20th Annual Riot Fest Was As ‘Crazy as it sounds’

Colorful crowds — including a horde of hatted wizards, a crowd-surfing Pee-Wee Herman and two Jesus’ brawling in a mosh pit — streamed into Douglass Park Sept. 19-21 for the 20th annual Riot Fest. 

With over 90 acts spanning punk, rock, rap and pop, the music festival celebrated its anniversary with style. Tens of thousands of attendees found their way to artists large and small — moshing, crowd surfing and singing along, rain or shine. 

Headliners included Friday’s Blink-182, whose fast and rhythmic set was an outlet for repressed teenage angst. Saturday featured cosmic rock band Weezer, whose electrifying performance was backdropped by alien stage decorations. Pop-punk band Green Day ended the festival on Sunday with a politically conscious and melodic set. 

Friday, Sept. 19

Kicking off the festival on “Weird Al” Yankovic’s Weird World stage, Japanese pop-punk band Shonen Knife performed songs across their discography, including “Buttercup (I’m a Super Girl)” and “Vamos Taquitos.”

LA-based metal parody band Mac Sabbath performed on the “Weird Al” stage. The band “born from the bowels of outer space” performs covers of Black Sabbath songs while dressed as parodies of McDonaldland characters “to warn you about the evils of the drive-thru dinner.” 

Chicago comedian Emo Philips performed as emcee, giving “achingly-intense” three minute sets prior to most acts on the “Weird Al” stage. 

“Cellphones are like a dog’s nipples,” said Philips, “You don’t have to shout into them.”

The final performance on stage was the man himself, Weird Al. The crowd included several people dressed up as Yankovic, singing along to songs like “White & Nerdy” and “Amish Paradise.”

The artist performed his legendary parodies with outfit changes between a majority of the songs, the screen onstage showing various music videos and clips of Yankovic over his storied career during the quick changes.

Blink-182 headlined on the Riot stage Friday with their usual cursing-filled banter and whiny pop-punk vocals. 

In the middle of their set, the band pulled out Matt Skiba, their former vocalist and guitarist and the co-lead vocalist of Alkaline Trio to sing and play guitar for “Bored to Death.” 

This wasn’t the end of the band pulling out music legends. Towards the end of their set, they invited guitarist for Descendents and ALL, Stephen Egerton, on stage.

“There’s many, many punk rock bands we grew up on, but there is one band that the three of us would die for, that put Blink together,” Blink-182 lead singer and guitarist Tom DeLonge said. “That band was the Descendents.”

Saturday, Sept. 20

Riot festers started off Saturday with a notification from the Riot Fest app posing the question “Who else had to sit down in the shower this morning?” and a plea of “but seriously please take a shower some of y’all fucking stink.”

The weather provided some natural showers, with intermittent rain throughout the second day of the festival. Despite the rain, Riot festers showed up in droves, ready to do it all again. 

Heavy metal band GWAR, known for their elaborate and grotesque costumes, bloodied the eager crowd on the Rebel stage with the fake blood of controversial figures Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump and Elon Musk.

Later in the evening, heavy rain hit the park. In spite of the weather, riot festers had more than enough energy for the Beach Boys, who performed with actor John Stamos. 

The festival’s organizers have tried since 2013 to get Stamos to perform at the festival, with a tirade of online harassment, adoration and several butter statues. To earn his attendance, the organizers had to follow a list of commands from Stamos, including Mike “Riot Mike” Petryshyn getting a tattoo of Stamos’ name and the “Riot Fest Twitter Person” giving Stamos a foot massage. 

Saturday’s headliner was Weezer, performing a full run-through of their 1994 self-titled album.

Closing the album and the night, “Only in Dreams” is a nearly eight minute ballad to the girl that got away. 

Sunday, Sept 21

Performing under Sunday’s burning sun, The Linda Lindas took the stage with mounting anticipation. The youngest member being 15 and the oldest 21, the band sang about the life of a teenage girl in the 21st century. 

Starting off strong with their song “No Obligation,” The Linda Lindas have a self-appointed “Pit Crew” that waves a flag around the pit and encourages moshing and a fresh sound to inspire their young fanbase. 

The group ended their set with “Racist, Sexist Boy,” written in 2021 and performed at the LA Library, which helped kickstart the band’s online virality. 

“We will never give in,” bassist Eloise Wong yelled. “We will never give in to the racist, sexist boys.” 

Pop band Hanson performed on the Rebel stage 40 minutes late due to “technical difficulties.” To many festival goers, the inclusion of Hanson in Riot Fest was unprecedented due to their genre and racist and homophobic online rhetoric. 

The one-hit-wonder band Hanson brought out Stamos to perform their iconic song “MMMBop” and covered the Descendents song “Hope” with Egerton playing guitar. While the inclusion of Stamos was enjoyable, many were bewildered that Hanson covered “Hope” two days after headliner Blink-182 covered the same song. 

Across the park at the Roots stage, punk band Bad Religion performed their 1988 album “Suffer” to an eager crowd.

Headliner Green Day opened with “American Idiot,” their most popular song. The band changed the lyric “I’m not part of a redneck agenda” to “I’m not part of a MAGA agenda,” a change they have done frequently since the start of President Trump’s second term. 

“Now is the most important time to speak your mind,” lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong yelled mid-song. 

During “Know Your Enemy,” Armstrong chose a young fan named Argyle to sing the bridge of the song. The teen appeared star-struck, giving Armstrong a hug after the bridge.  

The night ended with “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” played by Armstrong on acoustic guitar. He elongated the song by singing parts of Frank Sinatra’s “Chicago” going over the band’s set time to bid farewell to the festival.