Pitchfork Music Festival 2019

I have attended (almost) every Pitchfork Music Festival since 2007, only missing 2010 - the year Robyn played!  That’s a dozen years and it feels like my run is coming to an end.  This has been such a Summer mainstay for me, but it feels like it’s time to move on and try something new - besides, my favorite place to stay in Boystown is going to be sold and I’ll have to find a new place to stay.  Also symbolic is that this is the year I was able to finally catch Robyn closing the festival!  It feels right.  

This year saw its challenges with heat and weather.  The first day we left early because of the heat, missing out on Mavis Staples (meh), Low, and HAIM (who I hear were really good).  I did catch Sky Ferreira who wasn’t particularly captivating.  Grapetooth was a good time though!  On the second day, I really enjoyed Ric Wilson, Bitchin Bajas, Cate le Bon and Parquet Courts - that is until we were thrown out of the festival because of lightning.  We missed Kurt Vile, Stereolab, Belle & Sebastian and the Isley Brothers (yay!).  Sunday was the best day with a surprisingly enjoyable set by black midi, as well an extended stay over at the blue stage to see Tasha, Ibeyi and Amen Dunes!  I did pop over and catch an *amazingly* fun set by Khruangbin!  The festival ended with back-to-back performances by Charli XCX and Robyn.  I couldn’t have asked for a better way to end this festival - and my attendance at it.

Check out some of the photos & video (including an impromptu dance mob for Robyn!):

"Over the course of its three days, Pitchfork Music Festival 2019 had a good amount of variety. Though fans of heavier music or more experimental electronic artists might’ve been out of luck, the lineup otherwise was a good balance offering up something for everyone, and not just in terms of genre. You had legacy alternative acts like Stereolab and Belle & Sebastian on the same day as the Isley Brothers; you had reliably crowd-pleasing festival acts like HAIM headlining over ascendant songwriters like Soccer Mommy or buzz-y young bands like Black Midi. And then, closing it all out at the end, was the pop one-two of Charli XCX and Robyn.

This was a smart bit of booking. Not only are both those acts somewhat unifying draws that go over particularly well at festivals, but it was also a way to make a kind of statement — these are pop artists with big choruses, but they are still left-of-center. Both Charli XCX and Robyn have either released or been involved in some very famous songs this decade, but neither is exactly a ubiquitous household name. They are pop artists outside the usual mechanisms of the pop world. So, if Pitchfork strives to provide a festival a little to the side of a normal American festival, in many ways Charli and Robyn were the ideal options to close this year’s iteration."

(Via Pitchfork Music Festival 2019 Review: Charli XCX And Robyn - Stereogum.)

To cap off my annual experience, here are my previous years’ posts: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018. 

But then again - by next year I may be game all over again… to be continued.