Before the summer festival season comes to a complete close, Riot Fest returned to Douglass Park in Chicago on Friday, bringing all things punk-adjacent to the festival’s home once again. 

With temperatures that neared the 90s, the heat was a factor for some in the crowd, but certainly not the bands on stage as the day opened up. Early standouts included Winona Fighter, who ripped through a cover of Turnstile’s “Blackout,” and ska-funk hybrid Jhariah, who pulled crowds toward the Rise Stage with material from April’s “Trust Ceremony” release. As people continually look for the next wave of ska to cascade, the Brooklyn-based creative could certainly help it to form. 

While the younger acts opened things up, there’s more than a fair share of veterans and legends in the mix this weekend, too. Descendants offshoot band ALL was up early on the NOFX World stage, bringing deeper cuts back to the forefront with a more groove-oriented take on punk with some pronounced bass lines in the mix. 

An onslaught of Warped Tour-era pop-punk dominated the main stages on Friday, kicked off by a half hour set from State Champs that felt like the soon-to-be reignited tour never left. Fans still felt compelled to move in the heat, with circle pits up front and plenty of bodies surfing over the barrier. 

Hailed as the “hottest new emo band” by State Champs onstage, Hot Mulligan followed, drawing a big crowd to the Metro Cabaret stage. With no shortage of passion in their performance, the band blasted through their set, sounding fierce as ever. The older generation of pop punk fans certainly are discovering the band, and the size of their crowd on Friday showed that.

In the buildup to Chicago’s own Fall Out Boy headlining the night, the pop punk heavy hitters would then take over the AAA and Metro stages. New Found Glory were up first, and they haven’t lost a step in *checks notes* more than 25 years together as a band (now I feel old.) The band moved through their biggest songs with very little downtime, and the occasional cover of a Disney song, which saw lead singer Jordan Pundik donning wigs to play Ariel from “The Little Mermaid” or Elsa from Frozen while belting out a punk version of “Let It Go.” In the absence of guitarist Chad Gilbert, who is currently battling a cancer diagnosis, the band enlisted Dan O’ Connor of Four Year Strong and Eric Haines of Real Friends to fill in. There never seems to be any slowing down for the band, and they showed once again why they’ve been able to maintain their longevity. 

For another band, though, it was the end of the line, as Sum 41 played the Metro stage on their last tour after releasing their final album in March. Much like New Found Glory, the band didn’t seem to have any signs of slowing down in their set, packing as much into 40 minutes as they could, including flamethrowers, pyro and steam cannons while they delivered a set list full of pop punk anthems. 

Back at NOFX World, legends Circle Jerks took the stage, well into their fifth decade as a band. They can still go, though, playing songs from “Group Sex” with precision and speed, so much so that Keith Morris would have to try to keep up with the rest of the band. Morris thanked the crowd for coming to hang out with “the cool bands” that didn’t have singalong songs and major hits to their name. Juxtaposed against The Offspring, who were playing within earshot and possibly interrupting Morris’ train of thought, it made for an interesting moment. 

The night concluded with hometown heroes Fall Out Boy on the Metro stage, but the story of the weekend here will be NOFX’s final shows in Chicago, playing all three nights of the festival. With just six shows left as a band, they took the stage well before their set to hug other bands and friends behind the stage before it was time to play. When they did get around to that, through, they jumped around their entire discography. Fat Mike led the charge, with the band cracking jokes at their own expense any chance they could. 

“They’ve studied NOFX, and they say if we’re supposed to play for 90 minutes, we really only play about 45.” said Fat Mike. Night one highlights included “Linoleum,” “Leave It Alone,” “Six Pack Girls” and an assist from John Feldman of Goldfinger on “180 Degrees.” There did seem to be some confusion between the band members during “Moron Brothers,” and afterwards there was a considerable break while the band hopped offstage, possibly to reconfigure the setlist. When they came back, there was enough time to get a few more songs in quickly before curfew, and Eric Melvin played the crowd into the night on the accordion with “Theme From A NOFX Album.”

We’re at Riot Fest all weekend, so be sure to keep checking in on B&E for more from Douglass Park!