Well Riot Fest, you did it again. Another year, another incredible weekend. And what’s more, I have fantastic news. The mohawk numbers have seen a SIGNIFICANT increase! Friday had a total of fifty-six (56) mohawks. Saturday followed up with fifty-one (51) mohawks. Finally, Sunday closed out with forty-two (42). That is a total of one hundred forty-nine (149) mohawks, A new record! Not only was this the highest year in total, but Friday and Sunday had record shattering totals too! This is a good time for science.
I know that I tried to remain neutral and data focused last year in the face of a decreased mohawk population, but goddamn does it feel good to see numbers go up. Without further ado, on to the analysis itself. As always, we start with daily number comparisons.
As with last year, Friday was our largest total. Also similar to last year, this was by a relatively slim margin, though larger than previously. Saturday had a very respectable total of fifty-one (51), though in comparison to previous years, this is only the third highest total. Sunday, as aberrant as ever, will be discussed later.
Now, I have previously stated that a central theory of mohawk density is that the genre of headliners impacts the population. I took this theory a step further this year and actually interviewed some mohawked attendees about the bands they are most excited to see in order to find some coordination, though I did not focus solely on headliners. But that said, the band most mentioned in my research as the target by our mohawks is a tie between the Offspring, a Friday only band, and NOFX, who played every day. Other common bands included Circle Jerks and Exploited, both Friday only bands. I do not want to distort the data and so I will also point out that Slayer was also mentioned often, which was one of the Sunday headliners. These bands do seem to implicate a preference for Friday over Saturday, as the data supports. Sunday, of course, had another severe mitigating factor with regards to outrageous mohawks with the rain putting a literal damper on sky-high spikes. Somehow, I had not considered weather as a predictor of mohawks, though I can see now the kind of impact that it can have.
However, if the practical application of this report is to determine ways to increase mohawk numbers, weather is not a factor that we can control, and therefore it will not be much more of a focus in my reporting. I should like to point out that Sunday was in no way lacking in mohawks, despite the rain; far from it! Sunday was at an all time high by an incredible margin! Slayer was absolutely a massive draw for the mohawk crowd, who absolutely showed up after the rain ended. In addition, bands like Magnolia Park and Something Corporate also likely had strong draw on Sunday. That’s to say nothing about NOFX’s final show ever, which I believe likely had massive pull. One could assume that the end of the career of a punk staple like NOFX would almost certainly draw increased mohawk numbers, and the data seems to suggest the same.
We need to talk about the annual change, it’s crucial here. Riot Fest, this year, with a total of one hundred forty-nine (149) mohawks, is the highest total in all my years of reporting. The closest was 2022, with a total of one hundred forty (140) mohawks. It’s also a total increase of forty-five (45) mohawks from last year! That means that I passed last year’s total number of mohawks by the end of Saturday. Sunday was just a bonus to see how high we could go, and we certainly improved. But I’m getting ahead of myself. As I said earlier, Friday was at an all time high this year, more than overcoming last year’s slump. We are not quite at the projected levels based on trends from years past, but that would’ve required something like a sixty-five (65), which hasn’t even been seen on a Saturday. We did, however, get close to what the total last year otherwise would have been had it not decreased. Saturday, meanwhile, improved from last year, but not so much that it overtook Friday to return to its position as the most mohawk’d day. In addition, it did not have the same change over time as Friday, increasing by fourteen (14) as compared to Friday’s sixteen (16). If the Saturday crowd wants to overtake Friday once again, it’s going to need to really show up next year.
But with all that said, we once again have to examine Sunday. One year, we might have a sensible Sunday compared to previous years. That is not this year. After years of stagnation and decreases, Sunday shot up by fifteen (15), a perfect middle ground between Friday and Saturday. I do not want to use this as a possible indicator of future Riot Fest Sundays, as the one prediction I have for Sundays is that I have no idea what is going to happen.
Regardless, it added a great deal more mohawks to the compound on the previous two days to completely blow last year out of the water. All in all, each day built up to produce the highest total we’ve ever had, and I, for one, cannot wait to see how future Riot Fests perform in comparison.
Last year might still prove to be an outlier in mohawk data collections. I sure hope so, at least. More than that, my theory that the bands featured impacting mohawk growth seems to hold water, at least according to my interviews. Of course, this is one scientist’s observations, so take that into consideration.
But I’m also your only mohawk researcher, so you’re gonna have to take my word for all this anyway. I will continue to expand upon my research techniques until either I am the pre-eminent mohawk scholar or I am removed from the internet.
The Related Rabbit Hole
