Twenty One Pilots
Genre-agnostic arena duo — rap, ukulele, and existential dread with a devoted Clique, lore deep enough for a wiki.
Riot Fest 2026 Lineup
Chicago's punk-rock family reunion, 21 years in — legends, reunions, and carnival rides in Douglass Park.
About Riot Fest 2026
Riot Fest is Chicago's punk-rock family reunion, 21 years in — three September days in Douglass Park where legends, reunions, full-album sets, and carnival rides coexist like it's the most natural thing in the world. The 2026 bill is peak Riot Fest chaos theory: Tool's lasers and Morrissey's melancholy on the same weekend as Twenty One Pilots, Alanis Morissette, and Pierce The Veil, with an undercard that runs from Iggy Pop and Patti Smith to GWAR's fake blood and Insane Clown Posse's Faygo showers. Nowhere else does a lineup treat punk history — and punk absurdity — with this much affection.
Expect punk, emo, rock and pop-punk across 102 acts.
The headliners
- Twenty One Pilots — Genre-agnostic arena duo — rap, ukulele, and existential dread with a devoted Clique, lore deep enough for a wiki.
- Tool — Prog-metal's cathedral builders — polyrhythms, lasers, and total audience surrender, Danny Carey's drumming alone worth the pilgrimage.
- Morrissey — The Smiths' voice, complicated as ever — when he shows, nothing else sounds like it, and the songbook remains untouchable.
- Pierce The Veil — San Diego post-hardcore romantics enjoying a massive TikTok-era second act — the scene's most swooned-over comeback.
- Alanis Morissette — Jagged Little Pill at festival scale — the '90s' most cathartic songbook, still sung full-throated by everyone in the field.
Up-and-comers to catch early
- Fleshwater — Vein.fm side project gone huge — grunge-gaze heaviness for the new generation.
- Glixen — Gauzy new-school shoegaze riding the revival's crest.
- Panic Shack — Cardiff's funniest, fiercest punks — group-chat energy with riffs.
- Teen Mortgage — DC duo — surfy garage-punk with debt-generation bite.
- Joey Valence & Brae — Beastie Boys energy for the TikTok era — relentless, giddy, all-caps fun.
- Violet Grohl — Yes, Dave's daughter — and a genuinely arresting voice striking her own path.
Other acts worth planning around
- Iggy Pop — The godfather, shirtless as ever — punk exists because of this man.
- Patti Smith — Punk's poet laureate — Horses remains a sacrament.
- Sex Pistols — The original scandal, touring with Frank Carter up front — anarchy, museum edition.
- Sugar — Bob Mould's post-Hüsker power trio, reunited — Copper Blue front to back, if we're lucky.
- The Format — Nate Ruess's beloved pre-fun. band, reunited — Dog Problems, live at last.
- Bratmobile — Riot grrrl founders, reunited — Pottymouth still snarls.
- GWAR — Intergalactic latex monsters spraying fake blood on the front rows since 1984. Wear a poncho.
The lineup by day
- Friday, September 18: Twenty One Pilots, Iggy Pop, Rise Against, Pixies, Alkaline Trio, The All-American Rejects + 30 more
- Saturday, September 19: Tool, Morrissey, Social Distortion, Nas, Bad Religion, Sugar + 28 more
- Sunday, September 20: Pierce The Veil, Alanis Morissette, Elvis Costello & The Imposters, The Format, Patti Smith, Taking Back Sunday + 26 more
Riot Fest 2026 lineup FAQ
When is Riot Fest 2026?
September 18–20, 2026 — Friday through Sunday.
Where does Riot Fest take place?
Douglass Park, on Chicago's West Side.
Who is headlining Riot Fest 2026?
Twenty One Pilots, Tool, Morrissey, Alanis Morissette, and Pierce The Veil.
How many acts are playing Riot Fest 2026?
102 acts across three days, plus the carnival rides.
What days do specific acts play?
Every act's day is already on this page — expand the full lineup below or check the day-by-day breakdown.
How do I figure out which of the 102 acts I'd actually like?
Tell the finder at the top of this page a few bands you love — it'll match you with your must-see sets, with reasons why.
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Going to Riot Fest 2026? Get tickets ↗
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Riot Fest full lineup
Iggy Pop
The godfather, shirtless as ever — punk exists because of this man, and the Stooges songbook still hits like a dare.
