Latest news with #GovernorsBall
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Marina Plots Regal ‘Princess of Power' Fall Tour
After slaying at Governors Ball and WorldPride, Marina is ready to bring her new album, Princess of Power, on the road. On Monday, the pop queen announced her 32-date tour celebrating her new album. Following performances at Outside Lands, Bonnaroo, and Lollapalooza this summer, the singer will launch her headlining tour in Seattle on Sept. 7. She'll hit cities including Portland, Salt Lake City, Denver, Toronto, Nashville, Austin, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and Oakland, before wrapping her run at Corona Capital in Mexico City. More from Rolling Stone Marco Antonio Solis Unveils Más Cerca De Ti Tour Dates Marina Wants Pleasure, Power, and Maybe a Little Love Lola Young Plots Fall 2025 North American Tour Mallrat will join her for the headlining shows early in the tour before Coco & Clair Clair takes her spot for the rest of the run. 'I am beyonddddd excited,' Mallrat wrote on Instagram. Tickets are set to go on presale on Wednesday at 10 a.m. local time. Fans are also able to purchase POP Pageant Package tickets, which allow access to a pre-show pageant that includes VIP-only merch, a laminate, and early access to venues. Marina celebrated her album release by dropping the cunty video for 'I <3 U' last Friday. She's also set to perform on The Tonight Show on June 11. 'I think part of why this album has felt so freeing is because I've dove into my fear of love,' she told Rolling Stone recently about the record. 'It can sound trite, but I think the ability to love is so powerful and brave. It's a courageous thing, particularly if you've been hurt… It can be really hard to reprogram yourself, and I think I've finally been able to do that.' Marina's Tour Dates June 13 – Manchester, TN @ Bonnaroo **Aug. 2 – Chicago, IL @ Lollapalooza **Aug. 3 – Montreal, QC @ Osheaga **Aug. 8 – San Francisco, CA @ Outside Lands **Sept. 6 – Seattle, WA @ Showbox SoDo +Sept. 7 – Vancouver, BC @ Orpheum Theatre +Sept. 10 – Portland, OR @ Keller Auditorium +Sept. 12 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Union +Sept. 13 – Denver, CO @ Fillmore Auditorium +Sept. 15 – Minneapolis, MN @ The Fillmore ➹Sept. 16 – Royal Oak, MI @ Royal Oak Music Theatre ➹Sept. 18 – Toronto, ON @ HISTORY ➹Sept. 20 – New Haven, CT @ College Street Music Hall ➹Sept. 21 – Boston, MA @ Roadrunner ➹Sept. 24 – Philadelphia, PA @ Franklin Music Hall ➹Sept. 25 – New York, NY @ Radio City Music Hall ➹Sept. 28 – Washington, D.C. @ All Things Go **Sept. 29 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Stage AE ➹Oct. 1 – Nashville, TN @ The Pinnacle ➹Oct. 2 – Atlanta, GA @ The Eastern ➹Oct. 4 – Austin, TX @ Austin City Limits **Oct. 7 – Houston, TX @ Bayou Music Center ➹Oct. 9 – Dallas, TX @ Southside Ballroom ➹Oct. 11 – Austin, TX @ Austin City Limits **Oct. 13 – Phoenix, AZ @ Arizona Financial Theatre ➹Oct. 14 – Pomona, CA @ Fox Theater ➹Oct. 16 – Los Angeles, CA @ Greek Theatre ➹Oct. 17 – Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater ➹Nov. 15 – Mexico City, MX @ Corona Capital ** ** Festival Appearance➹ Mallrat Supporting+ Coco & Clair Clair Supporting Best of Rolling Stone Sly and the Family Stone: 20 Essential Songs The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked
Refinery29
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Refinery29
The Best Festival Outfits For Every Type Of Summer Concert
Festival season is in full swing, with Barcelona's Primavera Sound and NYC's Governors Ball kicking off this week. That means it's time to plan your music festival outfits. Each event has its own flair — from the music and performers to the venues, and, of course, the crowd's fashion. So if you want to dress on theme for this summer's hottest music marathons, we curated mini style guides for every kind of vibe. Whether you're after a fringe jacket for a desert fest, durable boots for a camping weekend, an all-denim fit for a big city lineup, or a breezy dress for a seaside show, we've got all the essentials you could possibly need (and want). And just as music taste has no boundaries, neither should your fashion sense. Mix and match pieces from the different guides to concoct the perfect look for every pop, hip-hop, EDM, or country concert on the calendar. (And if you don't have any festivals lined up, don't sweat it — there's plenty of outfit inspo here for Beyonce's Cowboy Carter tour or Bad Bunny's Puerto Rico residency, too.) Scroll on for the clothing, shoes, and accessories (including 2025-trending festival styles) that deserve a spot in your concert outfit wardrobe.
