Riot Fest West postponed, but Chicago still on tap

This year, punk music festival Riot Fest was to branch out from its original Chicago location with "Riot Fest West" - an added November installment in LA - but health issues with founder Riot Mike will push the West Coast edition to 2010. Fortunately for local punk fans, though, Chicago's fest will take place October 7 to 11 as planned.

Here's what Riot Mike had to say in a statement e-mailed this morning:

Firstly, I want to apologize to the people who were excited for Riot Fest to come to Los Angeles – it was always a dream of mine that one day Riot Fest would be able to take place in another part of the U.S. But, sometimes those types of dreams need to be put on hold.

A few weeks ago, I found out that my health was failing, and I was advised by doctors to take a few months off for treatment. It was somber news to say the least, but my immediate reaction was how this would inherently affect Riot Fest. After speaking with family and close friends about the situation and mulling it over for a few days, I decided that if I couldn’t give it my all because of health related issues, then, I should postpone Riot Fest West until I’m cleared by doctors, which should hopefully be in Spring 2010.

With all of that said, there is no way in hell I would let Riot Fest Chicago not happen. For people who are attending the Chicago fest – don’t fret, it is all systems go.

The lineup for the Chicago fest is below. For more info and tickets, click here.

Riot Fest Chicago lineup:

Screeching Weasel, NOFX, Cock Sparrer, Butthole Surfers, Dead Milkmen, Murder City Devils, Naked Raygun, 88 Fingers Louie, Rights of the Accused, Riverboat Gamblers, Pegboy, No Empathy, Apocalypse Hoboken, Youth Brigade, Teenage Bottlerocket, 7 Seconds, Cobra Skulls, Lower Class Brats, Teen Idols, Off With Their Heads, Wax, Strike Anywhere, The Arrivals, The Aggrolites, Shot Baker, The Bomb, Das Kapital, Flatfoot 56, Fear City, The Frankl Project, The House That Gloria Vanderbilt, Beer Nuts, Crime In Stereo, Polar Bear Club, Ruiner, Anxiety High, She Likes Todd, The Pinstripes and many more to be announced soon.