Riot Fest Canceled For This Year, Puts Tickets On Sale For 2021 More Than A Year In Advance

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Riot Fest announced this week that it is canceling its 2020 festival.

But it presented the cancellation as a "move" to next year.

"Riot Fest is moving… to September 17-19, 2021. First wave lineup is here. More bands, and headliners, and surprises still to be announced!" the festival tweeted on Tuesday.

The annual festival had been scheduled for Sept. 11-13 in Douglas Park on the city's West Side.

More than a year ahead of time, Riot Fest announced that the lineup for next year's festival will include My Chemical Romance, the current iteration of Smashing Pumpkins, Run the Jewels, and the Pixies for headliners, along with Coheed and Cambria, Taking Back Sunday, Sublime with Rome, Dirty Heads, Lupe Fiasco, and Vic Mensa, among other acts.

The listed acts are part of a "first wave," with lines of question marks for who will appear in a "second wave" and "final wave."

Tickets have already been placed on sale.

The Riot Fest announcement came after officials last week canceled Lollapalooza, Taste of Chicago, and the Air and Water Show, along with all of the city's other special events scheduled through Labor Day, due to ongoing concerns from the coronavirus pandemic.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot said last week that COVID-19 is still a threat to public health, and will remain so until there is a viable vaccine, so it doesn't make sense to go forward with huge summer festivals that bring thousands of people together.

"The reality is, bringing 100,000 people in mass, in close quarters, which is what the daily headcount is every single day at Lollapalooza, bringing that many people from all over the country downtown in Grant Park every single day, we might as well just light ourselves on fire," Mayor Lightfoot said. "It makes no sense given what we know about how this disease spreads, which is close intimate contact extended over 10 minutes."

Instead of the traditional series of summer concerts, festivals, and other special events, city officials are planning more than 150 music, culinary, film, and other events on TV and online.