Rise Against
Chicago's melodic-hardcore conscience — hometown-crowd guarantee, with 'Savior' as the closing group shout and conviction fully undimmed.
Pixies
Loud-quiet-loud's inventors — the band your favorite band ripped off, with 'Debaser' through 'Where Is My Mind?' still setting the terms.
Alkaline Trio
Chicago's heart-skull institution — graveyard romance in three chords, with Matt Skiba and Dan Andriano trading morbid valentines across two-plus decades of dark pop-punk.
The All-American Rejects
'Gives You Hell' and a wildly fun second act — the internet's favorite reunion, with Tyson Ritter in full chaos-uncle mode.
Sex Pistols
The original scandal, touring with Frank Carter up front — anarchy, museum edition, still louder than you, and Frank makes it feral again.
Santigold
Genre-collapsing alt-pop pioneer — 'L.E.S. Artistes' to now, always ahead, new wave and dancehall in one voice.
Motion City Soundtrack
Moog-powered anxiety anthems — 'Commit This to Memory' remains scripture, and 'Everything Is Alright' remains a group confession.
Joey Valence & Brae
Beastie Boys energy for the TikTok era — relentless, giddy, all-caps fun, two friends rapping like the '80s never ended.
Bayside
Queens punk craftsmen — a cult, not a phase, twenty years running, with a devoted fanbase that treats every chorus like scripture.
Tricky
Trip-hop's shadow king — the whispered menace of 'Maxinquaye' live, Bristol paranoia thickened by three decades.
3OH!3
DONTTRUSTME and the rest of the MySpace-era catalog, played fully self-aware — neon electro-rap chaos that has aged into a gleeful, shout-along riot live.
GWAR
Intergalactic latex monsters spraying fake blood on the front rows since 1984 — thrash chops under the costumes. Wear a poncho.
Slick Rick
The Ruler — rap's greatest storyteller, eyepatch and all, 'Children's Story' still the masterclass every MC studies.
Guttermouth
Snotty SoCal punk provocation, decades deep — deliberately tasteless, weirdly tuneful, and proud of every complaint letter.
Fleshwater
Vein.fm side project gone huge — grunge-gaze heaviness for the new generation, Deftones worship refracted through hardcore muscle.
The Paradox
Bratmobile
Riot grrrl founders, reunited — 'Pottymouth' still snarls, and the sarcastic, minimal punk that helped launch a movement remains gleefully intact.
Mariachi El Bronx
Hardcore band The Bronx in full mariachi dress — and genuinely great at it, trumpets and charro suits played with total respect.
Violet Grohl
Yes, Dave's daughter — and a genuinely arresting voice striking her own path, closer to torch song than stadium rock.
Foxy Shazam
Cincinnati glam maniacs — Freddie Mercury theatrics with backflips, piano-stomping rock 'n' roll played like a dare.
DeathbyRomy
Gothic pop with metallic edges — theatrical dark-pop vocals over production that keeps one boot in the metal scene.
División Minúscula
Mexican emo-rock pioneers — border-town anthems for a generation that learned to scream along in Spanish first.
Radio Free Alice
Glixen
Gauzy new-school shoegaze riding the revival's crest — Phoenix pedals-and-whisper bliss aimed at the genre's dreamiest register.
JMSN
Self-made silk — Detroit R&B auteur with a devoted following, self-released and sounding more expensive than most majors.
The Callous Daoboys
Atlanta mathcore chaos with a violin — brilliant, exhausting, unmissable, a band juggling chainsaws and mostly catching them.
Worry Club
Chicago bedroom alt-rock, growing fast — moody hooks with a DIY spine, a bedroom project outgrowing the bedroom.
Teen Mortgage
DC duo — surfy garage-punk with debt-generation bite, two people and twice the racket, volume as a business plan.
Slothrust
Jazz-schooled grunge — sludgy riffs, sly writing, and solos that betray the conservatory training, with the guitar work doing the heavy lifting.
Soul Glo
Philly's ferocious hardcore standard-bearers — blistering screamo velocity spliced with hip-hop and biting political fury, critical darlings for good reason.
Cardinals
Greet Death
Flint doom-gaze — crushing sadness, gorgeous guitars, and slowcore patience that makes the loud parts land like verdicts.
Panic Shack
Cardiff's funniest, fiercest punks — group-chat energy with riffs, in-jokes sharpened into anthems, the funniest serious band in Wales.
