Scenes from Gov Ball’s wild weekend, with headliners Post Malone, The Killers and SZA

afeera.netJune 10, 2024

38 2 minutes read

The Governors Ball Music Festival, which began in 2011 as a one-day affair on Governors Island and is today simply called Gov Ball, has been shuffled around to several locations in New York City over the years, but has really hit its stride recently at Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens.

This past weekend, featuring a stacked lineup of more than 60 different acts performing on three stages, plus some gorgeous early summer weather, was spectacular.

Photo by Scott Lynch

It’s impossible to see everything at such a sprawling, multi-staged event, and the headliners Post Malone, The Killers, and SZA all played on “closed sets,” meaning the media wasn’t allowed in the photo pits. But there was so much good stuff going on all over the festival grounds that I never really had any sense of FOMO.

On Sunday Chappell Roan stole the show with a delirious 45-minute performance that featured the singer emerging from a “big apple” dressed as the Statue of Liberty, changing outfits a few numbers later into a yellow cab dress, a brand new song possibly called “Subway,” and tens of thousands of fans in a joyous sing-along (and dance-along) to hits like “Hot To Go,” “Red Wine Supernova,” and “Good Luck, Babe.” Roan also told us that she had refused an invitation to perform at the White House for Pride, saying “we want liberty, justice, and freedom for all. When you do that, I will come.”

Chappell Roan (Photo by Scott Lynch)

Also on Sunday: Reneé Rapp, another LGBTQ+ icon, put on an incredibly personable hour-long show for her adoring fans.

Reneé Rapp (Photo by Scott Lynch)

Peso Pluma broke his foot toward the end his raucous set and powered through anyway, ultimately being carried off by his dancers.

Peso Pluma, before he broke his foot (Photo by Scott Lynch)

G Flip, who is huge in their native Australia but still relatively unknown here, delivered a blistering 90-minute performance. jumping from guitar to drums (a perch from which they did their propulsive cover of Taylor Swift’s “Cruel Summer”) to bouncing around on stage to demanding freedom for people in occupied territories everywhere. They are a rock star.

G Flip (Photo by Scott Lynch)

Saturday was Sabrina Carpenter’s day, with a fizzy set that featured her first-ever live performance of “Please Please Please” and, of course, the song of the summer “Espresso.” “People who hate Pride can suck my Gov Ball,” she told her crowd to huge cheers.

Sabrina Carpenter (Photo by Scott Lynch)

Other personal highlights on Saturday included Carly Rae Jepson’s assured and peppy performance, some amazing dancing from the K-Pop group P1Harmony, and 21 Savage’s rowdy act that inspired the only mosh pits I witnessed all weekend.

Carly Rae Jepsen (Photo by Scott Lynch)

Friday saw superfans sobbing as Dominik Fike hit the stage (I spoke with a crew in the front row who had come from Atlanta just to see his set), a sensational one-two punch from Latin superstars Farruko and Rauw Alejandro (whose choreography rivaled P1Harmony’s for weekend’s best), and a delightfully theatrical show from speed-rapper Qveen Herby, “that’s Qveen with a ‘v’ like vagina.”