Pitchfork Music Festival opened in Union Park Friday with the kind of July weekend NASCAR can only dream about — bright sun, lake breeze. Music headliners for the weekend: Black Pumas on the mainstage Friday, DJ/musician Jamie xx on Saturday, and original fearless female rocker Alanis Morissette on Sunday.
If Pitchfork is the festival more about the music, less about the scene, must-see bands pop up on all three stages all through the weekend. On Saturday, Kara Jackson and Carly Rae Jepsen are part of the afternoon and evening mix, hip hop legend Grandmaster Flash is Sunday afternoon. Condé Nast, the owner of its namesake Pitchfork music publication, folded the title into GQ at the start of this year, and some have grumbled that the 2024 band lineup is more mainstream. Indeed, Morissette — is she a nostalgia act? — is an atypical choice.
Big change inside the grounds this summer is new towers with platforms for VIP ticketholders, set back from the centers of the main Green and Red Stages, which have the effect of dividing the crowds in two. Pitchfork said in a statement that “We’ve intentionally positioned VIP areas where they will not obstruct sight lines or create barriers for fans. The elevated viewing platforms are situated over the sound booths, which have historically been elevated, so this obstruction is not new.”
Morissette may be nostalgic for 20-something fest-goer Samantha Schubbe of Schaumburg “but she’s also iconic,” she said, and has a big influence on present-day artists. Morissette’s angry, outspoken 1995 album “Jagged Little Pill” has been credited with more or less changing rock ‘n’ roll and remains one of the best-selling albums of all time. “Olivia Rodrogo got a lot of inspiration from her,” Schubbe said.
Pitchfork may be less of a scene — “it’s more for music nerds,” she said — but Schubbe stood out from the crowd Friday as an exception in a sea of band T-shirts and shorts. She described her outfit of black, fishnet and cat ears streaked with neon and color as “Goth-inspired but also a bit of Y2K revival, it’s a bit of a callback to the scene kids of the late 2000s” and the animated series “Invader Zim.” She said a Pitchfork photographer singled her out earlier that afternoon for pictures. “I just wear what I want,” she laughed.
Food vendors are more central in the park this year, lined up just on Washington Boulevard. Fest-goers can find vegan and gluten-free meals along with the Connie’s Pizza. New this year are Avrom Farm with chicken and waffles and Josephine’s Cooking, a local soul food restaurant. A Nespresso lounge served free iced coffee drinks all weekend.
One highlight was Beat Kitchen, which offered tacos on bright purple tortillas and stuffed with fillings like carne asada and jerk pork. Cafe Tola offered empanadas, the perfect portable festival food, and the juicy lechon was a standout when drizzled in spicy red sauce.
Fest-goer Anthony Balderrama says he’s been going to Pitchfork almost every year since 2007, its second year when Yoko Ono was a headliner. He’s seen the festival change over the years, saying that it’s grown more diverse, both for the crowds and the bands that it brings in. But it’s also become more polished and attracts bigger bands. He was looking forward to Jai Paul on Friday and Morrisette on Sunday.
Caitlin Peterson and Alex Coronado, both from Logan Square, telegraphed their fest favorites with matching “I (Heart) Gecs” T-shirts. They’ve known about the band 100 Gecs, playing later in the day, for about two years. The duo of Dylan Brady and Laura Les formed in St. Louis in 2015 and lived and recorded for a while in Chicago, and also played Riot Fest in 2023 and Lollapalooza in 2022.
Coronado described their sound — hard-to-categorize hyperpop with glitchy, unhinged songs like “mememe” and “Dumbest Girl Alive” — as “cathartic in a way; it’s just the right kind of aggressive.”
They said they’re both big music-festival goers.
“One of the best things for me in Chicago is I can kind of fall out my front door and be in a festival,” Coronado said.
The Gecs drew the first really big crowd of the day on the Green Stage, opening full speed with “Dumbest Girl Alive” followed by “stupid horse.” Their songs are short, often punkish, sometimes juvenile (“Frog on the Floor”), many wildly profane. A girl who appeared to be no more than six years old rode a grown-up’s shoulders and sang along to every word of “Hollywood Baby.”
Many Gecs songs last just a chorus or two. “We hit all the same notes as other people,” Les joked in her trademark deadpan, “just for less time.”
Compared to their Lollapalooza set just two years ago, during which Les And Brady all but skulked off the stage at times while non-musicians stormed on to hit random stuff with drumsticks, they seemed more comfortable, more in control. (Maybe even enjoying themselves? “OK, Chicago! Who here has …” was a refrain.) And also loud.
Across the park, sound bleed was hard to miss as Brittney Denise Parks, stage name Sudan Archives, played the Blue Stage at the same time. But the Ohio-born singer-songwriter kept the crowd entertained and showed off her talents on the violin throughout her set. “Selfish Soul,” one of the last songs of her performance, had everyone clapping along as she chanted “I don’t want no struggles, I don’t want no fears.”
Earlier in the day, Zimbabwean-Australian rapper Tkay Maidza got the award for greatest distanced traveled to Pitchfork. “It was 40 hours on planes to get to Chicago,” she said. “But it was so worth it, to be on this stage.”
On a day of global airline stoppages and a planet-wide IT failure, Pitchfork told the Tribune it knew of no disruptions to the music lineup.
As far as music fans, Union Park was full Friday but not overcrowded. Pitchfork has a daily capacity of about 20,000 and was not sold out, with tickets still available. Along with the music and food, there’s the CHIRP Record Fair and Flatstock Poster Fair.
The Austin, Texas-based psychedelic soul band Black Pumas closed out Day 1, opening their set with “Fire” from their self-titled 2019 debut studio album. With a band that included two percussionists and backup singers, they had the richest, fullest sound of the night, with singer Eric Burton’s soaring voice leading the way. The crowd swirled and danced to hits like “Know You Better,” Burton once or twice pausing to get everyone singing along.
“Chi-town!,” he belted out, moping sweat pouring down his face despite the evening chill. “Thank you for making us feel welcome every time!”
Pitchfork Music Festival continues through July 21 in Union Park, 1501 W. Randolph St.; tickets and more information at pitchforkmusicfestival.com
