Chicago Park District board welcomes back Riot Fest, despite heavy community criticism

Brushing aside vehement criticism from people who live and do business near Douglass Park, the Chicago Park District board voted Wednesday to grant a permit for Riot Fest to stage a three-day event in the park on the West Side starting Sept. 20.

Critics who have voiced concerns about the fest for years held a news conference before the Park District board meeting to blast Riot Fest, and many opponents of the event also spoke during the meeting.

One activist bemoaned how the Park District was allowing “significant damage” to Douglass Park, and said parks should be enjoyed by everyone instead of being “rented out to the highest bidder.”

But Ald. Monique Scott (24th) lashed out at those critics as she gave her endorsement to Riot Fest, raising her voice to say that “most of the people that spoke against the Riot Fest, I’ve never seen you in my community.”

Scott also said Riot Fest provided hope in a part of the city where “we don’t have a lot of things.”

Another proponent of Riot Fest said she was annoyed to have to take time off from her life to come to the meeting each year to take part in what she called a “minstrel show” on behalf of the festival.

After all the public comments, the four Park District board commissioners present at the meeting voted unanimously in favor of the special events permit, which gives Riot Fest organizers an additional eight days before the festival to set up and four days to pick up their things from Douglass Park.

The four commissioners who voted in Riot Fest’s favor were Modesto Valle, Sean Garrett, Robert Castaneda and Coya Paz Brownrigg. Not present at the meeting was recently appointed Commissioner Philip Jackson, who has ties to a food vendor at this year’s Riot Fest.

Firehouse Catering will be one of six “community” concessionaires at the festival. It is part of a nonprofit community center that Jackson founded and leads.

A Park District official told WBEZ Jackson was absent from the meeting because he was traveling but did not say whether he had any role in arranging the catering operation’s place at Riot Fest.

The festival organizers had said they would move the festival to a venue in the suburbs but reversed their position and renewed their application to use Douglass Park.

“We came back home to where we belong,” George Herrera, Riot Fest’s community relations manager, told the Park District board.

Dan Mihalopoulos is an investigative reporter on WBEZ’s Government & Politics Team.