Governors Ball Music Festival
(June 5-7)
Since beginning in 2011, Governors Ball Music Festival in New York City has had consistently solid lineups. The first year of the festival was only one day long, but it started off strong with Pretty Lights, Empire Of The Sun, Girl Talk, and Mac Miller as a few of the acts. In 2012 the festival expanded to 2 days, and by 2013 the festival was a full 3 days long. Governor’s Ball is not a camping festival. If you’re looking for that experience then it's not the festival for you, but it has everything else a festival goer would want.
Every year Governors Ball has a ton of big names, but also includes smaller, up-and-coming acts—the lineup from 2014 had a number of new musicians who have become more successful in the last year like Grimes and Banks.
Unlike some other music festivals that are mostly one genre of music, Governors Ball has a little bit of everything to cater to almost everyone’s musical tastes—Drake, The Black Keys, and Deadmau5 are just the first three names in the 2015 lineup. In addition to the incredible musicians, the festival has activities like a silent disco and really awesome looking food options. I’ve never had the chance to go to Governors Ball, so I can’t speak from experience, but based on what I’ve read and heard it’s a really great time.
Lineup:
Drake, The Black Keys, Deadmau5, Lana Del Ray, Florence + The Machine, My Morning Jacket, Björk, Ryan Adams, Chromeo, Noel Gallager’s High Flying Birds, Flume, Tame Impala, The Decemberists, Ratatat, St. Vincent, The War on Drugs, Hot Chip, Little Dragon, SBTRKT, Conor Oberst, Atmosphere, Death From Above 1979, Future Islands, Big Gigantic, Weird Al Yankovic, Flying Lotus, A-Trak, Charli XCX, Rudimental, Marina & The Diamonds, Odesza, Royal Blood, Sturgill Simpson, Angus & Julia Stone, Sharon Van Etten, Twin Shadow, Vance Joy, Mayer Hawthorne, Moon Taxi, MØ, Kiesza, Clean Bandit, Gorgon City (Live), J. Roddy Walston & The Business, Rae Sremmurd, Echosmith, Chronixx And The Zincefence Redemption, Kaytranada, Logic, Benjamin Booker, People Under The Stars, Rustie, DIIV, Strand Of Oaks, Priory, White Lung, Holy Child, ASTR, The Districts, Hermitude, Bishop Nehru, Streets Of Laredo, Charlotte OC, Kate Tempest, DMA’S, The Picturebooks
Top 10 Acts That I Would See (plus 1 because choosing only 10 wasn’t possible):
1. The Black Keys—I would give a lot to see them live.
2. MØ—She sounds like an electronic Lana Del Ray, and she’s definitely on the rise.
3. Rudimental—SEE RUDIMENTAL LIVE! I didn’t know who they were when I saw them at a music festival a year ago (Future Music Festival in Sydney, Australia), and their performance blew me away. During their song “Feel the Love” they stopped playing and the entire audience sang the lyrics together. It was one of the coolest audience experiences I’ve ever had at a concert. Rudimental themselves are DJ’s that have singers and other musicians (like saxophonists) play with them, so the dynamic of all of them playing on stage together is really special.
4. Vance Joy—Great indie folk music that would be good if you want a break from everything.
5. Florence and the Machine—Flo.
6. SBTRKT—Electronic music with some soul.
7. Marina and the Diamonds—Indie pop. Marina’s voice is pretty unique, and she seems like a badass.
8. Charli XCX—Fun pop music to dance to.
9. Kaytranada—His beats.
10. Odesza—One of the best electronic shows I’ve seen.
Honorable Mention. Hermitude—Super chill/atmospheric electronic music with some funk to it. If you only know Hermitude because of Flume’s remix of Hyperparadise, you have to listen to Hermitude’s own music.
Grab your tickets here!
By Gabi Schwartz