The 2017 Governors Ball Festival is almost upon New York. Though planned out long before, the festival now coincides with NYC’s “Music Month” which includes Northside Festival in Williamsburg, numerous free shows, including ones at Summerstage in Central Park and the Prospect Park Bandshell for Celebrate Brooklyn!, as well as more shows, conferences and other engaging activities for musicians.
Governors Ball will earn the most points though from any dedicated music fan. The fest offers 60-plus bands (more on that in a minute) out on Randall’s Island over the course of three days (June 2nd to 4th) right at the beginning of the summer season, when City temperatures are tolerable. Fanciful local food and drink purveyors, like perennial favorites Luke’s Lobster, Momofuku Milk Bar and Mighty Quinn’s, will be scattered throughout the grounds, possibly even in the “speciality area called The Infatuation Village”. The grounds will also include “soberball”, mini golf and other lawn games.
On the music front, GovBall offers a lot of artists to look forward to including the headliners, like Lorde (who will probably perform new material), Chance the Rapper, Tool (when was the last time they played NYC?), Phoenix (who also should have new material) and more. There are a ton of artists I’m personally excited to catch: Air (on their first American tour in seven years), The Avalanches (on their first North American tour ever), Charles Bradley (returning to the stage after an all-clear from stomach cancer), Dua Lipa (who will finally have released her debut album), and a Beach House performance (outdoors!). When Festival organizers explained the line up to CoS earlier this year, selecting artists with new music coming out was on the forefront of their mind. The rest of the line up is below.
There are still some three-day regular tickets available for Governors Ball. Visit the festival’s site to get more info and purchase tickets. GovBall’s sister festival, The Meadows is returning to Citi Field in September and tickets are on sale now. Please note, following the tragic event in Manchester, LiveNation related festivals are increasing security procedures and encourage allowing more time to enter the festival grounds.
