There’s been a lot going on for the past year or so. The biggest, of course, being the COVID-19 pandemic, which shut down most sporting and entertainment events last year.
This summer in Chicago, many music festivals made their return as Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker loosened COVID-19 guidelines amid their ongoing vaccination campaigns.
This weekend (Sept. 10-12), the Pitchfork Music Festival is back in Union Park, and with its own set of COVID-19 guidelines for fest goers: attendees must be fully vaccinated and show their vaccination card to enter the festival gates, or they must provide a negative COVID-19 test within 24 hours of each day they attend the festival. Additionally, wearing masks is encouraged while on festival grounds.
Pitchfork Music Festival’s guidelines differ from Lollapalooza, which came under scrutiny in August for bringing more than 385,000 to Grant Park for four days straight. Although Lightfoot and Lollapalooza officials initially announced that attendees must obtain a negative COVID-19 test result “within 24 hours of attending Lollapalooza each day,” they later expanded that guideline to 72 hours.
I’m fully vaccinated, and Pitchfork has the clearest COVID guidelines we’ve seen of any major fest, so the higher ups gave me the greenlight to go enjoy some music. (There’s rapid COVID testing happening at the festival, too).
This will be my first time at Pitchfork, which usually hosts about 60,000 attendees. As a lover of music, I’m excited to experience the diversity of sounds on this year’s lineup: from rock and punk to pop, hip hop and R&B. And trust, I’m gonna be masked up!
While the bulk of this Pitchfork weekend will focus on underground acts such as Maxo Kream and Armand Hammer, the festival will round out with some big-name stars who’ve got that legendary status under their belt; such as Jay Electronica and Erykah Badu.
And I’m here for it all!
Here’s a quick rundown of who I’m most looking forward to watching perform at Pitchfork. (Also, for those who won’t be there in person, you can livestream the festival here).