While the Pitchfork Music Festival takes place in Chicago annually, the company also holds a festival across the globe in Paris, France, later in the year.
The first round of artists slated to appear at the festival include Bon Iver, Mac DeMarco, Fever Ray, and Blood Orange, with more yet to be announced. These artists will perform at La Grande Halle de la Villette from November 1 to 3. Additionally, two nights of the week-long festival will include “Avant-Garde” nights, where Pitchfork will take over multiple clubs throughout Paris for special shows on October 30 and 31.
In addition to the festival in Paris, the annual Pitchfork Music Festival will commence in Chicago this July. Two waves of artists were released, including headlining acts Tame Impala, Fleet Foxes, The War On Drugs, and Ms. Lauryn Hill. The soul singer-songwriter Hill just announced her 20th anniversary world tour in support of her debut 1998 record, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.
Other notable acts include Courtney Barnett, Julien Baker, Blood Orange, Japanese Breakfast, Noname, Kelly Lee Owens, and Irreversible Entanglements, among others. The Chicago festival will take place from July 20 to 22 at Union Park.
Adam Krefman, senior director of festivals and activations at Pitchfork, told Pollstar that he chose the lineup by a mix of different aspects, but mainly by what they are covering on the website currently. He said he talks to his editors every day and sees which band is sparking attention in the industry at the moment. However, when asked if he has thoughts on other festivals being criticized for having similar lineups, he cracked it down to the fact that most of the festivals are either promoted by AEG or Live Nation.
“I think they are probably block booking and I’m sure its economical on a spreadsheet to do it that way,” Krefman said. “We’ve only got one festival, so we have to try to make it different. There’s almost no other choice. Part of it is a band like Tame Impala will probably play a lot of those festivals one year and the next year they won’t. And that’s the year that we would probably book them. Some of it is circumstance.”
Check out the full day-by-day lineup below and visit Ticket Club to find tickets to this year’s Pitchfork Music Festival.
Friday, July 20:
Tame Impala
Courtney Barnett
Mount Kimbie
Big Thief
Earl Sweatshirt
Syd
Julien Baker
Saba
Open Mike Eagle
Julie Byrne
Joshua Abrams & Natural Information Society
Lucy Dacus
Melkbelly
The Curls
Saturday, July 21:
Fleet Foxes
The War on Drugs
Blood Orange
Raphael Saadiq
This Is Not This Heat
Moses Sumney
Kelela
Girlpool
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith
Circuit des Yeux
Nilüfer Yanya
Zola Jesus
berhana
Paul Cherry
Sunday, July 22:
Ms. Lauryn Hill (The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill 20th Anniversary Performance)
Chaka Khan
DRAM
Noname
Japandroids
(Sandy) Alex G
Alex Cameron
Smino
Japanese Breakfast
Kelly Lee Owens
Ravyn Lenae
Kweku Collins
Irreversible Entanglements
Nnamdi Ogbonnaya
