Gov Ball… for about three years I’ve heard these two words and thought to myself, why have I not been? Year after year, I’ve had something come up preventing me from going to this annual outdoor music festival in NYC. Whether work-related or personal travel, Gov Ball was never really an option for me, until 2015 that is!
I initially had work training (I’m an IT consultant) scheduled in Atlanta during the same week as Gov Ball… sucks right?! Well to my surprise, the last couple days of classes for training got cancelled and luckily with enough time to plan and purchase Gov Ball tickets. Now onto the actual experience…
9:30 AM – Alarm clock goes off. When trekking to Randall’s Island from Brooklyn, one must plan well in advance!
10:30 AM – Begin my commute to 125th Street (4, 5, 6 train stop) in Harlem.
12:00 PM – Finally arrive to Corner Social for meetup and brunch with my Gov Ball crew. Contrary to the iOS Weather app that told me it will be a cloudy day, it was pouring rain outside… just lovely!
1:30 PM – Finish brunch and head to CVS for umbrellas and last minute goodies (Starburst anyone?).
2:30 PM – Arrive to the X80 express bus line that took us from the 125th street stop to Randall’s Island. Apparently, legions of other people got held back by the rain as well and decided to arrive to the bus at the same time as us. Fortunately, the buses were on point and we waited in line no more than 10 minutes.
3:00 PM – Pull up to Randall’s Island Park and I’m stoked to start our Gov Ball experience. Future was scheduled to perform at this time so we thought… no biggie, we will definitely see most of his set. While I appreciate proper and thorough security at these massive music festivals (safety first!), I did not expect to wait in line for 30 minutes when only 15 people were ahead of us. Security proceeded to spending several minutes digging through our belongings, including our wallets, which led to a delay in seeing Future perform.
3:30 PM – Reach the main stage to see the last 15 minutes of Future’s set. At this point, I was just happy to hear him perform one of my current jams, ‘Commas’.
4:00 PM – We head to the large GOV BALL NYC sign for photo ops. Of course we had no service to post any pictures online; but I secretly love when that happens because it forces you to enjoy the moments and creates a better overall experience. Why is our generation so consumed with being on our phones every other minute? I admit I am guilty of this! We end up staying on this lawn for a good two hours while people watching, soaking up the sun and prepping our flash tattoos. The best part is that we were able to hear most of MØ’s performance from the lawn and she killed it!
6:00 PM – Now we’re hungry and rather eat now so we can catch every moment of Drake’s performance (I mean… this is the reason we are at Gov Ball for Day 1 only). The vendors and food options definitely exceeded my expectations! With vegan and gluten-free options, we had choices from pizza and funnel cakes to rosemary chicken and kimchi tacos. I went with the rosemary marinated chicken + baked mac and cheese from Hebros Kitchen… super-good and just what was needed to last me until the end of the day. We finished off by splitting a funnel cake for dessert… forever delicious!
7:00 PM – Potty time. Unless you drink zero fluids all day (which I do not recommend and you WILL get dehydrated doing this), there will come a point in time that you will need to you use the potty. This is an extremely dreadful experience at outdoor music festivals, but also the name of the game! Gotta suck it up!
7:30 PM – Florence + The Machine set begins. I seriously love Florence… her voice is everything! It’s truly an ethereal experience listening to her perform. I have a special place in my heart for artists who can perform live with the same and/or better quality than their soundtrack (shout out to the late Amy Winehouse and John Legend).
8:30 PM – Flo ends and the ice cream craving begins. We head over to the Van Leeuwen booth for fresh vegan ice cream (personal recommendation: double scoop of Expresso flavor in a cone. You will NOT regret this).
8:45 PM – We head back to the main stage to try and get up close and personal with Drake. After clawing our way through the masses of late teens and college students fresh into summer break, we managed to make it close enough to the point of no comfort where we were literally stepped on every time someone moved an inch. I must say, this was not the best idea but because we made it so close, we had to stick it out for another 45 minutes until Drake hit the stage.
9:30 PM – The main reason we are here has arrived… The lights turn on, the ‘Jungle’ back drop is in full effect and Drake hits the stage promptly at 9:30 sharp. Gov Ball does not play about timing. Each artist started and ended exactly according to the schedule. There were no “late performances” this year. As expected, Drake’s set was stellar, he performed well and despite his mellow style of music, he kept the audience captivated by performing most of his upbeat hits. His set ended with a firework show and an acapella that left us wanting more. Bravo to Drizzy… you were more than worth it!
11:00 PM – Drake’s 22-song set ends and it’s time to catch the bus back to 125th street where I begin my trek back to Brooklyn (oh joy!). The buses didn’t line up as quickly on the way back as they did on the way there, but we were still so hyped from Drake’s performance to become overly irritated by the delays.
Overall I had an amazing day and loads of fun-filled experiences with my friends. This is what these music festivals are about… creating memories! Would I do Gov Ball again? Absolutely! Would I do things differently after experiencing it for my first time? Absolutely! See below…
Parting Advice to Mid to Late 20-somethings looking for the ultimate Gov Ball experience:
– Drink or pre-game beforehand as the alcoholic beverage options at Gov Ball are extremely limited (beer/cider/wine only) due to licensing limitations.
– DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT try to make it to the front of the stage to see your favorite artist. This is what the jumbo-trons are there for and your experience will be much more pleasant standing from afar without being suffocated by thousands of other crazy fans.
– Save up and go for the VIP experience to avoid feeling like an elder amongst the masses of 18-22 year olds who truly dominate Gov Ball. YOLO right?
Share your thoughts around Gov Ball in the comments below.
