Lucas Jackson/Reuters Kanye West will headline the Governors Ball Music Festival on Randalls Island on Sunday.The Governors Ball Music Festival, which started today, has grown since last year: from two days to three, from two stages to four, from theater-circuit headliners to arena acts like Kanye West on Sunday, Guns N’ Roses on Saturday and Kings of Leon on Friday. The event made its debut in 2011 on Governors Island, its namesake, but moved to Randalls Island in 2012.
Governors Ball now has the hallmark of a full-scale rock festival: choices between simultaneous performances and no way to hear them all. Last year‘s eccentric lineup â€" one day of digital-centered pop, one day of indie rock and major-label mavericks â€" has given way to a full-service, variety-pack rock festival.
The 2013 lineup dips into indie rock (Dirty Projectors, Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear, Yeasayer, Deerhunter), dance music (Pretty Lights, Dillon Francis, Icona Pop), hip-hop (Kendrick Lamar, Nas, Azealia Banks), R&B (Erykah Badu), roots-rock (Lumineers, the Avett Brothers), old-school arena rock (Guns N’ Roses), even reggae from Steel Pulse and Texas blues-rock from Gary Clark Jr. While Governors Ball doesn’t come close to matching the overwhelming multiplicity of Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, Coachella or Austin City Limits, at this rate of expansion it could get there fast.
I’ll be there throughout the festival, including what’s predicted to be a gray, rainy beginning, and summing up nightly with blog posts here, along with an extensive photojournal by Karsten Moran. Stay tuned.
