Many music festivals have come and disappeared quickly in New York City over the years, but one annual festival celebrated its 14th year in New York City this weekend. An estimated 120,000 people attended the Governors Ball Music Festival (commonly known as Governors Ball or Gov Ball) at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park during New York’s Music Month on June 7-9. Unlike numerous earlier stormy Gov Balls, the hordes of fun-lovers enjoyed live music, food and other activities under perfect spring weather.
Largely marketed to the 20-something market, the festival hosted over 60+ bands on the Gov Ball NYC stage, the GoPuff stage and the IHG Hotels & Resorts stage. Post Malone and Rauw Alejandro headlined on Friday, the Killers and 21 Savage on Saturday, and SZA and Peso Pluma on Sunday. The live music began at noon each day and ran continuously until 10 p.m.
Once past the gates, attendees entered an alternate universe where rows of tree trunks were draped in pink furry coverings on a path leading to a massive bust of the Statue of Liberty wearing sunglasses and tattoos on her torch-bearing arm. Twenty-seven “Beyond the Music” corporate sponsors enticed potential customers with interactive activities, photo options and free donuts, soft drinks, wine samples, chocolate candies, t-shirts, hats and fans. Forty restaurants, mostly from the Queens Night Market, sold food and beverages. Across the park’s fields, several corporation-sponsored booths presented dj sets. Not-for-profit groups informed attendees about community efforts, including Headcount registering voters and This Must Be the Place supplying participants with free opioid-reversal kits to help prevent deaths related to drug overdoses.
This year’s performances were more wide-reaching than usual in that several world-music artists attracted audiences that otherwise might not attend the festival and also introduced previously-unexplored genres of music to the younger set. These sets included Arabic music by Saint Levant and Elvanna, and Latin American music by Peso Pluma, Rauw Alejandro, and Farruko. Numerous LGBT artists also performed, including Chappell Roan, Renee Rapp, Kevin Abstract, Ryan Beatty, Doechii, G Flip, Underscores, Blondshell and Alex Chapman.
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| Post Malone |
Just one day after making two surprise appearances at CMA Fest, where Post Malone publicly set in motion his new country music trajectory, Post Malone’s fans may have wondered if his set on the Gov Ball stage would launch his forthcoming country music album. Bearded and barefoot, often speaking between songs with a red cup of beer in his hand, later stripping his shirt to reveal a plethora of upper body tattoos, he charmed his Gov Ball audience instead with a string of his rock, pop and hip hop hits. He performed only one country song, a solo rendition of his current hit, “I Had Some Help,” as the evening’s penultimate track.
Mid-way through his set, Post Malone noticed a fan in the audience waving a sign, asking if he could play guitar on a song. Post asked security to allow the fan on stage. Meeting face to face, Post Malone recognized him as having played together in the past. The fan said this was the third time Post Malone selected him from the audience to play guitar. Malone noticed another fan with a sign reading "Can I sing 'Stay' with you?" and invited her up on stage as well. Post Malone and the two fans jammed together on his song "Stay."
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| Rauw Alejandro |
Soon into his co-headlining set on the GoPuff Stage, Puerto Rican reggaetón superstar Rauw Alejandro shed the jacket of his brown and white striped suit to reveal a white athletic shirt that matched the outfits of his six dancers. At one point, he moved into the audience and performed a couple of songs surrounded by his fans. There, he shared his reverence for New York City, naming Latino natives including Big Pun, Jennifer Lopez, Willie Colon, and Romeo Santos.
“I’ve always had a special connection to this city,” Alejandro said. “My dad was born in Brooklyn. It’s a meeting point for many cultures. Many of us left our country in search of opportunities and dreams. And I feel that here you can fulfill all the dreams that you want to do in life. In my case, a dream is being fulfilled by sharing it here with all of you, a dream that I am living today, thanks to all of you who have supported me since day one.”
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| Labrinth |
Timothy Lee McKenzie, better known by his stage name Labrinth, is an English singer, rapper, songwriter, and record producer. As the final act of the day on the IHG Hotels & Resorts stage, he performed songs from his albums and from the scores he composed for the television series Euphoria, backed by a drummer and four singers and dancers. His set was scheduled to end before Post Malone started, but Labrinth’s set was delayed by 40 minutes. Labrinth started with a large crowd, but hundreds left his set midway to catch Post Malone across the park.
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| Dominic Fike |
Dominic Fike, who last played Governors Ball in 2021, came on stage this year with his sister, Apple, on his shoulders. Keeping it in the family, he later instructed the audience to “throw sh*t” at his brother, who was in the crowd below. He praised the city, adding “New York, I am inside you,” and recalled filming a music video here with Paul McCartney for a cover of McCartney’s “The Kiss of Venus.” He said, “this place rules, you guys are cool as hell,” before performing “Mona Lisa” from Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Fike spoke of his struggles with drugs and time in jail. He introduced his new song, “misses,” by confessing that he composed it during a low point; he then thanked his fans “for instilling some self-confidence in me.”
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| Farruko |
Carlos Efrén Reyes Rosado, better known by his stage name Farruko, is a Puerto Rican singer and rapper specializing in reggaeton, EDM, Latin pop and Latin trap. A recent convert to Christianity, Farruko has preached from the stage at concerts, but on the GoPuff stage he simply balanced high-energy hits with positive messages. Backed by a team of vocalists who added a choir-like twist to the performance, he got the audience moving to his EDM bangers, including “Pepas.”
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| Teezo Touchdown |
“I don’t like asking who’s been here since day one,” Teezo Touchdown told the crowd from the IHC stage. “Because today can be our day one.”
