After the 2013 festival is most remembered for the rivers of mud, the 2014 Governor’s Ball launched with the perfect weather for New York’s premier summer festival.
With an eclectic lineup on Friday including indie and electronic favorites combined with headlining draws from years gone by, the crowds thronged on Randall’s Island and frolicked in the sunshine and on fresh green grass to the tunes of Phoenix, Damien Marley, Neko Case, Grimes and Julian Casablancas, among others. As the sun went down, nineties nostalgia ruled the roost as favourite comeback kings Outkast started their set with a bang – and “Bombs over Baghdad”.
As Damon Albarn, formerly of Blur and Gorillaz, played selections from his new solo album to a smaller crowd, the audience for Outkast stretched halfway across the park as they played hits from an album that was evidently once on high rotation for the nineties-nostalgic millennial crowd present – including the classic Hey Ya.
The mercury hit the perfect temperature, staying perfectly sunny yet breezy all day, and just warm enough at night for festival goers to easily walk in shorts, tanks and the omnipresent flower-wreaths-in-hair boho outfits back over the bridge to the remaining boroughs.
With a stacked lineup that includes The Strokes, The Naked and Famous, Skrillex, Jack White, Childish Gambino and many more, on what’s bound to be the festival’s busiest day, Governor’s Ball is off to a great start ahead of super Saturday.
