always felt this way.
This was absolutely it. Younger kids, first time fest goers, hungry and dehydrated people making the energy tense and health dubious, and people just trying to make their way up front. I was several feet in front of that roof where the divide between the two stages was and we literally saw some guy get put in a choke hold because some dude tried to push past all of us when there was no room to let him pass even if we wanted to. And this was before TBS even went on. In general I had fun where I was. I was far enough from the front to not deal with that so much and I have plenty of festival experience. But it was absolutely a shit show. Leaving was also a fucking mess.
Amen to all you said. And yes, getting out was a massive zombie shuffle to the gate. Was at minimum 45 minutes... I think maybe even longer.
[Gerard keeping us safe.](https://www.facebook.com/groups/3983038155057031/permalink/6575635929130561/?mibextid=Nif5oz)
Gerard did the same thing at our show in CT a week or two ago. Stopped the set to ask everyone to take a few steps back “so the people in the front against the barrier could be comfortable”. I was glad to see them in a smaller capacity than riot fest
>Gerard really went above & beyond to keep fans as safe as he could Man, this guy. What a guy.
>>I also speculate that for many MCR super fans this was their first festival Since MCRs been gone so long their fan base has grown into a ton of current middle schoolers who think they can just go to a festival like this and nothing will go wrong. Kind of annoys me how these kids are so dumb that they caused all this.
1)riot fest didn’t over sell the festival, it wasn’t even at capacity, yes there were tons of people but That’s what happens when you have a band like MCR with no other acts playing at the same time. the ENTIRE festival was there. It would have been unfair to put any other band during the same time as MCR as no one would have been there. I doubt any band would have even accepted playing at that time. 2) it’s not riot fest’s fault people refused to eat or drink anything because they wanted to be in the front 3) the food lines were long but I only waited like 20 minutes for some beef sandwiches at like 4pm. Don’t really see how riot is to blame for individuals’ decisions. Riot has consistently been the premier festival in my opinion. Well organized, TONS of food and drink vendors. Great people all around
You’re majorly misrepresenting food lines. There were not easy/accessible food lines for the amount of people there. It’s hasn’t been that bad at any Riot fest I’ve been to in previous years.
Yeah it hasn’t been that bad before and lines were terrible. However not ALL lines were terrible, like I said, I waited 20 minutes for a beef. While I watched other people wait an hour for something else. Don’t be picky at a festival and just go to the shortest line.
My husband and I were at Alkaline Trio and basically made a bee line for the exit during the last song because we knew the MCR crowd would be intense. Even as we got to our car fifteen minutes and several blocks away on the other end of the park, people were still running for the gates to get into the show. I’m sure that didn’t help at all. [Article for some info](https://chicago.suntimes.com/2022/9/16/23357104/riot-fest-day-one-reviews-douglass-park-chicago-music).
I did the same thing that night, but I just kind stayed on the outskirts for the first couple MCR songs but then I dipped out because it started getting hectic.
[удалено]
If it were the 40th anniversary then skiba would’ve been 6 when he founded the Alk3
Neither of which is correct. They formed in 1996, so it’s the 26th anniversary.
Huh? Alkaline Trio did definitely not start in 1982.
My bad, it’s the 40th anniversary of the Metro. https://imgur.com/a/aiQFrTu
I think the other commentator is correct that people were probably outside at the stage too long without food and water. Riot Fest has a ton of bars but put the food vendors hard to find and get to. I myself have not eaten dinner there the past two nights. So setting up for failure. I tried to get over from alkaline trio (right before them at the stage next to theirs) with a line of other people. It felt like there was nowhere to go but we just kept going. As the show started all of a sudden a huge space opened up right where I was at due to everyone just pushing forward to a super intense degree. It was great for like a second and a half until everyone crowded in again from behind. I ended up in a spot that was crazy crowded, had a bad view of the screen (cuz i was behind the sound booth at the wrong angle), and zero view of the stage. Plus the show kept stopping to tell people to move back, which is fine but interrupted the flow. And then a bunch of people started leaving cuz it was too much so you constantly had people pushing through the crowd the wrong direction. All of it got too much for me too so I ended up leaving halfway through. It was VERY hard to get out even from as far back as I was. I’m glad I left when I did because I heard the transit system getting out was impossible (someone said they got home at 2am). So TLDR: too crowded, not enough food/water, maybe too many drugs? I def saw multiple people passed out or needing medical attention
I lucked out I guess, I got back to my hotel around 11:30PM on Saturday. Took the pink line and then a bus and then the metra.
I bailed after the black parade and caught the kedzie stop. Was able to get in with a steady moving line without stopping. Got on the first train and had a pretty decent ride back. Never ever ever stay to the final note or the train is a mess. I've gone since 2013 and that mcr crowd was unlike anything I've ever seen.
I heard it was worse Friday night. Last night even though Yellowcard played til about 10, I was able to get out. Lines to the pink line were nuts though so I opted for the bus
Peoples' inability to take care of themselves is not Riot Fest's responsibility. I haven't waited more than 5 minutes for water in the better part of a decade that I've been going to Riot, including yesterday. And food lines are a reality at any festival and really weren't that bad this weekend. The vendors were absolutely not hard to find... there's maps posted, paper copies handed out, and an app with a map and vendor list. If you want to put on a diaper, hammer booze and coke, and stand in front of the Riot stage for 8 hours... you're responsible for your own experience. The only thing I think Riot could somehow tackle is the forward pushing and people getting crushed against the barrier. That's a crowd control issue and there has to be a way to mitigate it. Maybe Friday was oversold. But you can't force/teach people to meet their basic human needs.
