This year’s Governors Ball should serve as a reminder to music fans of what might happen if Mother Nature doesn’t decide to cooperate (see: Woodstock). If you were among the fortunate to have ventured out to Randalls Island in New York City for the first two days of the festival—May 31 and June 1—you would’ve been rewarded with beautiful weather and top-shelf headliners such as Major Lazer, Lil Wayne, Florence + The Machine and Tyler, The Creator, as well as 30-plus other emerging artists.
However, if you had a pass for Sunday, June 2, you would’ve been stuck with the polar opposite: inclement weather, massive delays and eventually, a full-day cancellation, which meant no sets from headliners such as The Strokes, NAS and SZA. Concertgoers were also forced to evacuate the island, which prompted comparisons to 2017’s Fyre Festival. All of this eventually led the festival’s founders to release a lengthy mea culpa on Monday, which in part, apologized for Sunday’s cancellation and also offered refunds for those that had bought Sunday passes (read the full message here).
Despite the controversy, saratoga living‘s Eric Huss was onsite for the first day of the would-be three-day festival and shot some photographs of the festival’s live acts, grounds and concertgoers before things went south. Click on the gallery above to view Huss’ photos.
