To the right of Pitchfork’s Green Stage, underneath a shady row of trees, Valerie Simutis and her team are rallying festival attendees to mail postcards to Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner. The postcards, which read “Stop Illegal Guns in Illinois,” urge Rauner to sign SB 337, the Combating Illegal Gun Trafficking Act. Simutis is a manager of Chicago’s Mom’s Demand Action For Gun Sense in America chapters.
Moms Demand Action is part of Everytown for Gun Safety, an American nonprofit organization that advocates for gun control and against gun violence. The group is usually at Pitchfork, Simutis says, to reach students. Students Demand Action, a relatively new movement within Everytown targeted toward high school and college students concerned about gun control and safety.
A relaxed music festival may seem an interesting action locale for an organization concerned with such a serious, contentious issue in our country — but Simutis sees Pitchfork as an effective way to reach people in the city, just as vital to their outreach as “farmers markets, parades, and other neighborhood happenings.”
Within 10 minutes of talking, a group of teenagers in concert tees makes a beeline to the table and starts asking about Students Demand Action. Jack Kohutek, who is at Pitchfork working with his wife, Lisa, and Simutis, says the warm welcome is typical at Pitchfork. “People see our sign from across the park, and make a beeline over just to talk,” he says.
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