Last weekend, New York’s home grown festival, Governors Ball played host to some amazing talent across three days including headliners Travis Scott, Eminem, and Jack White. Spread across four stages on Randall’s Island, Gov Ball marks the kick off to the summer festival season. We’ve always favoured city festivals; let’s be honest, ending up at a nice hotel after a long day of raging is super rad. Hot bath! Air conditioning! Room service! What’s not to love!?
Most festivals these days come with a myriad of accommodation options to wade through including hotels, house or apartment rentals, camping or even glamping. Personally, we always turn to Hotels.com to help us find the perfect place to stay, quickly and easily, while simultaneously earning rewards. Unlike most other travel booking sites, Hotels.com lets you unlock secret prices and earn rewards toward a free night’s stay after just ten nights in hotels, rentals or even cottages & villas.
But back to Gov Ball real quick.
Being late in the spring each year it seems like the threat of rain is always the horizon so we were glad to join Hotels.com in their cabana at the Gov Ball Stage.
On Friday we got things started with Toronto rapper Belly before heading over to catch a sexy set by 6lack, but it was New York band Yeah Yeah Yeahs we were most excited to see, especially with a cocktail in hand at the Hotels.com cabana. We ended the night with a moody dance party watching UK electronic artist James Blake.
The sun came out on Saturday just in time for Kelela’s empowering set which was a definite highlight of the weekend for us! Keeping the momentum going 2 Chainz swooped on stage giving the massive crowd a little taste of his southern trap all the pretty girls (and boys) like. Hip hop was the genre du jour over in the field where after 2 Chainz’ set, Pusha T took the stage to perform a short but sweet set in place of Brock Hampton who recently dropped out of their 2018 tour due to some internal politics and conflicts. While the crowd chanted “Fuck Drake,” Pusha keep it strictly business blasting through some of his classic hits. Although not addressing the now squashed beef with the 6 God, he still performed his track “Infrared.” We overheard some fans call the performance “weak” because he didn’t perform his diss track, though we were just fine without it.
photos by credit: Eric Tsurumoto
We headed back to the Hotels.com cabana over at the mainstage to recharge (literally and figuratively), refresh, and wait for Travis Scott’s headlining set to begin. Thank goodness for our prime location in the cabana as one of the largest crowds of the weekend had gathered to rage out to Cactus Jack’s set.
With the looming threat of rain casting a shadow over Sunday, all the true music fans packed up their rain gear and headed back to the island. With Eminem set to headline, the energy was at a frenetic level, you could almost taste it in the air. But before Marshall took to the stage, Gov Ball had a whole day of music lined up to keep everyone happily engaged.
With standout performances from Kali Uchis, Vic Mensa, Lil Uzi Vert, and N.E.R.D., Sunday was hip hop’s day to shine. Almost like clockwork, as the Real Slim Shady took to the stage, the sky opened up and the rain fell down but energy levels stayed high through the set which included surprise guest 50 Cent.
Was it epic? You better believe it!
Book your next festival stay with Hotels.com and keep earning your way to a free night’s stay!