Haim, The Isley Brothers, Robyn To Headline Pitchfork Music Festival

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Natasha Moustache / Getty Images
– Robyn
Robyn performs at Boston Calling in 2016. The Swedish pop luminary will headline the final night of this year’s Pitchfork Music Festival.

Pitchfork Music Festival announced the lineup for its annual flagship event on Wednesday.

Haim, The Isley Brothers and Robyn will headline the festival, which returns to Chicago’s Union Park from July 19 to July 21.

Haim’s Friday headlining spot will be, according to a press release, the pop-rock trio’s sole concert of 2019. The band released their second and most recent album, Something to Tell You, in 2017, and last played Chicago in May 2018, selling 7,722 tickets and grossing $305,019 over two nights at the Aragon Ballroom.

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Dia Dipasupil / Getty Images
– Haim
Haim perform at Radio City Music Hall in 2018. The pop-rock trio will headline this year’s Pitchfork Music Festival.
The Isley Brothers will headline the festival’s Saturday lineup in what is being billed as a “60th Anniversary Celebration.” The gig accompanies a handful of other 2019 dates the iconic R&B act has announced, including a similarly billed 60th anniversary event at Nashville’s Schermerhorn Symphony Center on July 17. In February 2012, the Isley Brothers sold 3,116 tickets and grossed $187,675 at the Chicago Theatre. The duo’s most recent album was 2017’s Power of Peace, a collaborative effort with Santana.

Robyn wraps up a North American tour later this month — the Swedish pop luminary headlines Madison Square Garden on Friday – and her Pitchfork gig marks her first announced performance outside of Europe this summer. The tour follows her 2018 LP Honey, which was her first proper studio album in nearly a decade. Coincidentally, Robyn headlines Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom tonight; on her 2014 tour with Röyksopp, Robyn sold 10,660 tickets and grossed $389,664 at the Windy City’s Jay Pritzker Pavilion.

Other noteworthy performers include Mavis Staples, Earl Sweatshirt, Belle & Sebastian, Kurt Vile, Pusha-T, Charli XCX, Whitney, Khruangbin, Sky Ferreira, Low, Soccer Mommy, Julia Holter, Valee, Parquet Courts, Freddie Gibbs, Jay Som and Snail Mail.

Stereolab will also play their first North American gig in a decade at the festival, two months before the North American leg of their reunion tour kicks off in Texas. The group’s only other announced festival date on the continent is an October appearance at California’s Desert Daze.

“This summer’s Festival will be my first as editor,” Pitchfork editor-in-chief Puja Patel, who was named to the position last September, said in a statement. “It’s exciting that it also features such an inclusive lineup. More than half the artists performing are women, including modern pioneers of indie rock and hip-hop, legends of soul and R&B and a headlining set by the dance-pop icon Robyn.”

Pitchfork festival director Adam Krefman added that “there are some one-of-a-kind moments in our lineup this year. Not just big celebratory moments, but also moments with artists who have collaborated recently or have had clear influences on each other over the year.” Krefman praised the “audience who’s ready to follow us down these curatorial rabbit holes, eager to be surprised year after year.”

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Greg Campbell / Getty Images
– The Isley Brothers
The Isley Brothers perform last September in Memphis. The R&B legends will headline Pitchfork Music Festival this July.

Last year, Tame Impala, Fleet Foxes and Ms. Lauryn Hill headlined Pitchfork Music Festival. Other recent headliners include LCD Soundsystem, A Tribe Called Quest, Solange, Beach House, Sufjan Stevens, FKA twigs, Wilco, Sleater-Kinney and Chance the Rapper.

The festival, which began in the mid-’00s, has also expanded over the years. In 2011, the festival launched a fall iteration in Paris. And last month, Pitchfork debuted Midwinter, a new music event held at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Speaking with Pollstar ahead of Midwinter, Krefman teased this summer’s Pitchfork Music Festival. “The summer festival world is super challenging, the bookings are so homogenous, so to continue to try to set ourselves apart from just booking what else is out there has been a challenge,” he said. “But I look at our lineup and I’m really, really excited for the summer.”

Tickets for Pitchfork Music Festival are on sale now, with three-day passes priced at $175 and single-day passes set at $75. The festival also offers a pricier “PLUS” upgrade that grants access to premium food vendors, private bars, air conditioned bathrooms, shaded areas, expedited entry and re-entry privileges. Prices for all tiers will increase after May 31.

Find the festival’s full lineup below.

Friday, July 19
Haim
Mavis Staples
Earl Sweatshirt
Jeremih
Sky Ferreira
Low
Soccer Mommy
Julia Holter
Grapetooth
Rico Nasty
Valee
Standing on the Corner
Mike
Great Black Music Ensemble
Saturday, July 20
The Isley Brothers – 60th Anniversary Celebration
Belle & Sebastian
Stereolab
Kurt Vile
Pusha-T
Parquet Courts
Freddie Gibbs
Amber Mark
Jay Som
Cate Le Bon
Tirzah
CHAI
Ric Wilson
Lala Lala
Sunday, July 21
Robyn
Charli XCX
Whitney
Khruangbin
Clairo
Snail Mail
Neneh Cherry
Ibeyi
Amen Dunes
JPEGMAFIA
Flasher
Black Midi
Dreezy
Tasha