Riot Fest 2026 kicked off Friday in Chicago’s Douglass Park with a big cross-generational mix, featuring flagship bands of elder Gen X and younger groups beloved by Gen Z fighting for prime time spots.
Even for the independent festival, this year’s lineup offered an interesting assortment — which is saying something. This year, Riot Fest is the only place you’ll see Patti Smith and Insane Clown Posse in the same weekend. Friday’s lineup featured punk legend Iggy Pop up against the night’s ultimate headliners, Twenty One Pilots. The latter’s Skeleton Clique fans were seen lining up as early as 5 a.m., many of them admittedly first-timers to the annual end-of-summer fest.
Organizers of Riot Fest prepared for this, with a “first-timers guide” on its website, laying out the proverbial welcome mat for the newbies who were anticipated to make up a good portion of the estimated 50,000 attendees each day.
Some of the big draws were expected to be Violet Grohl (daughter of Riot Fest veteran Dave Grohl) who brings a well-informed mix of ‘90s alternative lore as well as the Sex Pistols, who could stage a reunion with original singer Johnny Rotten ahead of his band Public Image Ltd. appearing Saturday.
Planned, too, was a solid showing of Chicago punk elites on Day 1 with sets from Alkaline Trio and Rise Against. Another local highlight will be beloved WGN weatherman Tom Skilling coming out of retirement to deliver live forecasts both Friday and Saturday night, ahead of some predicted heavy storms and rainfall the rest of the weekend.
With weather a potential factor in weekend activities, Riot Fest organizers encouraged fans to download the official Riot Fest app for up-to-the-minute updates. A spokesperson said the festival had identified the nearby Cinespace as a safe zone if the festival needs to evacuate due to weather.
Speaking to the crowd Friday as part of “live weather reports,” former WGN weatherman Tom Skilling tried to keep spirits high for anyone who has seen actual forecasts for the weekend. “I am going to try to keep the rain away but I can’t control it. It’ll probably rain later tonight and tomorrow morning,” Skilling said. “But who cares? We’ll deal with it. It’s Chicago.”
Read on for reviews of some of Friday’s standout sets.
VIOLET GROHL
It wouldn’t be shocking to find out that Grohl is a time traveler. At just 20 years old, the singer (and daughter of Dave Grohl) brought a total ‘90s mood board to Riot Fest, owning her place in a lineup that also features the Pixies and Alanis Morissette.
It was the same Thursday opening up for Sugar at Metro. With familiar thrifted vintage fashion, the era’s pencil-thin eyebrows hallmark and a well-informed musical palette that harks back to the days of Mazzy Star, PJ Harvey, the Breeders and Juliana Hatfield, Grohl’s recreation of the epoch is uncanny. And not just because of her famous last name. Her short 25-minute set was full of enough intrepid songwriting material from her debut album, “Be Sweet to Me,” to silence any nepo baby conversation.
In particular, Grohl shone on the moody “Applefish” and through the sonic assaults of “Often Others” and the unreleased “Sun Is Blind.” The only reminders of her famous roots are her guitarist Salar Rajabnik, who is also a guitar tech for the Foo Fighters, and the way the young talent comes off like she’s still stuck in Foos backup singer mode with a demure stage presence. Give her some time though, and Violet could be the Grohl the rock world starts talking about.
THE PARADOX
Billie Joe Armstrong and blink-182 were right about the Paradox. The young Atlanta band has been the talk of tastemakers the last couple of years, recognized for carrying the pop punk torch for a new generation. Within just a few minutes at Riot Fest, it was easy to see why. The four-piece came packing infectious energy in punchy songs like early hit “Get the Message” and the brand-new number “That’s Not Fair” (played live for just the second time).
The youthful banter between singers/guitarists Eric Dangerfield and Christopher “Xelan” Bernard also took on a familiar Mark Hoppus-Tom DeLonge rhythm. In between songs, the two traded barbs about getting drunk and partying, enjoying Illinois’ recreational marijuana laws and introducing their own songs about being hot for teacher (“Ms. Lauren”). Other times, they were leading the crowd into a loud sing-along of Fall Out Boy’s “Chicago Is So Two Years Ago.”
It’s been a wild two years for the Paradox, too — since forming in 2024, Green Day personally invited the four-piece to open a stadium show and contribute to its “Nimrods” film while Travis Barker guested on “Bender.” Just a year ago, the group had an opening slot at Riot Fest, but by Friday, they had graduated to a later set that brought in a larger crowd.