Aaron Lashane Thomas, known professionally as Teezo Touchdown, is best known for his featured roles on the songs "RunItUp" by Tyler, the Creator, "Modern Jam" by Travis Scott, and "Amen" by Drake. Touchdown headlined without a hitch at Irving Plaza the night before his Gov Ball performance. At Gov Ball, however, Touchdown suffered technical malfunctions, twice restarting the song "Careful" and ultimately delaying his set by 20 minutes. Timing at a festival is important, such that the delay impacted later performances on that stage.
For most of his performance, Touchdown sang and rapped into the bouquet of flowers he held in his hand. His microphone was hidden within the bouquet, meaning that his face was hardly visible to his audience throughout his performance. He threw the bouquet into the audience after the performance concluded.
Teezo Touchdown's delay led to a 30-minute wait for Alex G to perform. Alex Giannascoli and his band stood on stage at the appropriate hour, ready to perform, and nothing happened. Eventually, the musicians left the stage with no explanation. This confusion among his fans may have led many to move on to the festival’s other stages and miss his late performance. Alex G, who initially fostered a national audience with his home-recorded music a decade ago, played songs dating back to 2012. The band closed its set with an extended guitar jam.
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| Goth Babe |
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| Yung Gravy |
Matthew Raymond Hauri, known professionally as Yung Gravy, performed with a sense of humor on the GoPuff stage. His original songs matched light-hearted lyrics to sampled melodies and riffs from classic hits. His song "Gravy Train" sampled Maxine Nightingale's 1976 song "Right Back Where We Started From," and his breakout hit "Mr. Clean" sampled the Chordettes 1954 song "Mr. Sandman." Gravy performed as many as four as-yet-unreleased songs, including “Back on the Horse” and “Lone Ranger,” from his upcoming country-rap album. He even debuted a new country rap song, “Clementine,” peppered with lyrics about his short ex-girlfriend, to the tune of the Zac Brown Band’s “Chicken Fried.” During “Oops!!!,” Gravy changed the lyric “Tracy with the ass?” to “Tracy from Queens?” for the Gov Ball audience. Gravy equipped security with breakfast cereal to throw into the crowd, and brought a leaf blower on stage for no apparent reason.
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| Flo |
British pop vocal trio Flo consists of Jorja Douglas, Stella Quaresma, and Renée Downer. The trio formed in 2019 and gained popularity on social media, topping the BBC's Sound of 2023 poll and winning the 2023 Brit Award for Rising Star. Flo's inspirations were obvious; the set on the IHG stage included covers of En Vogue's "Don't Let Go" and Destiny's Child's "Bootylicious." Flo closed with the group's best-known song, “Cardboard Box.”
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| Ryan Beatty |
In an unusual move for a pop singer, Ryan Beatty and his six-piece band sat on stools and barely moved throughout the performance on the Gov Ball stage. Beatty’s music was equally chill. Early in the set, he clumsily attempted small talk before admitting to the audience that he did not know what to say. Wearing headphones, he dedicated a song to his longtime fans, saying, “This one’s for the OGs, if you’ve lasted this long, bless you.” The set included a cover of Dolly Parton's "Do I Ever Cross Your Mind."
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| Mimi Webb |
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| Qveen Herby |
Amy Renee Heidemann Noonan, known professionally as Qveen Herby, came on stage dressed like a wizard in a long black cloak and cowl, which she removed after the first song. She explained her name. “That’s Qveen with a ‘v’ like vagina.”
Herby engaged her audience in meditation exercises. She encouraged her listeners to “exhale and release old s**t” that you do not need anymore." She paused for a moment of silence. "Did you let that out?” she asked. "On this next breath, imagine the new you that you are transforming right now, and I want you to take that into your body.”
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| Durry |
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| Underscores |
April Harper Grey, known professionally as Underscores, a 24-year-old transwoman from California, performed solo on electric guitar and vocals. Composing music since she was 13, her hyperpop and electro-pop-rock catalog drew cheers from the early-arriving audience at the IHC stage. Her set included a cover of Drake’s “Passionfruit,” and concluded with a duet with Gabby Start (formerly known as Knapsack) on “Locals (Girls Like Us).”
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| Arcy Drive |
Arcy Drive traveled a short distance to get to the GoPuff stage. The indie-rocking quartet is based in Northport, Long Island. Perhaps the musicians forgot that they had left the north shore of Suffolk County. Vocalist and guitarist Nick Mateyunas, drummer Brooke Tuozzo, guitarist Austin Jones, and bassist Patrick Helrigel appeared onstage barefooted.
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| Blondshell |
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| Alex Chapman |
“Is anybody out there gay?” asked Alex Chapman, the first artist of the day to perform on the GoPuff stage. Once simply a club and event disc jockey, Chapman is now introducing himself as a dance-pop artist. While past Gov Balls have featured numerous EDM artists, Chapman was one of the few in this summer’s line-up.
School of Rock Queens is simply that, a school in Queens for youth who want to learn how to rock. Opening the Gov Ball NYC stage, School of Rock Queens performed a series of covers including “Beat It”, “Voulez-Vous”, “I’m Not Okay”, and “Locked Out of Heaven.” Each song was led by different female vocalists and played with a changing cast of young musicians.
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The Manhattan Beat reports on New York City's live music circuit. All articles are written by Everynight Charley Crespo. All photographs are taken by Everynight Charley Crespo, except when noted otherwise.
For a list of Manhattan venues that are presenting live music regularly, swing the desktop cursor to the right of the The Manhattan Beat home page and click on the pop-up tab "Where to Find Live Music."
For a more complete listing of upcoming performances in the New York City area, visit The Manhattan Beat's June calendar.
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