Organizers of the Pitchfork Music Festival have settled a lawsuit against the festival’s co-founder after accusing him of misappropriating more than $500,000 in festival funds.
Pitchfork Festivals LLC sued co-founder Mike Reed last month in federal court in Chicago, alleging he kept $564,680 by falsely claiming the money reimbursed expenses he had already incurred while preparing for the 2025 festival, which was later canceled.
In a social media post shared Monday, Reed said he and Condé Nast — Pitchfork’s New York-based parent company — had reached a settlement.
“I want to thank the many people who have shown support over the last few weeks,” Reed wrote on Instagram. “I’m happy to say that both parties have decided to settle our issues amicably. We can now put these issues in the past and move forward.”
In a lawsuit filed July 6, Pitchfork accused Reed of fraud, unjust enrichment, breach of fiduciary duty, conversion, accounting and fraudulent transfer.
After the festival was canceled in 2024, and after a failed attempt to restart the event in 2025, organizers said they asked Reed to return nearly $4 million dollars that had been sent to his production company, Big Stik LLC. But Reed falsely claimed that more than a half million dollars had been used on labor and other fees when it hadn’t, according to the lawsuit.
Instead of returning the funds, Reed allegedly transferred the money from the company contracted by Pitchfork to another entity under his control, At Pluto Ltd.
The lawsuit alleged that Reed concealed the transfer of funds and that Pitchfork only discovered it through the discovery process in a related arbitration proceeding.
Neither Reed nor Condé Nast immediately responded to a request for comment.