Pitchfork Recap + Everything You Need To Know About Car2Go

I’ll just come out and say it: I’m a BAD Chicagoan. I’ve lived here for the last 13 years of my life and there are so many classic and quintessential festivals, events, fairs, shows, markets that have for some reason been forever stuck on my “to-do” list. Pitchfork being one of them.

One of my goals as of late has been to try new things, live for the weeknights instead of just the weekends, and take advantage of all the amazing offerings the city has going on, especially in the summer! So when car2go invited me to come party with them at the festival and learn all about their carsharing service that just came to Chi city as of July 25th, you can bet I was fired UP.

What Is car2go?

car2go is the world’s largest and fastest-growing free-float carsharing service, built of a “free-floating” network of 400 affordable and eco-friendly vehicles. Basically, you download the app, and it’ll give you GPS visibility into where all the available cars are located. Unlike a rental car service, there is no office you need to pick up or drop off the car; you can hop in a car whenever, wherever, (with no reservations required) and simply park it in any  approved space within car2go’s Home Area. No need to refuel, no need to take it back to where you picked it up.

Boom. That easy.

I can think of a million and one reasons that this service will be a game changer in your life— Paying for permanent parking in a city is crazy expensive and is something that really wouldn’t be worthwhile for my life. And, sometimes an Uber just won’t cut it… I moved a few months back and not having a car to shuttle stuff to and from was just the WORST. Oh, and waiting on delayed public transportation or needing to get to the suburbs? Yeah, no fun sans car.

Another really cool thing about car2go is how affordable it is, especially when compared against typical ride sharing service rates.

Let’s take a look at an average 30-min trip in downtown Chicago, roughly 7 miles. With taxes and fees included, taking a car2go Smart car for the 30 min/7 mile Trip Package comes down to $9.68. The same route without surge pricing will set you back $16.94 on average, almost a 75% price increase!

The forecast called for rain and thunderstorms ALL weekend and we somehow got so lucky! The days were a little on the cooler side, a little overcast, but tons of intermittent sunshine.

Francis and I checked out the car2go activation as soon as we arrived. We got to speak with staff, learn all about the service, take some photobooth pics, and listen to tunes! Their tent had a really cool retro vibe with record players everywhere.

The rest of our time was probably the chillest I’ve ever experienced at a music festival. Pitchfork is known for highlighting up and coming artists, and since I didn’t come in knowing the majority of the performers, we really just went with the flow, walking around and grabbing some space wherever we were digging the music (let the record show that this was the day I became a huge Kweku Collins fan- he’s super young, grew up 10 min away from my hometown, and was SO fun to watch perform. Gave me total Post Malone and Kid Cudi vibes, highly recommend!).

I really didn’t know what to expect, so I was very pleasantly surprised by all the amazing vendors the festival had. Francis and I got some falafel wraps and ciders and just walked around checking out the other activations (like this cute pink house!). There also were these huge tents filled with artists, boutiques, records, jewelry, seriously everything. Fran and I got a caricature done of us haha. Another one of my fave parts was checking out all of the fashion— I honestly had nooo idea what to wear and just kinda winged it. I loved seeing such distinct and unique styles everywhere. Chicago is one cool town with some hella cool peeps, I must say!

A huge thank you to car2go for my successful first Pitchfork experience! You can get yourself registered at www.car2go.com/US/en/chicago and use the code CHI2018 through August 23rd for free registration and $15 of car2go credit.

 

This is a sponsored post on behalf of car2go, all opinions are
my own.