Politico
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Politico
How ‘Les Mis' Became a MAGA Anthem
WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 11: U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump arrive at the Kennedy Center on June 11, 2025 in Washington, DC. Trump is scheduled to attend a performance of Les Misérables this evening. (Photo by) | Getty Images When the U.S. Army Chorus marched into the White House's State Dining Room in February, singing the rousing anthem 'Do You Hear the People Sing?' from Les Misérables to President Donald Trump and his guests at the annual Governors Ball, some on the left read it as a cry of resistance. 'Will you join in our crusade? Who will be strong and stand with me? Somewhere beyond the barricade is there a world you long to see?' choral members sang as they flanked the black-tied attendees in the historic room. 'Do you hear the people sing? Say do you hear the distant drums? It is the future that we bring when tomorrow comes.' The song has become the score for dozens of revolutionary movements since the musical, based on Victor Hugo's 1862 novel by the same name, debuted in the 1980s. In 2013, anti-government protesters in Ukraine sang it in Kyiv's central square as part of the Euromaidan demonstrations. In 2019, protesters in Hong Kong sang it in both English and Cantonese in defiance of the Chinese government. In 2024, South Korean protesters sang it outside the National Assembly after former President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law. But what Democrats missed in their hopeful reading was how the song has in the last eight years become an unofficial anthem for the MAGA movement — with the Governors Ball only the latest example of how deep a root Les Mis has taken in Trump world. During the 2016 election, after Hillary Clinton made her infamous 'basket of deplorables' comment, Trump held a Les Mis -themed rally, entering to the song as the words 'Les Deplorables' were splashed on the screen — a tongue-in-cheek reclamation of Clinton's remarks that quickly became a rallying cry for his base. Trump's own lawyers have even invoked the musical's imagery of law and justice in court filings. That is the backdrop against which Trump set foot in the president's box at the Kennedy Center Wednesday night, for the opening night of a four-week run of Les Mis. For Trump world, the president's appearance marks a radical, almost subversive, triumph over the Kennedy Center — an institution that, in the eyes of the right, has become an effigy of the progressive cultural elite that has long excluded them. After largely ignoring the Kennedy Center his first term, never attending a performance, Trump in February purged 18 members from its board, replaced them with a slate of allies and selected longtime ally Richard Grenell to run it. Wednesday night was an operatic finale to those efforts. As he stepped into view in the Opera House just moments before curtain, Trump received a warm round of applause from the crowd, followed by a hearty chorus of 'U-S-A,' underscored by a smaller chorus of boos. While intermission was bookended by one shout of 'Viva Los Angeles' from the crowd and another 'fuck Trump,' Trump received an otherwise positive reception, especially compared to the one Vice President JD Vance received in March while attending a concert by the National Symphony Orchestra. Trump was joined on the box level by a host of other notables including Grenell, Vance, Second Lady Usha Vance, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Attorney General Pam Bondi, among others. It was a striking visual underscoring that the Kennedy Center's MAGA takeover is complete. 'The first term, we largely ceded a lot of things,' said Sean Spicer, who served as press secretary during Trump's first administration. 