Looking at the lineup for this year’s Pitchfork Festival in Chicago, you definitely won’t be bored.

However, you WILL be shuffleboard!

Haha! Get it? You did? And it wasn’t that funny? Oh…

Well, funny or not, we’ll be on hand on July 18, 19 and 20 with our SHUFFLEBOARD BOARD in hand.

Union Park
1501 W Randolph St
Chicago, IL 60607
MAP

If you win (a few games) we’ll give you free Saucony Originals!

But win or lose, we’ll give you joy. Unless you get really upset by losing at shuffleboard, in which case, um… how about a squirtgun or headband?

Photos by Hal Horowitz

Things got pretty rowdy at the Texas Garage at SXSW this year. Saucony Originals had a shuffleboard court set up on the main level, right next the insane line to get into the NYLON/Guess VIP Lounge (did you wait in it?)

Thought shuffleboard was only for your 91 yr old grandmother on her yearly cruise? Think again. We had some big-name players stop by to check out the court - Mahjongg, Tilly and the Wall, Nicole Atkins and the Sea, No Age, and Shirock, just to name a few. Players competed for free shoes and other Saucony O’s swag, while our amazing and fun shuffleboard masters kept score. It was pretty chill during the day, with people taking refuge from the brutal Texas sun by the court, and things continued to get heated into the late-night. Check out some more images from Saturday night’s party!

Shirock (Nashville, TN) celebrate a score on Saturday, 3.16 in Austin, TX.

Nicole and I are sitting in the airport in Austin, TX, waiting on our flight back to NYC.

SXSW was awesome! We met a lot of Saucony fans, and gave away 150+ pairs of shoes to those who ruled the shuffleboard court at Texas Garage, got to 21 first at washers at the Insound.com party, or who just happened to be early to the Stereogum.com / PASTE Party on Saturday!

It was great to meet all of you! We found out even though many of you don’t know how to pronounce Saucony (saw-kah-knee is technically the correct pronunciation), you have lots of love for the shoe. Some of the comments we heard were “They are so affordable, “it’s the most comfortable shoe I’ve ever worn!”, “I love to ride my bike in these,” and the most-heard “How do I get a pair????”

Check back as we continue to recap our SXSW experience. We’ll also be putting up some video in the next couple of days, as well as uploading tons of pics!

In the meantime, check out this gallery of Saturday night’s shuffleboard tournament at JellyNYC’s Texas Garage!

JellyNYC Presents The Texas Garage. 221 W. 3rd St. @ Guadalupe. Day party runs 2p - 6p, night parties 9p - 2a.

This party is going to be out of control - JellyNYC’s secured a huge parking garage in the middle of it all: 20,000 sq ft, three stories, a rooftop POOL, and more. Theme is old-school games - think skeeball, crane machines, Frogger, etc.

We’ll be onsite holding down the shuffleboard court, so stop by to play for a pair of Saucony Originals and other prizing (and for the GLORY of being crowned king/queen of the court). The shuffleboard revolution has started!

Full line-up TBA, but we’ve seen a sneak peek, and you’re not going to want to miss this!

After analyzing the amazing amount of shows for a few hours today, I finally have some foresight as to the shows I am most looking forward to. I believe I will be lucky to make even half of these as debauchery & laziness will most likely take over at times.

Wednesday - Starting at the SESAC Day Stage Cafe @ the Austin Convention Center I’ll try to catch the Noisettes, A Place to Bury Strangers & Akron / Family’s first SXSW 2008 show @ 4:30. These 1/2 hour shows are a good way to ease myself into this year’s festival. After that I am headed to the Texas Garage to get my shuffleboard on!

Thursday - I plan on heading straight to the Texas Garage to check out how the Saucony shuffleboard court is going as that game is addictive! And the space boasts to be pretty rad as well. After losing multiple games & getting my “Loser!” headbands I plan on going to check out Islands & Man Man @ the Anti / Unte Reader party @ the Cedar Street Courtyard. I will have to skip out on the Weakerthans & Billy Bragg to head over to try to get into Emo’s Main Room @ 11:30 to check out one of my favs - The Octopus Project. Islands are playing again after that, but I suspect an early bedtime on Thursday- gotta conserve energy!
Friday - It’s all about the Insound / AAM day party at the Club Deville courtyard from noon-6pm. Saucony will be there with some fun giveaways & games that could score you a free pair of sneakers! Rad! Also an incredible added bonus is the ever-lovely Jens Lekman who is sure to satisfy any Saucony Originals owner. Next? You guessed it! Off to Texas Garage for some more shuffleboard!

Saturday - I plan on going wherever friends take me as I trust their musical tastes & I hope to fall in love with some new bands as well. My one requirement is making the Bound Stems show @ the Flameshovel Party hosted at BD Riley’s at midnight.

While I know I will be exhausted after all that I am planning on sporting my Saucony’s all over Austin, diminishing my fear of tired, sore & achy feet.