For one, longtime attendees likely noticed some familiar names on the flyer. Acts like The Effigies, Alkaline Trio, Smoking Popes, Bad Religion, and others were ripped straight from the previous Riot Fests, performing alongside punk and indie-rock newcomers (Militarie Gun, Weakened Friends, Consequence Rookie of the Year Lambrini Girls) and the towering headlining acts (Blink-182, Weezer) alike.
Then, there’s the Uncle Jessie-sized elephant in the room — the payoff of a gag 12 years in the making.
For context, back in 2013, Riot Fest had claimed they had unsuccessfully attempted to reunite Jesse & The Rippers, the fictional band from Full House. What followed was a tongue-in-cheek, mainly one-sided, decade-plus-long beef between the festival and the titular Jessie, aka John Stamos. Perhaps on the cusp of a quarter-life crisis, the festival spent much of 2025 burying the buttery hatchet.
This included booking The Beach Boys, for which Stamos serves as the touring drummer, and meeting his wonderfully absurd list of demands (including but not limited to stocking his green room with a Gibson guitar case filled with hummus, a foot rub from “Riot Fest Twitter Person,” and Petryshyn gracing his body with a John Stamos tattoo).
Stamos’ presence was inescapable throughout the September weekend, from the larger-than-life butter statue to his surprise appearance during Hanson’s mid-day set. Still, Uncle Jessie had to notably share the spotlight with another icon with great hair: one Mr. “Weird Al” Yankovich.
While Yankovich might not have as storied a history with Riot Fest, his mark on the 20th anniversary bash was no less fantastic. Taking the event’s longstanding irreverent energy to the max, the parody star transformed the side stage on Friday into his own Weird World Stage. Prior to his own headlining set, the stage housed similarly silly acts like Mac Sabbath, Puddles Pity Party, and (for good measure) Sparks. As the day went on, Yankovich’s area of Douglass Park began to fill more and more with “Weird Al” lookalikes and, by the end of the night, had one of the largest, most engaged audiences any non-main-stage-headliner commanded all weekend.
Beyond the celebrity-led spectacles, Riot Fest 2025 also offered its usual fanfare: live wrestling, local pop-ups, an arcade, and the full-on carnival that is Riotland. It even drew national (MAGA-led) attention thanks to GWAR’s… onstage antics with Elon Musk and Donald Trump.
This year’s greatest strength, though, was more subtle. In fact, it’s the same strength that’s kept the event thriving for as long as it has. Simply put, the experience of watching killer programming with thousands upon thousands of other like-minded punks. For all of the extra bits of fun they’ve adopted over the years as they’ve grown, the core appeal of Riot Fest remains consistent: good music and good people.
“IDLES and Jack White were both brilliant,” Petryshyn says, recalling some of his personal favorite performances from 2025. “Those were the kinds of sets that cut through everything else and reminded me why we keep doing this.”
It’s putting your arms around strangers while one of your favorite bands plays one of your favorite records front to back. It’s seeing a reunion you never thought possible right after being blown away by a set from a band you’ve never heard of. It’s celebrating the DIY, community-interested energy no matter how big Riot Fest gets.
“Twenty years is a long time, and getting to 40 years is almost twice as hard,” Petryshyn reflects. “That can never be taken for granted. To be able to pass that generationally is our job.”
Ask us, and we’re raising a Riot Pop to as many Riot Fests as the rock gods are willing to grace us with. That includes next year’s event, which is already set for September 18th-20th, 2026.
Oh, and in case you were wondering how Petryshyn’s John Stamos tattoo is looking, here’s his response: “Which one?”