Almost There But Not Really
Tool
Prog-metal's cathedral builders — polyrhythms, lasers, and total audience surrender, Danny Carey's drumming alone worth the pilgrimage.
Morrissey
The Smiths' voice, complicated as ever — when he shows, nothing else sounds like it, and the songbook remains untouchable.
Social Distortion
Mike Ness's tattooed roots-punk — 'Story of My Life', still ringing true after four decades, the outlaw uniform never retired.
Nas
Illmatic. That's it, that's the blurb — QB's finest in career-renaissance form, with a late-era run most rappers would kill for as a peak.
Bad Religion
Punk's PhD program — 45 years of three-part harmony heresy, with Greg Graffin still delivering ten-dollar words at two hundred beats per minute.
Sugar
Bob Mould's post-Hüsker power trio, reunited — 'Copper Blue' front to back, if we're lucky, and deafening either way.
Bright Eyes
Conor Oberst's trembling opus — the confessional songbook of a generation, from basement-tape quiver to orchestral sprawl and back.
Descendents
Milo goes to Riot Fest — the caffeinated blueprint for all pop-punk, still fast, still nerdy, still out-hooking the generations they invented.
Angine De Poitrine
Gogol Bordello
Immigrant-punk cabaret — accordion, fiddle, and total mayhem, Eugene Hütz conducting the tent like a ringmaster on his third espresso.
Public Image Ltd.
John Lydon's second act — the band that invented post-punk's rulebook by burning the first one, still gleefully contrary.
PUP
Toronto's self-loathing punk sweethearts — every chorus a gang vocal, every set a group therapy session that ends in a pile-on.
Thrice
Post-hardcore's elder statesmen — heavy, literate, endlessly evolving, and never once coasting on the back catalog.
Less Than Jake
Horns up — Gainesville ska-punk party engineers since '92, confetti cannons and crowd games as standard equipment.
Brian Fallon & The Painkillers
Gaslight Anthem's voice in troubadour mode — Jersey heart, whiskey throat, and heartland songcraft that trades the amps for storytelling without losing the ache.
The Suicide Machines
Detroit ska-core lifers — fast, political, joyful, and still the best argument that those three go together.
Afroman
Because he got high — the one-song folk hero whose loose, self-deprecating stoner-rap turned a novelty smash into a quarter-century touring career.
Destroy Boys
Sacramento punk fury, sharpened into one of the scene's best live bands — snarling hooks and pit control well beyond their years.
The Chats
Australian pub-punk perfection — smoko forever, mullets and minute-long anthems about life's essentials, the nation's finest short-song economists.
Yard Act
Wry Leeds post-punk gone disco — talk-sung satire you can dance to, Britain narrated mid-groove, grooves with a permanent smirk.
Chat Pile
Oklahoma's nightmare-noise auteurs — grinding, harrowing songs about American rot, critically adored precisely because they refuse any comfort.
VANA
Strike Anywhere
Richmond melodic hardcore — raised fists and open hearts, protest-punk conviction that never aged into cynicism.
Show Me The Body
Banjo-wielding NYC hardcore — Corpus rules everything, a whole community moving as one organism, underground loyalty made audible.
Hot Rod Circuit
Early-2000s emo cult favorites, back on the boards — Vagrant-era warmth for everyone who kept the CDs.
Melt-Banana
Tokyo's hyperspeed noise legends — 30 years of joyful sensory assault, laser-gun guitars and chirped vocals at impossible tempos.
Frankie and the Witch Fingers
LA psych-punk perpetual motion machine — relentless krautrock grooves and fuzz freakouts that never let the tempo sag.
Burning Airlines
J. Robbins's angular post-hardcore, reunited — Dischord DNA all over it, wiry riffs and odd meters from one of the DC scene's sharpest writers.
Gurriers
Dublin's next post-punk export — snarling and kinetic, riding the same wave that carried Fontaines out of the city.
Kiwi jr.
Wry Toronto jangle — Pavement's grandkids with better jokes, deadpan verses stuffed with sly detail, slacker charm with a novelist's eye.
NOBRO
Montreal party-punk — four-alarm energy, zero brakes, and gang vocals that dare the room to keep up.
Whispers
ASAVA
Aim High
Pierce The Veil
San Diego post-hardcore romantics enjoying a massive TikTok-era second act — the scene's most swooned-over comeback.
