A little rain didn't stop this year's Riot Fest

I have attended six Riot Fests across my lifetime and have been going yearly since 2022. It’s a festival that harbors plenty of great bands across its three-day weekend. 2026 panned out to be an exciting one with headliners like Twenty One Pilots, Tool, Alanis Morissette, & Pierce the Veil.

​Friday, Riot Fest went off without a hitch. The day started with Teen Mortgage, who played a good combo of their older and newer music. Energy within the crowd was already at full blast with pits and crowd surfing galore already taking place. Afterwards, I made my way over to the Radical Stage to catch Greet Death and refill my water bag. Greet Death sounded awesome and had a good crowd around them. The next larger set I stayed the whole time for was Philadelphia hardcore band Soul Glo.

Soul Glo had a raucous performance, not wasting any time throughout their set. They played many fan favorites while also performing their newest song “February Theory,” which is off of their upcoming album NA I’M GON GRAB ALLAT. The crowd was into the music the entire time. There were no breaks in the pits and no one was safe, with many elbows and kicks being thrown throughout. At the end of the set, I never felt more camaraderie than screaming “Who gon beat my ass?” with a crowd of people when the band closed their set with “Gold Chain Punk (whogonbeatmyass?).”

If there couldn’t be a bigger vibe switch-up, at the main stage was 3OH!3. It was quite the opposite from Soul Glo; instead of mosh pits and crowd killing, people were jumping and breaking it down. 3OH!3 played all the hits, but one of the standout aspects to their set were the visuals they had on the screens behind them. It was a great throwback to the 2000s and early 2010s graphics that you would see on MySpace and Facebook. Perfect fits for 3OH3! Hearing “DONTTRUSTME” live with the entire crowd screaming each lyric word for word was an ethereal experience that should be experienced even if you aren’t a fan of the band.

After a quick food break, I hung around the Roots Stage, which then hosted Chicago legends, Alkaline Trio. This was my first time seeing them with new drummer Tosh Peterson, and man, is he a good fit with the group. Alkaline Trio’s setlist was a good mix of the band’s greatest hits, but also some unexpected toss-ins as well. They did play “Oblivion” while hyping up the album that they have been working on with Blink-182’s Travis Barker, whilst also breaking out an oldie in “Snake Oil Tanker.” A song they haven’t played live since 2017. It was a great time with the Chicago crowd welcoming home Alkaline Trio with open arms.

Once Alkaline Trio was done, I made my way over to the Rise Stage to catch Sex Pistols feat. Frank Carter. They were originally supposed to play Riot Fest in 2025 but had to drop last minute due to guitarist Steve Jones suffering a wrist injury. They made up for that and then some this year with a ripping performance through many classic Sex Pistols songs. Frank Carter even went into the crowd during “Pretty Vacant” and “Bodies,” jumping to each side of the crowd in between songs.

There was an attempt afterwards to go catch The Pixies, but due to either where I was standing or just the mixing on the main stage being louder, they were drowned out by Chicago legends Rise Against. Their set was mixed full of hits from throughout their career, which got the crowd excited and pumped up. One of the cooler parts of their set was when singer Tim McIlrath talked

about other legendary Chicago bands that inspired them, like Naked Raygun and Pegboy, just to name a few.

Finally, to end Friday, you had the headliners of Twenty One Pilots. As someone who isn’t the biggest fan of Twenty One Pilots, I was beyond words of impressed with their performance. They treated the performance as they do every other one and made it as cinematic as possible, with drummer Josh Dunn climbing a tower that was taller than the stage to play drums for the tracks “Drum Show” and “RAWFEAR.” There wasn’t a dull moment of this set list as they didn’t take a whole lot of time to talk with the crowd and moved through their set. In the middle of coming back to the stage after standing on a platform in the crowd during the song “Ride,” singer Tyler Joseph brought up a security guard to sing the finale of the song with him. All in all, the security guard had some pipes on him. A few more songs later, including a cover of The White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army,” they did wrap up the first day of the festival.

Saturday started with a bang with Whispers, a hardcore band out of Thailand. I had never heard of this band before Riot Fest, but hearing them in the merch line, I was interested. If you like hardcore music, then you should check them out and listen to them. They are commanding and have a power in their music that just draws you in from a listener's perspective.

Once again going to the polar opposite, Yard Act was the next act of the day over at the Roots Stage. This was my second time seeing the band at Riot Fest, with my very first seeing them back at the Riot Stage in 2023. Even though they only played a six song set, the group broke out into plenty of jams at the end of their songs, adding some chaotic energy to their more chill songs. The energy of Yard Act was just as good this time around as it was three years ago. The setlist even included two new tracks off of their latest album You’re Gonna Need a Little Music. There were multiple people I was around during that set who had not seen Yard Act previously but said they would happily see them again.

When Yard Act wrapped up, I made my way to the Rebel Stage for the potential set of the day with The Chats. Now, it had already rained slightly the night before but not to the point where things were awful. When The Chats hit the stage, the crowd did not stop for a second. At some point during the set, either during “Ticket Inspector” or “6L GTR,” some members of the crowd got the bright idea to start chucking mud at each other. Getting hit in the eye by a bundle of mud and mulch wasn’t on the bingo card for the weekend, but it indeed happened. It was also a bad day to wear an all-white long-sleeved shirt. Due to some of their songs being on the shorter side, The Chats were able to fit in 14 songs spanning multiple different albums. Between the band ripping on stage and the crowd’s energy throughout the entire set, they left with many considering them their sets of the day.

