Throwing a music festival is hard. That goes double in Denver, a city with noise-sensitive residential areas encroaching on the few available grounds able to host tens of thousands of fans and dozens of bands.
For the past four years, Chicago-based circus-themed rock and rap festival Riot Fest had faced those quirks in stride.
Alas, Riot Fest will not mark its fifth anniversary in Denver in 2017. Following the death of Sean McKeough, one of the festival’s lead organizers, Riot Fest has decided to forgo its Denver event in 2017 to focus solely on its Chicago festival.
“Without Sean’s massive contributions, taking on more than one festival this year is, unfortunately, simply not possible,” the event stated in a release.
While Denver will go without Riot Fest and its wonderfully bizarre sideshows this year, the festival could return in the future. The release and a representative from the festival indicated it would like to return to Denver at some point.
Riot Fest has had a resilient if rocky existence in Colorado since it came here in 2013. It first set up in the town of Byers, Colo. before being forced to relocate to the parking lot of Denver’s Sports Authority Field. In 2015, the festival landed in the National Western Complex, where it seemed to find its stride. Last year, it staged the first show by seminal punk band the Misfits in 33 years, nothing short of a music industry miracle. (That said, we didn’t always agree with the festival’s booking.)
Regardless of how the lineups hit you, the festival represented a hope that a large music festival could survive in Denver, despite repeated evidence to the contrary.
“To all of our friends in Denver, we love you and we appreciate you making us feel at home in your amazing city,” the release continued. “We can never thank you enough for embracing us as you did, and we hope to see as many of you as possible in Chicago this September!”
Read Riot Fest’s full statement on the decision below.
To all of our Fans and Patrons,
First and foremost, thank you for your support, loyalty, and enthusiasm regarding Riot Fest’s endeavors – you are the lifeblood that keeps us going!
As many of you know, the Riot Fest family lost one of its leaders late last year: our beloved Sean McKeough. Riot Mike’s partner, Sean, was a fearless leader who worked tirelessly to plan, organize and execute the production of our festivals each year. He was an integral part of our team and it has been difficult to envision a Riot Fest without him.
This September will see our 13th Riot Fest in Chicago and we are very excited to share another year here with you. It saddens us to say, however, that we will not be able to return to Denver in 2017. Without Sean’s massive contributions, taking on more than one festival this year is, unfortunately, simply not possible. That said, we hope our absence from Denver is only temporary.
To all of our friends in Denver, we love you and we appreciate you making us feel at home in your amazing city. We can never thank you enough for embracing us as you did, and we hope to see as many of you as possible in Chicago this September!
To our Chicago perennials and all who have or will travel to the fest – we owe it to Sean to throw the absolute best festival we can and that’s exactly what we’re going to do.
We appreciate your continued support & can’t wait to unveil the Riot Fest 2017 lineup, so stay tuned! Hope to see you in Chicago!