Alanis Morissette
Jagged Little Pill at festival scale — the '90s' most cathartic songbook, still sung full-throated by everyone in the field.
Elvis Costello & The Imposters
The angry young man of '77, now the canon itself — pump it up one more time, with a songbook that runs from spite to Bacharach.
The Format
Nate Ruess's beloved pre-fun. band, reunited — 'Dog Problems', live at last, every horn chart intact.
Patti Smith
Punk's poet laureate — 'Horses' remains a sacrament, and every performance still reads as testimony, rock's great living poet at work.
Taking Back Sunday
Long Island emo royalty — mic-swinging catharsis, twenty-plus years deep, 'MakeDamnSure' still a communal throat-shred, and yes, the mic still swings.
Insane Clown Posse
The Faygo flies at sundown — whoop whoop, and genuinely one of music's strangest, most loyal communities gathered in one place.
Twin Peaks
Chicago garage-rock loyalty — loose, warm, hometown-beloved, Grateful Dead ease at garage-band volume, the city's easiest hang.
Pennywise
Hermosa Beach skate-punk institution — 'Bro Hymn' will level the park, as it has for thirty years.
The Beths
Auckland's harmony-stacked power-pop treasures — jazz-school chops, huge hearts, and 'Expert in a Dying Field' proof of mastery.
Mom Jeans
Fifth-wave emo standard-bearers — twinkly riffs, food-pun titles, real feelings, and crowds that scream every self-deprecating word.
Cartel
Atlanta pop-punk lifers — 'Chroma' still hits like 2005, a front-to-back scene classic that never needed a follow-up to justify the devotion.
Bowling For Soup
1985 forever — pop-punk's friendliest hangover, all self-deprecating jokes and choruses that never left the radio in your head.
This Is Lorelei
Nate Amos's one-man songbook — 'Box for Buddy, Box for Star' charmed everyone, twang and autotune in unlikely harmony.
Sincere Engineer
Chicago's rawest-throated punk songwriter — a hometown hero slot for songs that turn anxiety into gang vocals.
Jejune
'90s emo cult favorites, reunited for the faithful — bittersweet boy-girl vocals from the genre's tender first wave.
Arm's Length
Ontario emo — earnest, huge-chorused, and scene-beloved, with the kind of gut-punch lines that end up tattooed on forearms.
Saturdays At Your Place
Michigan midwest-emo risers — 'always cloudy' and ascendant, twinkle-and-shout catharsis for the new wave, the next names in the scene's group chat.
Good Riddance
Santa Cruz melodic hardcore — Fat Wreck loyalty since '95, political fire delivered at skate-video velocity.
Haywire
Dead To Me
SF punk with gravel and melody — Fat Wreck-lineage songwriting that pairs busted-romantic lyrics with East Bay drive.
The Flatliners
Toronto punk lifers — from ska-core kids to gruff-punk craftsmen, two decades of growing up in public gracefully.
Murphy's Law
NYHC party priests since '82 — Jimmy G leading hardcore's longest-running good time, circle pits with a smile since day one.
Pretty Girls Make Graves
Seattle art-punk cult heroes, reunited — jagged and beautiful, dance-punk urgency that a generation of bands studied.
Daisy Grenade
Theater-kid pop-punk menace — self-branded 'bubble-grunge' with a wink, Brooklyn duo energy engineered for glitter and mosh in equal parts.
Holding Absence
Welsh post-hardcore romantics — soaring, heart-first heaviness, every chorus written to be wept through, Cardiff sincerity at full wingspan.
Algernon Cadwallader
Beloved and long-dormant Philly emo pioneers back from reunion — noodly twinkling guitars, yelped vocals, and pure basement-show joy that a whole generation of Midwest-emo revivalists learned from.
Ben Quad
OKC emo — riffy, funny, fifth-wave favorites whose live sets turn twinkly guitar math into a full-room shout-along.
Remember Sports
Scrappy Philly indie-punk with bite and heart — yelped hooks and basement-show devotion, scrappy precision honed over years of touring.
Macseal
Twinkly Long Island emo sweetness — soft-spoken hooks and math-lite guitars that hug rather than punch.
Stomach Book
The Iron Roses
Nathan Gray's soul-punk revival — protest music you can hug to, BoySetsFire pedigree turned toward joy.