Friday | Saturday | Sunday
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The music this year runs the gamut from buzzed-about newcomers like Sleigh Bells and Delorean to established veterans like Modest Mouse and Raekwon, playing everything from garage-inflected pop (Girls, Smith Westerns) to hip-hop (Big Boi, Freddie Gibbs) to dance music (Dam-Funk, LCD Soundsystem). Sunday night’s main attraction is the temporarily reunited Pavement, avatars of the kind of indie rock Pitchfork is famous for championing—their best-of set Quarantine the Past got a perfect 10.0 from Pitchfork in March. The two main stages are Aluminum, in the northeast corner of the park, and Connector, to the northwest; the smaller Balance Stage is to the southwest.
Union Park, at the intersection of Ashland and Lake, is accessible via the Ashland and Madison buses as well as Green Line and Pink Line trains, both of which stop right at the park. The Reader‘s Biker Village at Ashland and Warren will offer free secured bicycle parking, air for tires, lube for chains, water, hand-washing stations, and information from a dozen cycling-advocacy groups. The Standard Parking lot at 1640 W. Jackson, four blocks south and a bit west of the park, is giving discounts to festgoers.
Rory Lake’s Karaoke Dreams at the Hideout on Saturday is free for festival attendees (and the hot dogs are free too). Just north of Union Park at Cobra Lounge, 235 N. Ashland, local metal bands Czar and Mara play a free show on Friday night. The Abbey Pub’s Saturday-night release party for the new Touch and Go book, with Tesco Vee’s Hate Police (see the List), White Flag, and Das Kapital, is $10 instead of $14 for Pitchforkers, and the club’s Sunday-night show, headlined by Cains and Abels, is half off if you’re coming from the fest. Local mashup producers the Hood Internet headline a Friday event at the Darkroom, 2210 W. Chicago, that they’re calling Dickfork. The Bitchpork festival at the Mortville space in Lawndale runs Friday through Sunday, with an ambitious three-stage lineup that features more acts than Pitchfork itself—among them Cacaw, Peaking Lights, John Bellows, Cheer-Accident, Psychedelic Horseshit, and White Mystery. (More info is available at the Bitchpork Last.fm page.) If past years are anything to go by, this is only a sampling of the afterfest action—keep your eyes peeled at Union Park and you’re sure to see people promoting “secret shows” at all sorts of quasi-legal venues. —MR