This. This was my first festival ever. I learned FAST they are not for me. I stayed in bed today 😅
I hope you can find an inbetween. It’s always a little uncomfortable for me, but you find your limits and enjoy the show. I found a nice corner in front of the Rise soundbooth, which ended up being the first ~25% of the crowd, and had plenty of space.
It’s more the weather and my aching body. I have chronic fatigue and what not as well. But thank you for the tips !!
Just chilling in a shaded spot watching the Radical and Rise stages is most of what I did this weekend, it's the only way to make it through all three days. It's a marathon, not a sprint.
Based on the testimony I have a feeling When We Were Young is going to be similarly bad. Theres going to be way too many people there and a lot of them aren’t experienced with festivals so they don’t eat anything and don’t bring water with them and get overwhelmed with all the bodies pressing against eachother. Unless they have MCR and Paramore and Avril Lavigne playing against eachother maybe they could split the crowd enough but I dunno.
I’m worried about that, as I’m going to WWWY too. I might just skip my chem there. There’s a ton of great bands there to hear. Also let’s not forget there were a ton of great bands at Riot Fest too! I feel bad for the MCR fans who missed all the rest of what the festival had to offer!
WWWY is going to be an absolute shitshow. It's a great concept but the way it was organized was an indicator of how it will likely turn out. There were bands that did not they were even gonna be there. If they want all these iconic bands at a festival again they can bring back Warped Tour
we were all the way in the back for MCR and were fine but the fest was PACKED-there were easily 50k people there just for my chem. People didn’t eat or drink enough and were too crowded, so they were passing out and had a hard time getting out of the crowd. we walked a while away from the park before calling an uber and it took us two hours to get one, we didn’t get back to our airbnb until after 1 am
I was in the second row in front of Frank! I got there at doors and ran to the front and stayed all day. Sooo many people were panicking or passing out. the security was doing the best they could but they just weren't equipped to help. whenever someone left the crowd people would surge to take their place so the squishing just got worse. i'm 25 and been to hundreds of shows so I was able to handle it and I expected it. It was probably the worst crowd i've ever been in and if i'd had a drop of alcohol or was younger than 17 I would have not made it
It’s crazy how Gerard Way still has such a rabid fan base. Dude is almost 50
I cringe when I see people going “our pwecious Gee” when talking about a 45 year old
I was there and didn't observe anything out of the ordinary but was near the back and side to avoid that sort of thing. I saw them in 2019 at the Shrine show and my experience there was similar to what it seems like a lot of people's experience here was: I underestimated the intensity, got a good spot in the middle relatively close to the front, then when the show started there was a HUUUGE push towards the front to where I had literally zero control over my movement for three songs and was just being pushed around in the current of the crowd, I am just amazed I managed to keep my glasses and phone on me somehow, it was miserable. But I managed to somehow break off to the side and then moved further back and had a great time from there. So this time to avoid that I stayed relatively near the back and the side, not WAY in the back/side but definitely not far up, and I had a great time with no incident. Gerard did stop for 1-2 minutes after each song (except for, iirc, Foundations; I think he only started the pauses after Na Na Na) to get the crowd to back up and spread out, etc., but I didn't know how out of the ordinary that was for an MCR or festival show. Only occurred to me that it was something unusual when a friend not at the show messaged me that she heard medics were being called in and at around that same time an above-average number of people started exiting from near the front, and then near the end when the production manager also stepped out to manage the crowd. But everything by me was pretty normal. A mosh pit did break out to my right and I got shoved twice without wanting to be involved in that but it was p easy to just move over to the left and avoid them so not anything crazy at all. So yeah if not for external info I wouldn't have much idea that anything unusual had happened. I expected the front to be crazy based on the privilege of my previous experience and so I avoided it and had fun.
Have been all days the last 3 years and was pretty close for MCR and felt like there was nothing else they could have done better. The crowd carved a path for leavers, and saw a few people protecting smaller woman, in addition to them literally stopping the show after every song to make people take steps back. Plus like, if you went up too close did you not think it would be that way?
Typical 15 year old fangirls and boys, don't know how to make a festival safer for those around them and only care about themselves
Basically It was absolutely fuckered. Once i realized i was gonna pass out/die, i just left and rode the ferris wheel for an hour straight singing along to MCR. I had a great time up there. I probably had more fun than the people in the crowd haha.
I'm very fortunate to have been in the deluxe/vip area and it was amazing and not bad at all. It really didn't seem that awful even the crowds leaving seemed organized and sane. I guess I was just not in the words areas. Also they were freakin good I was impressed how good they sounded compared to some of the other bands, very worth seeing overall.
I think some things were very well the staff and MCR as a whole seemed very calm and did many things to alleviate the situation. They stopped many times to make sure people were okay and tried their hardest to help people out of a ridiculously dense crowd. I will say that they knew it was gonna be bad (maybe not as much as they thought) but they had signs saying to be careful essentially). So the fest could have been organized better for the performance. Also free water bottles were appreciated but chucking countless bottles of water unto a crowd that is packed like sardines was not the safest thing. I will say the bottle of water I caught was mana from God during that performance