Prospectus

Issue date: 7/1/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Patrick Wood

When you think of a music festival, astronomically priced tickets and ridiculously large crowds probably come to mind. Factor in the possibility of a long drive and you might begin to think about just staying at home this summer. Think again.

Pitchfork Music Festival is one of the biggest indie music events in the Midwest-it has gained popularity by keeping admission prices low and giving fest-goers room to enjoy some of their favorite indie artists on three different stages located in Chicago's Union Park. Pitchfork the music festival is put on by Pitchfork the online publication, along with their production partner, At Pluto, both of which are based in Chicago.

Prices for P4K 2009 changed very little from 2008 and that's because Pitchfork isn't looking to make gains in that way.

"We're don't budget our year out with the expectation that this is going to be a big money-maker," said Scott Plagenhoef, Pitchfork's editor-in-chief. "This is something that we like to do, it's a nice extension of our website, and obviously we want it to do well, so we keep doing it."

And Pitchfork is doing well. This year, tickets sold out almost a month in advance, and when 900 extra tickets were offered a week before, they sold out within two days. Over the three days of Pitchfork, Union Park was filled with fans of all ages and from all over. Here's a day-by-day recap of Pitchfork Music Festival 2009.

On Friday, fans were just beginning to enter Union Park and by the time the first band went on at 5 p.m. a healthy crowd had gathered. Only four bands played that evening on the Connector and Aluminum Stages, but Built to Spill easily drew in the largest crowd of the evening. Prior to their performance, The Jesus Lizard, Yo La Tengo, and Tortoise also played.

Saturday, a noticeably larger amount of people made their way in. The Balance Stage opened and drew many of those people to the southwest corner of the park to see performances by Matt and Kim, The Wavves, and Ponytail. The crowd energy was strong enough to break the photo pit barrier while Ponytail played. As the evening went on, Doom, Beirut, a multitude of indie bands brought fans back to the main stages (Aluminum and Connector). The night was finally capped off by The National, who drew in one of the largest crowds for Saturday night.

Continued...

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