A dozen years after organizers failed to book fictional Full House band Jesse and the Rippers in 2013, the actor finally takes the Riot Fest stage via the Beach Boys
John Stamos finally made his debut at Chicago’s Riot Fest on Saturday, performing alongside the Beach Boys in an appearance that was a dozen years in the making.
Organizers had been pursuing Stamos since 2013, when they first offered a set to the actor’s fictional Full House band Jesse and the Rippers. The overtures became increasingly more aggressive and madcap: A statue of Stamos made out of butter, dubbed “Butter Stamos,” was constructed, while additional headline-grabbing stunts — like a John Stamos art show in 2017 — were staged in subsequent years to grab the actor’s attention.
Earlier this summer, Riot Fest revealed that they had finally found a loophole to force Stamos to visit the festival: By recruiting the Beach Boys, who currently employ the actor as a touring member. Stamos “begrudgingly” accepted the invite.
However, Stamos dictated a list of outlandish demands in August in order to secure his participation: Riot Fest founder Riot Mike must get a tattoo of the actor (which he did last month), a local Chicago pizza place must offer a Greece-themed pie, a Stamos lookalike contest, Stamos-approved merch, a festival-wide mandate that no one make eye contact with his hair, etc.
With his demands met, Stamos finally took the Riot Fest stage on Saturday. “WE DID IT,” the festival exclaimed on social media.
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In addition to performing with the Beach Boys, the actor partook in many of the Stamos-themed festivities, including posing alongside “Butter Stamos” and wearing merch bearing his own name.
Stamos later shared his own post on social media featuring highlights from his long-awaited day at the festival. “‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice’ if I went to Riot Fest?” he quipped.