Pitchfork Music Festival

Now that it has been more than a week it is high time I gave you an accounting of the Pitchfork Music Festival that Lyle and I attended in Chicago. If you care at all about the music you need to read Lyle's accounting, because I was there for the heat.

Lyle and I went in on a Sunday. I, very wisely, sent Lyle and Elaine (my scouts) in on Saturday to get the lay of the land and to bring back tips and tricks. Elaine's biggest tip was to bring "wet ones." The concert was in Union Park so the only facilities were many, many port-a-potties, and while they did have little "washing" stations set up outside the they were all out of water most of the day. Unfortunately, we forgot to grab a small thing of wipes as we left the house and we ended up spending $4 on a container of wet ones at a rest area. One of the best $4 I have ever spent. (FYI the best $4 I ever spent was on a hard mylar balloon for Jackson when he was less than a year old. We still have the balloon and he still playes with it.) The other trick they learned was that you could bring small lawn chairs. I debated this choice for about two seconds: carrying a lawn chair around or having to sit on the ground all day. LAWN CHAIR! Having that lawn chair saved our marriage. I would have been beyond miserable (and unable to hide it) if I had had to stand or sit on the ground all day. Back support is a wonderful thing.

So there were three stages for this festival. Two main stages and an auxiliarry stage. The main acts alternated between the two main stages; while one was playing the next one was able to set up. So we moved back and forth between the stages which was actually a good thing since you got to stare at different butts every half hour or so.

Actually butts are not that interesting. What I ended up staring at was shoes. I was heartened to notice that nearly everyone opted for comfort. The big winner in the shoe competition was the flip flop. Flip flops in all shapes and sizes in all price brackets were prominently displayed. I personally don't get the appeal of the flip flop, I haven't been able to stand having anything between my toes since I was six, but I understand that everyone else in the world loves them. Coming in second was your basic gym shoe. Here New Balance was the big winner and I myself had on my New Balance sneakers so I considered myself moderately hip by association. A close third was a basic comfortable sandal without all the flipping and flopping. This was Lyle's shoe of choice so we were both in the top three. Rounding out the competition were four pairs of kitten heels. Those girls were regretting their choice about a half-hour into the concert. If someone had been selling flip flops the four girls who were wearing kitten heels would have been over there in a second. A girl that was in front of me for one of the bands (pretty early in the day) kept taking off one shoe and shaking and rubbing that foot and then taking off the other shoe and shaking and rubbing that foot. I felt sorry for her but there is a price to be paid for stupidity and vanity. There were only two pairs of Crocs (I would have expected more) and one pair of cowboy boots. I did not see any "doc marten" kind of boots which I would have expected at a concert like this, but I guess even "goths" have to dress for the heat.

Did I mention it was hot? Temperatures got up to 96 with a heat index of about 106. It was hot. We lasted about an hour and half in the sun and then we hit the shade for a couple of hours. Everyone took their water very seriously. While they did not let you bring in any food you were allowed to bring in two water bottles a piece. Lyle and I brought in two 1.5 litre bottles (and we consumed it all) but we saw people walking around with gallon jugs of water and I am sure the water sales were through the roof both days. I think I saw three people wearing actual long pants. Shorts (cargo on the men) and t-shirts were the overwhelming uniform on choice.

The music was mostly fun, the people-watching was fun, the heat was tolerable with a chair, the food was OK, and the company was great, so we had a good day.