Complex's Pitchfork Music Festival 2011 Recap

Three days, 45 acts.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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Pitchfork Music Festival

Last weekend Pitchfork Media, the popular music news and criticism website, hosted its sixth annual music festival in Chicago. For three days, 45 acts had Union Park choked with sweating fans. Unlike Bonnaroo or Coachella, which have no explicit guiding philosophy behind who gets booked, or Soundset or All Good, which book based on genre, Pitchfork books the groups they review well. They curate. That means you get Curren$y performing within clouds of weed smoke on the Blue Stage while Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore does his sleepy solo thing on the Red Stage. If your taste jives with Pitchfork’s, the festival is a godsend.

The festival began at 3 p.m. on Friday, July 15. With most of the older patrons still at work, the early moments on Friday were baby time. Soft faced boys in tank tops and jean shorts buzzed among girls in loose shirts modified so that the sides of their bras showed. (Side bra is in full effect this summer—not sure why.) I worked my way through the giddy crowd as Gatekeeper finished their horror movie soundtrack meets four-on-the-floor beats set... 

Friday

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Saturday

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Sunday

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