This year, Governors Ball 2023 returns with a major upgrade that attendees didn’t see coming. The festival was held at Flushing Meadows Corona Park, right across CitiField Stadium. However, the new venue was much more spacious and allowed for stages to be further apart. My biggest complaint for last year was that at some areas of the festival, the sound bleed between stages was really apparent and distracting. This year, that wasn’t a problem at all. In addition, there are also a lot more sponsorship installations, booths, and food vendors. Everyone that I’ve talked to, also liked this venue upgrade a lot more.
The new festival venue wasn’t the only surprise at Governors Ball this year.
There were also unexpected sponsors and booths. Ephemeral Tattoo was giving away free tattoos to advertise their business. I didn’t ever expect to see a tattoo shop/station at a music festival, and this certainly was the first. A booth that I was delighted to see was This Must Be the Place, an organization that promotes harm reduction. They were giving out free Narcan kits and Narcan training for people who stopped by their booth. All the large-scale installations offered great photo opportunities for the attendees. My favorite one was a 30 ft high screen with a motion detecting camera by Snapchat that took photos of people in front of it.
Overall, Governors Ball had fantastic planning and setup this year. The festival experience was incredibly smooth and there was ample staffing across the festival. The lineup was well curated and well spaced out to even out the crowd traffic. Every headliner dominated the stage and captured everyone’s attention. Lizzo and Lil Uzi brought the energy on the first day. It was a joy to see ODESZA perform again with their incredible production and drumline on the second day. Then on the last day, Kendrick Lamar performed all the classics and upheld the title as one of the best in hip-hop.