After a lunch/dinner break, the bad news was broken by Less Than Jake at the Rise Stage that, due to impending weather, Riot Fest was going to be shutting down early that night. Things did turn into crunch time as many sets were condensed to fit into the new ending times. To make the most of things, I went back to the Rebel Stage to catch Thrice as they were about to take the stage earlier than anticipated. Halfway through, I left to return to the Rise Stage to catch the ending of PUP and book a spot for Gogol Bordello.

If you haven’t seen Gogol Bordello before, you should change that. From start to finish, it is a moshing dance party featuring instruments you would never expect at a punk show. Throughout the entire 40-minute set, you were shoulder to shoulder with the person next to you, making friends and partying in solidarity with Gogol Bordello. They did play songs off their latest record, We Mean It Man, while also playing fan favorites. The end of their set was ushered in by the popular song “Start Wearing Purple.” If the crowd wasn’t full of energy, they were now dancing, jumping, in mosh pits, and crowd surfers were everywhere all at once.

To end off the second day, Bad Religion played at the Rebel Stage later than they originally were intended to play. Not complaining by any means, as Bad Religion is one of those bands you could see a million times but still have a great time at their set. They didn’t let the impending ending of the festival drag them down as they played fan favorites and a few deep cuts from their discography. Heck, they actually got to play a little longer as the impending storms that caused the festival to end early in the first place never showed up to begin with. It was a bummer that the festival had to end early that day, but at least the day capped off with punk legends.

Between Saturday and Sunday night, Chicago was pummeled with thunderstorms that didn’t stop until the wee hours of the morning. This caused Riot Fest to push the opening of the gates to 2 PM to allow them to try and drain the water from the park, causing certain bands to lose their sets for the day.

Once the gates finally opened, the day kicked off at the Radical Stage for Murphy’s Law, who got the crowd going and pumped up in time for the following band, Haywire. Haywire was ultimately one of the better sets of the weekend, with everyone slipping and sliding in the mud pit while Haywire got the crowd to liven up if they weren’t already. The solidarity felt in that crowd was one of “screw the mud, we’re going to have a good time regardless.” If you weren’t moving in that crowd, that wasn’t going to last long. During “ALWAYS BY MY SIDE,” people were holding onto one another whether they knew each other or not. It was a solidarity that you could only find at a hardcore set.

After they ended, the Rise Stage was blessed with Kalamazoo’s own, Saturdays At Your Place. This is where the mud started to make its presence known in the day. Getting to the stage wasn’t the easiest task, but it was all worth it to hear Saturdays At Your Place. They had a good mix of high-energy songs and ones that you just wanted to dance and sway to. Songs from their older material but also songs off their latest album These Things Happen. Weirdly, hearing tracks like “pourover,” “what am I supposed to do?,” and “tarot cards” just felt right in the cloudy and rainy weather.

That day’s food break was blessed by Jejune, who provided a much-needed soundtrack to the day. This is where many started to notice how bad the mud was going to truly get, though; it was almost impossible to find a spot where your shoes didn’t sink into the pits. That didn’t stop Jejune from providing beautiful serenity to the crowd, once again matching the mood the weather provided.

After food, the decision then became: do we want to just park at the main stages for the rest of the day and limit shoe destruction, or just embrace the damage? Camping at the main stages became the move. Following another hike and a half through the mud, which was accompanied by The Format, my group and I parked in the back section of the Riot Stage and hung out there for acts like Taking Back Sunday and Alanis Morissette. The latter of which blew me away with her set. She didn’t let the potential misery the crowd might’ve felt from the rain, mud, and cold air stop her. Alanis put on one hell of a performance that set a great stage for the closers of that night.

Over on the Riot Stage, “El Rey” hit the loudspeakers signaling the arrival of Pierce the Veil, who have been having a phenomenal year, headlining shows and performing at many other festival stops before this. Time wasn’t wasted with them, because after “May These Noises Startle You in Your Sleep Tonight,” the band exploded into “Hell Above.” Amongst the other fan favorites that they performed, they even tossed in a cover of fellow festival performers, The Pixies’, “Where Is My Mind?” They slowed down their set with “Wonderless” off of 2007’s A Flair for the Dramatic. The slowdown didn’t last long, as the following song was the lead single from their latest album, The Jaws of Life, “Pass the Nirvana.” Frontman Vic Fuentes even commented on the band’s headlining status as it was their first time headlining Riot Fest, being extremely humble about the matter. The band’s set ended with the extremely popular “King For A Day,” capping off the entire weekend in a way only Pierce the Veil knows how.

​Even though the weekend didn’t pan out like planned. Shoes were sacrificed and days were shorter than intended, but it’s a weekend I wouldn’t take back. Plenty of great music, people, and vibes were had throughout all three days. It was a Riot Fest to remember, and I can’t wait for next year.