Pitchfork Music Festival in Paris
Tireless review website and increasingly rabid festival booker Pitchfork announced today that they will be bringing their curating talents to the land of Daft Punk for the first annual Pitchfork Music Festival Paris. The two day fest will take place on October 28th and 29th at La Grande Halle de la Villete, a 5.000-capacity venue which the site describes as ‘a stunning 19th century glass and metal structure that stands in the center of the Parc de la Villette, the city’s largest public cultural park.’
In a twist no doubt inspired by their buddies at U.K.’s All Tomorrow’s Parties festival, the lineup for the second day will be partially curated by Pitchfork golden boy Bon Iver, whose self-titled album recently garnered rave reviews from the site. Time will tell if this will be as successful as their Chicago festival (it’s sixth incarnation is going down in two weeks) or if Pitchfork Paris will be indie rock’s very own Euro Disney.
- Pitchfork Music Festival.
Chicago’s Pitchfork Music Festival, a leading annual event for indie music lovers – July 15-17 – announced on July 1 its plans to expand internationally for the first time, with a two-day festival in Paris with headliner – and curator – Bon Iver.
The Paris Pitchfork event will run October 28-29 at La Grand Halle de la Villette in Paris’s Parc de la Villette and will feature 20 bands and DJ’s, expecting to draw some 10.000 people. Other acts expected to perform so far include Justin Vernon, Jens Lekman, Wild Beasts, Cut Copy, Kathleen Edwards, and Pantha du Prince.
Bon Iver, an international chart-topping act thanks to the release of its new self-titled sophomore album, will headline the event on Saturday, October 29, as well as handpick bands to perform. Two-day passes, now on sale, run €79.90. Further details, including full lineups and schedules, will be revealed in the coming weeks.
Fleet Foxes, Animal Collective, and TV on the Radio are taking the main stage at this year’s Chicago event, now in its sixth year. Other acts in the lineup include James Blake, Toro y Moi, Guided by Voices, Das Racist, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, Cut Copy, Deerhunter, Destroyer, and Yuck, among many others. Single-day tickets cost $45 – €32 – and are available at Ticketweb.com.
Other international festivals catering to indie-lovers and eschewing corporate sponsorship include Barcelona’s Primavera Sound – July 27-28 – with Animal Collective, Joanna Newson, and Beach House. Also, the UK’s All Tomorrow’s Parties will host an event curated by Portishead in London’s Alexandra Palace on July 23 and 24, with Portishead, PJ Harvey, Caribou, and a slew of other indie acts.
With the sixth annual Pitchfork Music Festival just around the corner July 15-17 in Union Park, the Chicago-based music Web site has announced it’s expanding the franchise to Europe.
Pitchfork Music Festival Paris will debut Oct. 28-29 with Pitchfork’s latest cause celebre – the introspective, falsetto-voiced artist Bon Iver (aka Justin Vernon) – headlining and curating the lineup October 29, Pitchfork announced on its Web site. Also confirmed to play at the 5,000-capacity La Grande Halle de la Villette are Jens Lekman, Wild Beasts, Cut Copy, Kathleen Edwards and Pantha du Prince, among 20 bands and ‘a multitude of DJs’to be announced in coming weeks.
The festival marks the latest expansion of the Pitchfork franchise, which began as a bedroom e-zine in the mid-90′s by founder Ryan Schreiber. He moved the label’s headquarters to Chicago in 1999, and its popularity and influence escalated with the rise of digital music and on-line search engines. In the last decade, Pitchfork’s reviews have helped build early popularity for bands such as Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene and Bon Iver.
The Pitchfork Music Festival has been a success since launching in 2006, routinely selling out 50,000 tickets annually and drawing top-level bands. The Web site also launched Pitchfork.tv in 2008 to display videos and published a book: “The Pitchfork 500: Our Guide to the Greatest Songs from Punk to the Present.”