'This time, it's like, 'Why would I do that?'' Set against a backdrop of political tumult in 19th-century France, Les Misérables tells the story of a ragtag group of impoverished Parisians — from the protagonist Jean Valjean, who was imprisoned 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his sister's starving children, to the band of student revolutionaries who make a heroic stand during the anti-monarchist June Rebellion of 1832. Hugo, a staunch opponent of authoritarianism who lived most of his life in exile for his political views, saw his book as a call to action in the face of injustice. Its many winding plots offer a sweeping meditation on the human condition — on grace, justice, liberty, freedom and, above all, redemption. The musical, adapted more than a century later, preserved much of that spirit but with Broadway flair. It is dramatic and bombastic, its over-the-top style emblematic of other musicals from the era, like Phantom of the Opera and Cats. Critics have alternatively praised and pilloried it for its overt sentimentality. That Trump is a musical theater fan — and has a particular soft spot for 1980s mega-musicals — is no secret. Songs from Phantom, Cats and Les Mis have long peppered his rally playlists. In his 2004 book, Think Like a Billionaire, Trump declared Evita, the musical about Argentine political icon Eva Perón, was his favorite show, saying he had seen the original Broadway run six times. But Les Mis has a special place in his heart, too. Before the show, Trump told reporters that he has seen Les Mis 'a number of times' and called it 'fantastic.' He even suggested in a recent Fox interview the Kennedy Center might extend Les Mis 's run. 'I thought it was just about our first choice. That's what we got,' Trump said, about the show coming to the Kennedy Center. 'And we have others coming, other great ones are coming.' (Trump added that the first theater production he ever saw was Cats, while First Lady Melania Trump said hers was Phantom.) In fact, Trump once aspired to be a Broadway producer. At 23, he co-produced a short-lived play with theater veteran David Black. In 2005, he flirted with turning his hit show The Apprentice into a musical. 'The president has an incredible aptitude for music and the arts,' said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, before the Wednesday night performance. 'That's why he is so excited about the much needed changes he is making to the Kennedy Center to restore it as an international icon for the arts.' During his first visit to the Kennedy Center in March, following its MAGA takeover, Trump told a gathering of board members that he had shown a special aptitude for music in his childhood, according to a New York Times report on the meeting. The president said that he could pick out notes on the piano, but that he had never developed his musical talent as his father, Fred Trump, did not approve. 'I have a high aptitude for music,' he said, in the Times ' retelling. 'Can you believe that?' 'That's why I love music,' he added. Les Mis has occupied a persistent, if subtle, role in Trump's political career. Trump world sees itself in the musical's hardscrabble revolutionaries, and Trump in its unjustly persecuted protagonist, Valjean; their political opponents are the villainous Inspector Javert, who is so rigid in his worldview that he fails time and time again to offer compassion to the musical's broad cast of characters. It was Javert to whom one of Trump's lawyers compared the court-appointed monitor of the Trump Organization after Trump lost his business fraud trial last year. (Trump, asked before the show which character in Les Mis he identifies with — Jean Valjean or Javert — said that was 'a tough one.') The impulse to see oneself as Valjean and opponents as Javert is centuries old, Hugo scholars say. Civil War soldiers on both sides read Les Misérables, then newly translated, around the campfire. Confederate troops even referred to themselves as 'Lee's Miserables,' in tribute to their leader Gen. Robert E. Lee. 'As a kind of a cultural resource, Les Misérables obviously gets simplified. It gets appropriated. You might say that's the destiny of any successful work — is to get transformed and changed and reused,' said David Bellos, a professor of French and Italian comparative literature at Princeton University. 