Pitchfork Music Festival Will Not Return in 2025

After two decades spent as one of the most acclaimed music festivals in North America, the Pitchfork Music Festival will not be returning to Chicago in 2025, organizers have revealed.

The news was shared on both the festival’s website and social media accounts, explaining that, “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”.

“This decision was not made lightly,” the statement continued. “For 19 years, Pitchfork Music Festival has been a celebration of music, art, and community—a space where memories were made, voices were amplified, and the shared love of music brought us all together. The Festival, while aligned with the taste of the Pitchfork editorial team, has always been a collaborative effort, taking on a life of its own as a vital pillar of the Chicago arts scene.

“We are deeply grateful to the City of Chicago for being our Festival’s home for nearly two decades, to the artists who graced our stages with unforgettable performances, and to the fans who brought unmatched energy year after year. Thank you to At Pluto and the rest of the hardworking Festival team whose dedication and creativity were the backbone of every event, and to the broader community whose spirit and support made the Festival a truly unique experience. And thank you to Mike Reed for founding the Festival and for your inspiring vision.”

“Pitchfork will continue to produce events in 2025 and beyond,” they concluded. “We look forward to continuing to create spaces where music, culture, and community intersect in uplifting ways—and we hope to see you there.”

The Pitchfork Music Festival has its origins in 2005’s Intonation Music Festival, which saw local promoters Skyline Chicago recruit Pitchfork Media to curate their inaugural event at Chicago’s Union Park. Though Intonation would return in 2006, Pitchfork Media split to create their own event under the Pitchfork Music Festival name.

Over the years, the festival has featured a raft of celebrated headliners, including Animal Collective, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Slint, Björk, Wilco, A Tribe Called Quest, the Isley Brothers, and more. Though their 2020 event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it returned in earnest in 2021, with this year’s event taking place in July and featuring Jamie xx, Alanis Morissette, and Black Pumas as headliners.

The festival also expanded outside of its Union Park home, holding international events in Paris between 2011 and 2022; in London from 2021 to 2023; Berlin in 2020 and 2022; and a lone event in Mexico City this year.

The news of Pitchfork Music Festival’s demise arrives months after Condé Nast announced in January that staff layoffs would take place as the website was absorbed by another Condé title, men’s magazine GQ.