Pitchfork Midwinter at Art Institute of Chicago - Friday
photo by Christian Heinzel

Pitchfork Midwinter Fest in pics (Slowdive, Laurie Anderson, Tortoise & more)

How do you throw a music festival in an art museum? Well, quietly, for one. Midwinter’s “soundscapes” ended up just being a couple of Sonos speakers playing an ambient loop, and the larger sets too often felt like background music to a vaguely interested crowd. (You shouldn’t be able to hear the guy behind you casually failing to impress a fellow attendee with boasts about the quality of his cocaine, for example.) Still, a sort of miracle occurred during DJ Koze’s set, and for the first time on Friday night, the volume finally wrangled the crowd into submission, uniting everyone in a wash of delirious house beats and the producer’s signature sense of easy, alien melody. Koze lit a stick of incense, which wafted through the air, and I could’ve sworn I saw a group discretely hitting a vape pen in the crowd. Maybe you really can throw a music festival in an art museum! [AV Club]

Pitchfork and The Art Institute of Chicago threw their inaugural three-night Midwinter Fest throughout the museum on February 15-17. Performers included Slowdive, Laurie Anderson, Kamasi Washington, Panda Bear, Oneohtrix Point Never, Deerhunter, William Basinski (who performed The Disintegration Loops with The Chicago Philharmonic on Friday and On Time Out of Time on Saturday), Perfume Genius, DJ Koze, serpentwithfeet, Jlin, Grouper, Yves Tumor, Mount Eerie, Mary Lattimore, Hiss Golden Messenger, Joey Purp, Tortoise (who performed TNT for its 21st anniversary), Smerz, Haley Fohr, Madison McFerrin, Baba Stiltz, and more. Check out pictures from all three nights in the gallery above.

photos by Christian Heinzel