What would a hipster festival like Pitchfork be without an aesthetically-pleasing iPhone app? For the second year in a row the team behind scheduling app Diacarta partnered with Pitchfork to put together an app to guide festival goers to and from acts like Feist, Sleigh Bells and Vampire Weekend. I had the chance to chat with the app’s creator, Jake Yanchar, as he roadtripped his way from Cleveland to Chicago for the festival.
Diacarta is a visually-inclined scheduling app and the inspiration behind the Pitchfork app. Asked about the concept behind Diacarta and its Pitchfork counterpart, Yanchar said it all comes down to visual planning. “I used to plot out my day in my Moleskine, and I wanted to reproduce that non-linear thinking in an app.”
The Pitchfork app came to be as a sort of marketing side-project for Diacarta. “As we were adding to Diacarta last year, we thought, hey, Pitchfork doesn’t have an app. Why not recreate Diacarta for them?” So Yanchar and team approached the festival as a potential sponsor. When Pitchfork expressed interest they skinned the Diacarta interface and added visual elements to emanate the Pitchfork brand. With the help of design team Little Jacket and developers 9magnets and Code Joe, Yanchar pulled together a good-looking, easy-to-use scheduling app for festival-goers.
Features
The Pitchfork 2012 app is free but – sorry Android users – only available for iOS. If you do have an iPhone, download the app to find everything you need to know to get the most out of Pitchfork.
Building a daily, personalized schedule is simple. All you have to do is visit the Schedule tab and press the “+” button next to any bands you want to see, and it will automatically land on the fun clock interface within the app. Best of all, each of your selected acts will also sync with iCal, preset with reminders 15 minutes before each show so there’s no excuse for missing an act. If you’ve yet to decide which acts to spend your time with, the app also features quick descriptions of each band.
Union Park isn’t all that big and there are only three stages, but in case you need help navigating, the app includes a map of the festival grounds.
Social functions allow users to share their schedule for the day or even the act they’re currently watching with Twitter followers and Facebook friends.
Overall, it’s a beautiful app that is sure to keep you on track and at the right stage this weekend – as long as you have an iPhone. The only thing it’s missing to really fit in with this crowd is a bit of Instagram synergy. Maybe next year.
