In our download-obsessed culture, music has increasingly become a private experience for many people, and it is exciting to be a part of a large-scale event such as the Pitchfork Music Festival, which lends itself for communication, sharing, and “Dude, have you heard this yet?!?”

One of the Pitchfork Music Festival’s greatest triumphs is highlighting an independent-minded culture that goes beyond music with volunteer-staffed info-booths run by social action groups and non-profits, DIY clothing and gift vendors, 

The Flatstock art exhibit gathers some of the most innovative concert poster artists in the business,  not to mention the CHIRP Record Fair, where independent labels from around the country, record stores and collectors are able to sell their wares.

The focal point of this community, needless to say, is the music itself. But despite high pre-fest anticipation, and a wide-ranging cast of talent that combined emerging artists with long-time favorites including iconic Sunday-night headliner The Flaming Lips, as often as not, many would-be extraordinary moments were marred by sound problems or obscured by the claustrophobia-inducing crowds in the moderate-sized Union Park.

Although there was still plenty of fun to be had, it seemed likely that many artists that might blow someone over in a club setting had the odds stacked against them.