In just a little over two days the Pitchfork Music Festival’s horde of disheveled, breezily attired patrons will again descend on Chicago’s Union Park. Held over the course of three delightful (albeit extremely hot+loud) days and nights, Pitchfork is hands-down the most anticipated independent outdoor music event of the summer. As a returning sponsor of the festival Incase will again be on hand gifting performing artists and festival attendees with a barrage of helpful goodies.

As always, please remember to bring a hat, ear plugs and comfy shoes. Eat something. Drink water. Perhaps even have a nap. Maybe bring a sheet or small blanket for lurking with pals on the lawn. We look forward to seeing you in Chicago soon!

After eight months of planning and hundreds of hours of heavy lifting, the 7th Annual FYF Fest finally happened this past Labor Day weekend at the LA State Historic Park. Was it hot outside? Terribly! Was it impossibly dusty? Yes! But that didn’t stop over 20,000 confirmed festival attendees from waiting in nearly 3-hour long lines to get in. How were the bands? Great! Festival standouts included Sleep, Big Freedia, Warpaint, Abe Vigoda, The Mountain Goats, Local Natives, OFF!, Unbroken, Cold Cave and Washed Out.

Did we gift piles of free cases for the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS? It’s true, we did. Were people pumped? They were! A few times almost to the point of tears. (Just ask Incase industrial designer Tim Wall, he came down to survey the scene and instead got a crash course in learning just what it means to spend 12-hours gifting cases to thousands of wildly enthusiastic Incase lovers). He left a changed man. New insights, new memories, new tunes, new friends and new ideas. This is what community organized music & arts festivals are all about.

All jokes aside, we feel tremendously fortunate to work on FYF with our friends each year. It truly requires the efforts of our entire arts & music community to pull this thing off. To Phil and Sean at FYF Productions, Justin at Altamont Apparel, Chris at LA Record, Michael at Videothing.com, Alex at Stories Books & Cafe, and to Kevin and Andy at The Cha Cha Lounge… (among so many others), this festival couldn’t happen without the hard work and goodwill of every one of you. Thank you. And last but not least— to Michelle, Tamarra, Moses, Kelley, and Tim, thanks for braving such heat and lending your hands and ears to so many Incase fans this weekend. We look forward to sponsoring FYF Fest next year. Until then enjoy the FYF Fest 2010 photos on our Flickr stream.

At the Bagdad Theater on Friday, September 10th, Incase & MFNW will present the new concert documentary Burning by Scottish post-rock giants Mogwai. If you’re at all wondering what this means, we can spell it out in three words: serious rock action. If an instrumental band ever deserved having a full-length concert film made about their live show it would be Mogwai. Bring ear plugs and a quadruple espresso. Doors at 7PM, tickets are $5 clams. For a chance to win film tickets and VIP passes to the festival check: @MUSICFESTNW

We’ll also be at Pioneer Square on September 11-12th for two nights of outdoor concerts with festival headliners The National, The Walkmen, Helio Sequence and The Decemberists. Join us as we gift a zillion Incase Snap Cases and get deeply weird enjoying the city’s Indian summer. Check the recap of MFNW 2009. Really, it’s worth it!

Chicago is a magnificent city. Massive, industrious and steeped in American musical history… all of which makes it the perfect setting for the summer annual Pitchfork Music Festival. Check the photos and read the recap.

Chicago is a magnificent city. Massive, industrious and steeped in American musical history… all of which makes it the perfect setting for the summer annual Pitchfork Music Festival. Chicago in July, however, generally offers one of two weather vibes. You’re either dying of heat exhaustion or running from thundershowers and lightning. Last year saw scattered rain and even a bit of fog, which kept the mood nice and mellow. This year? It was blazing hot from sunrise to sundown for three straight days. Like, 90-degrees in the shade-style hot. So glad Matt the Ice Cream Man posted his van next to us.

So what did this year’s Pitchfork look like? 54,000 music lovers. Four dozen street meat trucks and various food vendors (once again the curry cart was the best). Thousands of bicycles. Dozens of indie record labels and arts & crafts vendors. 3,200 free Incase iPhone cases. Thousands of sweaty music lovers running around, spazzing out, falling down, flailing wildly, singing along and taking naps. Tents… and thousands of sunburns….

