Pitchfork Music Festival will not return to Chicago next year

CHICAGO (CBS) — Pitchfork Music Festival will not be held in Chicago next year, organizers announced Monday. 
After 19 years in the city, organizers posted on social media that they are “deeply grateful to the City of Chicago.”
“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,” the post stated. 
Organizers said they will continue to produce events next year, but did not reveal a new location. 
The festival was known for featuring artists on their way to stardom. Pitchfork brought plenty of music’s brightest and most critically-acclaimed stars to the area, including Beyoncé, The Roots, Erykah Badu, Mitski, Phoebe Bridgers and St. Vincent in recent years.
The event would frequently attract in the neighborhood of 60,000 music lovers to Chicago’s Union Park.
But Ald. Walter Burnett (27th) said festival organizers told him Pitchfork isn’t profitable.
“I think it’s completely sustainable, and could have been sustained with the right decision-making,” said Ryan Schreiber, the founder of Pitchfork Magazine and its former editor-in-chief.
Schreiber said when he stepped away in 2019, the festival was still profitable.
“The fact that this has happened—it comes as a little bit of a surprise,” he said. “It was thriving; had been a huge success every year since we started it. So yeah, it remained as successful as ever.”
The 19th and final Pitchfork Music Festival in Union Park was last July. The show went on despite layoffs last year at Pitchfork.
Media giant Condé Nast acquired Pitchfork in 2015.
“They were a back neighborhood event, you know?” said music journalist and photographer James Currie. “They weren’t something that was taking over the lakefront. They weren’t something that was taking over a major park in the north or south.”
Currie is a music journalist and photographer. He has previously covered Pitchfork, and says the Chicago music scene is taking a hit with its departure.
“It’s heartbreaking,” Currie said. “You know, it’s sad.”
Tourism experts have previously said mega-concerts like Pitchfork are crucial for Chicago’s economy. Leaders with Chicago’s tourism group said many rely on visitor economy during such events, especially the hospitality industry.  
Vendors like the Chicago Dog House say Pitchfork was always one of their biggest summer festivals.
“Pitchfork is always a lot of fun for us,” said Sean Jerome of Chicago Dog House. “You know, we’re at most of the festivals. Pitchfork is one of the busier ones for us.”
Terrance “Lil Tuffy” Ryan, a California artist, sold posters at Pitchfork all 19 years.
“It was a punch to the gut,” he said.
Ryan said he has noticed a change in the festival since the company was sold to Condé Nast.
“I don’t think they really understood, you know, what the festival—how it’s integral to Pitchfork and to Chicago—I think they didn’t really understand that part of the business,” he said.
Ald. Burnett said he is working with the city to try to keep the festival.

Eric Henderson

contributed to this report.