Dangerfield recognized fans wearing Paradox T-shirts and one attendee who appeared to be the spitting image of Bernard.
“You can do all my interviews today!” Bernard quipped.
Not that he’d actually give away the opportunity to talk about the band’s biggest testimonial of all. Earlier this year, the Paradox became the first all-Black band to reach No. 1 on Billboard’s alternative airplay chart, a turning point for the genre that will continue to keep the band on everyone’s radar.
ALKALINE TRIO
Alkaline Trio is getting close to GWAR’s record for the number of times the group has played Riot Fest (including 2025). But somehow Chicago’s venerable punk rockers always make it feel like the first time.
“This is the best time I’ve had in a very long time,” said bassist/vocalist Dan Andriano before the trio launched into staple song “Stupid Kid.” Matt Skiba agreed. “That makes three of us,” the singer/guitarist added, looping drummer Tosh Peterson into the conversation.
The crowd felt it, too. As the band riled up with songs like “We’ve Had Enough,” a flurry of people dressed as bananas and wizards crowd-surfed their way toward the stage with the same endless energy as the three guys on stage.
Formed in 1996, Alkaline Trio has come a long way from the Fireside Bowl nights the group used to play (a time immortalized on a split-single just released this week with local brethren Rise Against). But the trio has never forgotten its roots, even as Skiba was brought into the national fold with his gig in blink-182 from 2015 to 2022.
On Friday, the front man shouted out Travis Barker as Alkaline Trio played “Oblivion,” a song that the drummer produced. Skiba also teased a forthcoming album — one that Barker apparently had his hands on — that’s currently being mixed. But there was also equal attention given to their hometown. “This song’s for Chicago!” Skiba declared, introducing 2005’s “Mercy Me,” which namedrops the city.
The band dug even further back into the archive with 2000’s “Snake Oil Tanker,” a song they haven’t played much in the last two decades that hearkens back to a time Alkaline Trio was just getting its footing. The cross-career set was as nostalgic as they come, but it was no swan song.
“The good news is we’ll be back,” Skiba assured.
Of course they will.
RISE AGAINST
Rise Against got the memo that in trying times we need really good punk music. Since 1999, the Chicago punks have rallied against capitalism, authoritarianism, injustice and bad politics through their weapons of guitars, drums and anthemic vocals. But they felt more fired up than ever Friday night and ready to start their own revolution in Douglass Park.
The set started with recorded soundbites about “owners owning you” and the fight between “the oppressor and the exploited” before the quartet entered the stage and tore through the anti-establishment worker song “Re-Education (Through Labor).”
“Chicago never crawls for anybody!” declared singer Tim McIlrath, referencing the song’s lyrics about not getting on your knees for the man. He and band mates Joe Principe (bass/vocals), Zach Blair (guitar/vocals) and Brandon Barnes (drums) honor the city that raised them that way any chance they get. “I usually tell people we came a long way, but we did not come a long way to party with you tonight. No, we came back to right where we f—-ing belong,” McIlrath added. “We are Rise Against from right f—-ing here!”
The Chicago pride continued with a venomous delivery of “Give It All,” which the singer said was about “the Fullerton Avenue bowling alleys [Fireside Bowl], VFWs and Knights of Columbus halls” where they cut their teeth like so many other of the city’s long lineage of punk acts and their devoted followers. “It’s all because of every single one of you, no matter where you are on this journey with us, if it’s day 1 or goes back 26 years ago, it’s all because of you and the soil and the music in this town that raised us,” McIlrath graciously said, name dropping influential flagpoles like Cheap Trick, Pegboy, Naked Raygun and Cap’n Jazz.
The local love fest continued with “Prayer of the Refugee,” which was dedicated to “anyone who fought back against the ICE invasion this year. I’m proud to be from here,” said McIlrath, referencing Operation Midway Blitz.
But like any good punk band worth its salt, Rise Against wasn’t spewing without purpose. They were community building. Sometimes using a megaphone to get his point across, McIlrath referred to the packed crowd as his “brothers and sisters” and inducted everyone into the family on “Nod.” As McIlrath explained, “When we see our people and see our community we give each other a nod.” He then gave one big one to the crowd as an example, as if to start a movement.
“If you are waiting around for someone to save you, it’s not going to happen. If you are waiting for someone to save this world it’s not going to happen,” McIlrath said, as the band gave a galvanizing performance of “Savior” to end the set. “We don’t need to wait around for a savior. It’s going to take all of us.”