Stand out performances included Bear In Heaven, LCD Soundsystem, Beach House, Lightning Bolt, Kurt Vile, Titus Andronicus, Sharon Van Etten, Major Lazer and Robyn (yes, the Swedish pop star). For the sixth straight year in a row, the artists, vendors, festival organizers and fans alike made Pitchfork one of (if not the) best summer music festival in North America. We hope to see you next year.

We added some photos from the Bicycle Film Festival in Denver. It turned out to be a blast, despite 2 feet of snow on the first night!

Now in its 5th year, it is just about time for the Pitchfork Music Festival and its 55,000 attendees to again swoop down on Chicago’s Union Park. Held over the course of three long, loud days & nights, Pitchfork is by far and away the most anticipated outdoor music event of the summer. Most anticipated that is, if you’re an indie rocker in skinny jeans with an ear for clanky-clonky twee jams made by other indie rockers in skinny jeans. Psyche! That’s not entirely true.

In addition to 39 other celebrated independent acts from across the musical spectrum, this year Pitchfork plays host to the behemoth reunion of The Jesus Lizard, hands down one of the greatest live bands of all time.

As a sponsor of this year’s festival, Incase will be on hand with bin stations spread out around the events grounds gifting attendees with a rainbow avalanche of free slider cases for iPod & iPhone. Also, be sure to stop by Pitchfork’s Recycling Store for additional Incase prizes and recycling contest giveaways.

Word to the wise— Wear a hat, drink water. Maybe bring a sheet or small blanket, you’re gonna want to lay down now and again. Seriously.

Have fun, we hope to see you there.

July 17, 18, 19th
Union Park
Chicago, IL

Wow. We arrived in San Francisco last week, a little nervous about spending two days on an artificial island in the middle of the San Francisco Bay, asking ourselves “Who actually lives on Treasure Island?” and “Is it really made out of trash and dredged mud?” Once we actually made it on-site (after a left lane exit ramp followed by a hairpin turn), we were blown away by the amazing views of the Bay Bridge, cryptic “no trespassing” and “radioactive” signage and laid-back vibe of the Treasure Island Music Festival.

We were onsite at TIMF for both Saturday’s dance line-up and Sunday’s indie rock jam, silkscreening scarves with custom SF-themed designs from the Royal Scourge and handing out free Incase product. The line for the Incase booth was at times out of control, winding itself into other vendors’ tents (sorry, Boost Mobile and Jim Streibich!)

We had a blast talking to festival goers about Incase and helping them choose custom Royal Scourge designs (Tenderloin furry with ballgag vs. Mission furry with fixie bike) for their scarves. Our scarves definitely came in handy as the sun went down and the wind whipped up!

We were also lucky enough to get Incase product to some of the festival bands: CSS, TV on the Radio (killer), Spiritualized (OMFG), Vampire Weekend, the Raconteurs and more.

Check out more photos (by Arlie Carstens) from the weekend. Thanks to our local staff Nick, Nihal and Josh, screen printers Zoe + Erik at VESL and The Royal Scourge for making this weekend a blast. YOU LOOKED GOOD!

If you’re in San Francisco this weekend, check us out at the 2nd Annual Treasure Island Music Festival, a two-day arts and music fest featuring Justice, Vampire Weekend, Spiritualized (!) TV on the Radio and more.

We’ll be onsite with local art and design collective VESL Studios in the Treasure Chest Vendor Village, where we’ll be silkscreening jersey scarves with artwork by NYC-based artist Royal Scourge. (Those are his furry creatures below)

And if you’re hanging out after the festival, be sure to stop by the Menomena show at the Independent. We’ll be there watching bands, talking about Incase and passing out some goods.

We’ve also contributed gear to the festival’s Recycling Center, so bring your recyclables and exchange them for an iPhone 3G case. And if you’re a blogger, please stop by our booth to pick up complimentary products to make blogging about the festival safer for your gear.

See you on the Island!