After the cancellation of Chicago Open Air in 2018 many of the festival veterans were heartbroken that our annual get together wasn’t happening this year. The reason behind the cancellation was that the producers didn’t feel they had a lineup that was worthy of the Chicago Open Air name. We certainly appreciate that they want to impress us and have standards for the lineup that they deliver. This year the festival is making it’s return although cut down to a 2-day festival rather than the 3 days it was in 2016 and 2017. The festival will again be held in Bridgeview, Illinois just right outside the Windy City of Chicago at Seat Geek Stadium (formerly Toyota Park) on May 18th and 19th. The festival always carries the heaviest lineup of bands in regards to all the other Danny Wimmer Presents festivals of past and present (Rock On The Range, Louder Than Life, Epicenter, Welcome To Rockville etc). While most other festivals are declared as hard rock festivals Chicago Open Air has been labeled a “metal festival”. We also last year had a brief chat with Senior Vice President of Festival Talent at Danny Wimmer Presents Gary Spivack and he spoke briefly about Chicago Open Air and the other festivals which you can listen to here.
The lineup for this years Chicago Open Air is unlike other DWP festivals we have seen. Instead of a large amount of up and coming bands they decided to go with a lineup of strong headlining and co-headling caliber acts. Performing on Saturday you have Vein, Knocked Loose, Code Orange, Beartooth, Meshuggah, Ghost and closing out the night System Of A Down. Sunday you have Alien Weaponry, The Black Dahlia Murder, Fever 333, In This Moment, Gojira, The Prodigy and Tool closing out the last night of the festival. While the festival doesn’t boast a long list of bands we can say that there isn’t a weak link in this lineup and each and every band is worthy of their spot on the bill.
You can purchase your tickets for the festival here when they go on sale 12/14 at noon central time.
