Photo Courtesy of Gothamist
The Governors Ball Music Festival has a new home in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens, New York. A new face and future for the music festival will take place in one of New York City’s most prominent parks. Just across the street from last year’s venue in the Citi Field parking lot, fans will enjoy the lush trees, shade and, most importantly, the grass that Corona Park offers.
Along with the new venue comes the diverse lineup with big-name headliners Lizzo, ODESZA and Kendrick Lamar. Other well-known artists following the headliners include Lil Uzi Vert, Haim, Diplo, Omar Apollo, Lil Baby, aespa, Rina Sawayama, Lil Nas X, Giveon and SOFI TUKKER.
“We have been trying to get into Flushing Meadows Corona Park, basically, since year one,” said Jordan Wolowitz, co-founder and partner of Founders Entertainment – the company that produces Gov Ball. “We started the Governors Ball on Governors Island, right off the side of Manhattan, and after the first year, we outgrew it. We completely sold out the island … So, we moved to Randall’s and were there for almost a decade … but we always wanted it to be in a famous park in New York …”
“That’s a big reason why we moved to Citi Field for the last two years was so the Queens zone residents and people in local government got to know us and saw how much we wanted to be in the [Corona] park and be part of the Queen’s community. It’s a beautiful park; it has that famous sphere and of importance to ticket buyers: it’s also very easy to get to … So, I’d say those are the main things to be excited about besides the artists that are performing at the festival.”
Wolowitz explained that Gov Ball is the only musical festival to be annually hosted in New York City, and its audience has expanded greatly since the event’s inception.
“We never thought in 1000 years that the festival would grow to what it has become,” he said. “It was always our goal to get to Flushing Meadows Corona Park. They’ve never allowed a music festival there, which is why it took so long for us to be there. But we’re very excited about it.”
Wolowitz also commented on this year’s lineup.
“We booked [Kendrick Lamar] for the first time in 2013. So, it’s been great just to watch his progress from being an underground yet critically acclaimed artist to now one of the biggest in the world. But in terms of the curation of the show, having aespa’s first big show in New York is going to be huge. The reactions we got when we announced the show on socials from their crowd was big … This is our first headliner-worthy Kpop act … There are [also] great young acts early in earlier in the day. We spend time looking at good headline acts, but we really dig into the up-and-coming acts that play earlier in the day.”
Wolowitz also made remarks on the future of the festival.
“Flushing Meadows is our new home, period. We’ve worked with Queensboro President Donovan Richards and gotten to know his team very well. It was very important that they understood our goal is to work with greater Queens for years to come, and this will be our home for the years to come.”
The Governors Ball will be held June 9-11 in Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