'And Les Misérables is so rich that you can read a great number of different things into it.' As such, Trump critics have offered alternative readings. Some see him and his administration as the merciless Javert using the power of law to tyrannize the American people — and themselves as the persecuted revolutionaries fighting back. Others see him as Thénardier, the dealmaking innkeeper who serves as the musical's comic relief. Like Thénardier, Trump is always onstage, always selling — and no matter how many times he's knocked down, he's always left standing. And there are challenges with MAGA's reading of itself as the victorious French revolutionaries. For one, the revolutionaries don't win. The musical's favorite rebels, Enjolras, Gavroche and Éponine among them, are all killed by French soldiers during the climactic battle at the barricade; Valjean himself later dies sequestered in a convent, having spent his life hiding from the law. (And the book ends, literally, with Valjean going unremembered, his tombstone blank.) And while Les Mis is indeed populist, MAGA's affinity for it would seem to sit uncomfortably with the liberal causes that the protagonists champion. One of the themes more explicitly outlined in Hugo's book than the musical calls for universal property rights and the redistribution of wealth. (Hugo might have raised an eyebrow at the fact that some theatergoers Wednesday night paid $2 million to sit in a performance box and attend a VIP reception with Trump before the show, though the proceeds do go to support the Kennedy Center.) It's an apparent contradiction some in the movement hold in one hand with their love for the musical in the other. 'It's very populist. It appeals to our sensibilities in that regard,' said one Trump ally who is a musical theater fan, reflecting on that tension. 'But,' the person acknowledged, 'also it's crazy radical lefties — or at least that's implied in the musical — so that's not us.' Hugo scholar Kathryn Grossman, a professor of French at Penn State University, described the tension bluntly: 'Trump has turned the Kennedy Center into an anti-woke arena. This musical is the most woke thing you could ever imagine. Totally woke.' And as much as Wednesday night was a victory for Trump world, it was not an unmitigated one. A handful of cast members boycotted the show. And some critics pointed out the uncomfortable parallels from the day's headlines — armed troops squaring off against protesters in Los Angeles while on a Washington stage actors playing French soldiers assaulted the revolutionaries' barricades. The creators of Les Mis have themselves shied away from taking political stances vis-à-vis Trump. Cameron Mackintosh — who in addition to Les Mis produced Cats and Phantom — was asked by Washingtonian before the play opened at the Kennedy Center during Trump's first term whether the musical had a particular resonance in Washington at that moment. 'You mean because of the political situation? Well, only that it's all about passionate beliefs, which certainly on both sides of the divide is what's happening in your country and indeed in ours,' Mackintosh said. 'People — particularly younger people — are feeling stronger about the way the world is governed than ever, and that is one of the themes that run through it.' Milling in the halls of the Kennedy Center before the show, one Les Mis attendee, who voted for Trump, acknowledged the musical's political undertones, and its resonance for the MAGA movement. 'Look, I understand that there are some songs from Les Mis that are meaningful to him, that draw correlations. But isn't that what the arts are about?' said the attendee, who asked to remain anonymous. 'Like, it can mean something for one person and then mean another thing for another. That is what art is. Why do we have to look at it like, 'Oh, it's now all of a sudden evil, because this one person sees it in one way.' This is art.' As for what he likes about Les Mis, his answer was simple: 'I just love a crescendo.'
