Star Trek's William Shatner releases demands for RIOT FEST appearance

Riot Fest 2026 in Chicago, Illinois, has announced a performer that will be of particular interest to Trekkies: Captain James T. Kirk himself, William Shatner, will be performing a heavy metal set at the musical festival with his band The *uckers, debuting his upcoming record. And to celebrate his inclusion, Shatner took to Instagram to deliver a list of his performance demands… and some of them aren’t exactly Starfleet regulation, if you know what I mean.

William Shatner, Captain Rock

The Instagram post included “demands…err🤨…requests” for Chicago, plus performance and hospitality demands for Riot Fest itself.

From Chicago, he demands a boat be renamed William Shatner (“so he can captain a ship again”), a “classic Chicago food item to be named in tribute to William Shatner,” to “co-anchor the weather outside with Chicago’s most beloved meteorologist” and to sing ‘Take Me Out to the Ballgame' at a local baseball game. Hey, honestly… a couple of those aren’t half-bad ideas? GET ON IT, CUBBIES!

For the performance itself, the requests include fire-breathing performers and that the golf cart be replaced with a DeLorean. Finally, his hospitality requests include “four feet of Polish sausage,” “Eight (8) pallets of Faygo (Not to be shared with Insane Clown Posse)” and “An assortment of adoptable puppies, sourced from a reputable Local animal rescue nonprofit.”

Obviously, this Instagram post is tongue-in-cheek and pulls from the mythos surrounding “the Van Halen test,” so named because heavy metal band Van Halen would submit a venue contract that included a rider dictating that their dressing room must be equipped with (amongst other things) a bowl of M&Ms with all the brown M&Ms removed.

But honestly… the man played Captain frickin’ Kirk! And his musical performances have been known to be equally legendary. Maybe just give him his “One (1) bowl of sauerkraut in dressing room, ready to eat,” even if the request wasn’t entirely serious. It’s what Spock would do!

Riot Fest

The Riot Fest festival will take place in Douglass Park in Chicago, Illinois from September 18^th through September 20^th, 2026, and fittingly, Shatner and The *uckers are slated to appear on 20^th. Will you be attending the performance?