Pitchfork Music Festival returned to Chicago’s Union Park in West Loop this past weekend for its 18th year, bringing thousands of music fans together for a weekend of exciting performances. One of Chicago’s most prominent and well respected festivals, Pitchfork Music Festival features a lineup that often spotlights artists that are heavily promoted or praised in Pitchfork’s reviews and articles. The featured artists differ greatly by genre and often may be experimental, independent, and bringing fresh ideas and style to the musical landscape. This year’s headliners included Texas-based neo-soul band Black Pumas, electronic music mastermind Jamie xx, and 90s alt-rock superstar Alanis Morissette.
Saturday’s lineup in particular highlighted some of Chicago’s best and brightest rising musical stars. Alt-rock three piece Lifeguard played the first set of the day, greeting a sizable, energetic crowd with their signature brand of post-punk meets power pop. Likely the youngest musicians to grace the Pitchfork stages this weekend, the trio pulled off a polished, neat set of tunes, often flowing from one right into the other. Despite being sequestered to a folding chair due to a foot injury, Kai Slater and bandmates Asher Case and Isaac Lowenstein led the crowd in a raucous set, leading to the fest’s first mosh pit of the day. Slater even opted to use one of his crutches as a slide on his guitar during the set.
Another notable Chicago native on Saturday’s lineup was Kara Jackson, whose debut album Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love? was included in Pitchfork’s “Best Albums of 2023.” Jackson was accompanied by a collection of Chicago music’s heavyweights: Sen Morimoto, KAINA, Macie Stewart, and Kurt Shelby. Her performance entranced the Pitchfork audience, displaying one of the unique qualities about Pitchfork as a festival– a festival crowd entirely silent and still while watching an artist. Kara Jackson’s vocal talent truly seems to be a once-in-a-generation type of voice, with such rich tones and emotional weight. Jackson’s set was a highlight of the festival weekend, as well as a testament to the incredible talent that is thriving within the Chicago music scene.
With just three festival stages, Pitchfork Music Festival maintains a lowkey, relaxed environment, allowing for a more casual festival-goer experience. The space between stages gives attendees more space to spread out, sit down, or take a break away from the crowd, which can be difficult at more densely populated festivals like Lollapalooza. Festival sets have little overlap, reducing the stress of running from stage to stage to catch your favorite artists. The festival also features several brand activations, such as Nespresso and Kotex with free products, and vendors within the Renegade Craft Fair and record fair sponsored by CHIRP Radio. Fans could also catch live interviews of their favorite artists at the Visit Austin stage.
Additionally, the festival’s sound quality and mixing was above and beyond compared to other festivals, where sets can become muddy and vocals can be lost. Despite some sound bleed between stages, the Pitchfork sound crew accomplished quite a feat by delivering top-tier mixing for extremely different genres and dense, layered, and complicated musical compositions.
Some of the festival’s best-attended sets this weekend included queer hyperpop duo 100 gecs, punk/ska showman Jeff Rosenstock, pop princess Carly Rae Jepsen, and feminist punk quartet Mannequin Pussy. British producer & songwriter Jai Paul performed for the first time in Chicago on Friday. Riot grrrl pioneers Bratmobile reunited for their first show in the city in twenty years, along with fellow Olympia, Washington band Unwound, on Saturday. Headliner Jamie xx also had his debut Chicago performance as a solo artist at the festival.
With picturesque sunny skies all weekend, Union Park made a great location for the festival, recovering quickly from the tornado that had unexpectedly passed through West Loop earlier in the week. Chicago and its music community look forward to celebrating the immense musical talent that Pitchfork Music Festival brings to the city again in 2025.