Diary: Heating up at Pitchfork

Sure, most all of Pitchfork Music Festival-goers eat, drink, and breathe music. Do they usually sweat it, too? Maybe not. But this weekend they absolutely did. With Sunday’s heat index soaring into the 100′s, last weekend’s festival tested the limits of many, including myself, an individual far too familiar with dehydration and experiencing embarrassing episodes of heat stroke at the most inopportune of times. But still, even with scorching temperatures and unbearable humidity, I made it out alive and well, all while having experienced an awesome music-packed weekend at Union Park

From start to finish, Chicago’s infamous Pitchfork Media-sponsored festival provided all of its fans with just what they wanted: A weekend of great music, food, and company. Friday kicked off day one of the festival introducing headliner Animal Collective, as well as artists including Neko Case, James Blake, Das Racist, and Tune-Yards. The festival’s compact and well-organized layout allowed for the concertgoers to have easy access to all three stages, food and drink tents, restrooms, and merchandise tents. At the XRT promo tent, we made efforts to talk to people (very, very, hip people at that), and tried to get them to enter our text-to-win contest all weekend long. The winner of the contest got the chance to go into the sacred VIP area, score some free drinks, and watch exclusive Marty Lennartz interviews with some of the best artists playing at Pitchfork.

After my shift on Friday afternoon I was able to catch a few acts that I had been looking forward to seeing since the lineup came out this spring. The most anticipated show of the night for me was definitely Neko Case. Her album “Middle Cyclone” is one in the same category as very few others that I have absolutely no problem listening to all the way through from start to finish on a daily basis. After hearing a couple of my favorite songs including “The Pharoahs” and “Vengeance is Sleeping,” I didn’t think my day could get any better. That is, until I casually ran into “Community” TV star, Danny Pudi, fellow Neko fan and Marquette Golden Eagle. We bonded over our Milwaukee pride and pinky swore to stay best friends forever. After a wonderful hour with Neko and Danny, I made my way over to the Animal Collective stage to meet up with some fellow interns to watch one of the most anticipated headliners of the weekend. The show was a great way to end day 1, and an even better way to kick off the rest of the weekend that was still to come.

Although I had to miss Saturday’s lineup, I was more than ready to come back on Sunday to see Toro y Moi, Deerhunter, and TV On The Radio. All three of the acts were incredible, and well worth the buckets of perspiration that resulted after standing in 100 degree temperatures all day long. The entire weekend was an absolute blast and definitely one of my favorites of the summer. Being able to see some of my favorite artists perform at such a small and intimate festival was a great experience and made for an incredibly enjoyable weekend. Overall, I’m most happy to say that I made it out alive. Sue-1, Heat Stroke-0.

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