Pitchfork is planning to take on the New York music scene with a CMJ-esque festival in February 2012. The online music publication has teamed up with music promoters Bowery Presents, which owns popular venues including Terminal 5 and Mercury Lounge to host the event.
President Christopher Kaskie tells The New York Times that the festival will differ from Pitchfork's annual outdoors festival held in Chicago where the company is based. Rather than using a large park, New York's festival will incorporate various galleries, music venues, and "unconventional performance spaces" throughout the city.
According to Kaskie, festival attendees will also see plenty of visual arts, technology, and multimedia scattered at the shows.
Pitchfork has proven to be an extremely influential company for rising indie bands on the cusp of semi-mainstream (but still cool) breakthrough, launching much of the success behind bands such as Broken Social Scene and Girl Talk. Dave Itzkoff noted in Wired that Pitchfork is the "most influential tastemaker" in the scene and said a Pitchfork review carries the same weight as a more established Rolling Stone review among Metacritic.com users.
Earlier this year, Pitchfork announced they would be holding a festival in Paris set for this month. The two-day Parisian affair is to be curated by Bon Iver and include bands such as Real Estate and Aphex Twin.