RiotFest named best music festival in the US

Sorry Ald. Maldonado, but RiotFest has a lot of fans everywhere but Humboldt Park.

For the last four weeks, 10Best readers have been voting for their favorites, and the winners have been announced.

Riot Fest, a multi-destination festival in Chicago, Denver and Toronto, won the most reader votes, thanks to its stellar annual lineup of unforgettable punk and rock performances, with carnival rides to boot!

The top 10 winners in the category Best Music Festival are as follows:

1. Riot Fest – Chicago
2. Electric Forest Festival – Rothbury, Mich.
3. New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival
4. Shaky Knees Music Festival – Atlanta
5. Firefly – Dover, Del.
6. Newport Folk Festival – Newport, R.I.
7. Bonnaroo – Manchester, Tenn.
8. Hardly Strictly Bluegrass – San Francisco
9. Wakarusa Music Festival – Ozark, Ark.
10. Sasquatch! – Quincy, Wash.

A panel of experts picked the initial 20 nominees, and the top 10 winners were determined by popular vote. Experts Alex Young (Consequences of Sound), Vito Valentinetti (Music Festival Junkies) and Chip Conley (Fest300) were chosen based on their extensive knowledge of the music festival scene in the U.S.

Other nominees included Chicago’s Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits, Fun Fun Fun Fest (also in Austin), Governors Ball in New York, Coachella in Indio, Calif., Outside Lands in San Francisco, South by Southwest in Austin, Chicago’s Pitchfork Music Festival, Lightning in a Bottle in Bradley, Calif. and FYF Fest in Los Angeles.

USAToday