ONE Staff / July 26th, 2013 / Blogs
GL-Joe does Pitchfork Festival Chicago

Pitchfork Festival in Chicago is a fun time. There’s lots of babes, free food, booze and lots and lots of Redbull. So much Redbull that I now have a fridge full of it.

Every year Pitchfork comes through it means lots of work and money for me and other people. But this was the first year I was not working at Pitchfork, and the first year I had normal admission tickets. Although I was given them for free from Vice/Ray Bans. So I was kind of excited to go and be a normal person at a festival, which I have never done in my history of attending festivals. But come Friday I was hired by RedBull to edit a music video all day and night, into the next morning. Then Saturday came and I had to go film a live stream event for Vice/RayBans.

It’s not like I’m mad, ’cause they gave me a weekend pass to Pitchfork. And I ended up stealing a bottle of tequila from VIP and getting wasted while steadily balancing a C300 in the air above my head. All so that people around the world could tune in on some web page and watch Chicago party.

Finally Sunday comes around and I’m beat — haven’t slept all weekend and I had my 3-year-old daughter, Lulli, with me. I was about to not go at all when I realize how awesome it would be for her, in the coming years, to trump her friends with a great first concept story. We’re talking MIA and R Kelly. Nobody at the lunch table is going to top that. So it was time to be a good dad.

Her presence meant I knew there would be no slipping acid into rapper’s drinks, banging babes on top of RVs, or going on an all-night hallucinogenic adventure with random people I’d just met. But I will have introduced my daughter to MIA and R Kelly at a live show. Hopefully this will positively impact her later in life.

As soon as I got there I realized there was no safe way to get close enough to the stage for Lulli to see any of the acts — although I could have body surfed her up to the front. But I’m pretty sure you’d all think I was a bad dad if I’d done that.

So, after paying for overpriced food and drinks, I realized being a normal patron is not fun at all. Especially since during my first experiences at Pitchfork I had “artist” passes that ensured I could do anything I wanted. Literally ANYTHING I wanted. This lead to a clear conclusion — we needed VIP passes.

With a quick phone call these VIP passes were delivered by a friend. So not only was this my daughter’s first concert, it is now her first time being a VIP. As she quickly learned, the VIP life is more fun. Free food, free drink, free clothes, and other random swag given away from sponsors.

Once we got back stage I headed directly over to MIAs set. We got stage side and I let Lulli stand on my shoulders where she let loose. I am not sure what she was doing up there, but everyone turned their attention to her for a brief moment and started filming and snapping pics. Media peeps kept coming up to me to get her information for the newspapers or to snap a pic with her. I think she had fun.

R Kelly ended up performing a 36-song set list. It was fucking amazing. He sang when he talked and released balloons with LED lights out into the sky. I really think he is the Pied Piper because, when he started singing, I have never witnessed my daughter dance, sway and brush her fingers through her hair like she did that night. It’s like his voice has some kind of effect on kids. Kind of creepy I guess, but whatever. At the end of his set he performed “I Believe I Can Fly” and released hundreds of dove-shaped balloons out into the sky. Lulli happened to be on my shoulders and caught one. And that was the end of the night.

A word of advice — It’s best to work at or have VIP passes when attending a festival. I would love to see more skaters back there.

PS — Look at all these fucking bikes!

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