After curating the 2005 Intonation Music Festival, Pitchfork went ahead and started hosting its own fest, Pitchfork Music Festival, in Chicago in 2006. It has since expanded to other cities, but now the future of the flagship event is in doubt: Today (November 11), organizers announced the Chicago festival will not be hosted in 2025.
A message shared on social media today reads:
“To our Chicago Festival community:
As the music festival landscape continues to evolve rapidly, we have made the difficult decision not to host Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago in 2025.
This decision was not made lightly. For 19 years, Pitchfork Music Festival has been a celebration of music, art, and community-a space where memories were made, voices were amplified, and the shared love of music brought us all together. The Festival, while aligned with the taste of the Pitchfork editorial team, has always been a collaborative effort, taking on a life of its own as a vital pillar of the Chicago arts scene. We are deeply grateful to the City of Chicago for being our Festival’s home for nearly two decades, to the artists who graced our stages with unforgettable performances, and to the fans who brought unmatched energy year after year. Thank you to At Pluto and the rest of the hardworking Festival team whose dedication and creativity were the backbone of every event, and to the broader community whose spirit and support made the Festival a truly unique experience. And thank you to Mike Reed for founding the Festival and for your inspiring vision.
Pitchfork will continue to produce events in 2025 and beyond. We look forward to continuing to create spaces where music, culture, and community intersect in uplifting ways — and we hope to see you there.”
The 2024 festival was led by Alanis Morissette, Black Pumas, and Jamie xx.
Notably, this comes after Condé Nast, which has owned Pitchfork since 2015, let go of a number of employees earlier this year.