Politico
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Politico
The Musical That Makes MAGA's Rebel Hearts Sing
When the U.S. Army Chorus marched into the White House's State Dining Room in February, singing the rousing anthem 'Do You Hear the People Sing?' from Les Misérables to President Donald Trump and his guests at the annual Governors Ball, some on the left read it as a cry of resistance. 'Will you join in our crusade? Who will be strong and stand with me? Somewhere beyond the barricade is there a world you long to see?' choral members sang as they flanked the black-tied attendees in the historic room. 'Do you hear the people sing? Say do you hear the distant drums? It is the future that we bring when tomorrow comes.' The song has become the score for dozens of revolutionary movements since the musical, based on Victor Hugo's 1862 novel by the same name, debuted in the 1980s. In 2013, anti-government protesters in Ukraine sang it in Kyiv's central square as part of the Euromaidan demonstrations. In 2019, protesters in Hong Kong sang it in both English and Cantonese in defiance of the Chinese government. In 2024, South Korean protesters sang it outside the National Assembly after former President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law. But what Democrats missed in their hopeful reading was how the song has in the last eight years become an unofficial anthem for the MAGA movement — with the Governors Ball only the latest example of how deep a root Les Mis has taken in Trump world. During the 2016 election, after Hillary Clinton made her infamous 'basket of deplorables' comment, Trump held a Les Mis-themed rally, entering to the song as the words 'Les Deplorables' were splashed on the screen — a tongue-in-cheek reclamation of Clinton's remarks that quickly became a rallying cry for his base. Trump's own lawyers have even invoked the musical's imagery of law and justice in court filings. That is the backdrop against which Trump set foot in the president's box at the Kennedy Center Wednesday night, for the opening night of a four-week run of Les Mis. For Trump world, the president's appearance marks a radical, almost subversive, triumph over the Kennedy Center — an institution that, in the eyes of the right, has become an effigy of the progressive cultural elite that has long excluded them. After largely ignoring the Kennedy Center his first term, never attending a performance, Trump in February purged 18 members from its board, replaced them with a slate of allies and selected longtime ally Richard Grenell to run it. Wednesday night was an operatic finale to those efforts. As he stepped into view in the Opera House just moments before curtain, Trump received a warm round of applause from the crowd, followed by a hearty chorus of 'U-S-A,' underscored by a smaller chorus of boos. While intermission was bookended by one shout of 'Viva Los Angeles' from the crowd and another 'fuck Trump,' Trump received an otherwise positive reception, especially compared to the one Vice President JD Vance received in March while attending a concert by the National Symphony Orchestra. Trump was joined on the box level by a host of other notables including Grenell, Vance, Second Lady Usha Vance, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Attorney General Pam Bondi, among others. It was a striking visual underscoring that the Kennedy Center's MAGA takeover is complete. 'The first term, we largely ceded a lot of things,' said Sean Spicer, who served as press secretary during Trump's first administration. 'This time, it's like, 'Why would I do that?'' Set against a backdrop of political tumult in 19th-century France, Les Misérables tells the story of a ragtag group of impoverished Parisians — from the protagonist Jean Valjean, who was imprisoned 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his sister's starving children, to the band of student revolutionaries who make a heroic stand during the anti-monarchist June Rebellion of 1832. Hugo, a staunch opponent of authoritarianism who lived most of his life in exile for his political views, saw his book as a call to action in the face of injustice. Its many winding plots offer a sweeping meditation on the human condition — on grace, justice, liberty, freedom and, above all, redemption. The musical, adapted more than a century later, preserved much of that spirit but with Broadway flair. It is dramatic and bombastic, its over-the-top style emblematic of other musicals from the era, like Phantom of the Opera and Cats. Critics have alternatively praised and pilloried it for its overt sentimentality. That Trump is a musical theater fan — and has a particular soft spot for 1980s mega-musicals — is no secret. Songs from Phantom, Cats and Les Mis have long peppered his rally playlists. In his 2004 book, Think Like a Billionaire, Trump declared Evita, the musical about Argentine political icon Eva Perón, was his favorite show, saying he had seen the original Broadway run six times. But Les Mis has a special place in his heart, too. Before the show, Trump told reporters that he has seen Les Mis 'a number of times' and called it 'fantastic.' He even suggested in a recent Fox interview the Kennedy Center might extend Les Mis's run. 'I thought it was just about our first choice. That's what we got,' Trump said, about the show coming to the Kennedy Center. 'And we have others coming, other great ones are coming.' (Trump added that the first theater production he ever saw was Cats, while First Lady Melania Trump said hers was Phantom.) In fact, Trump once aspired to be a Broadway producer. At 23, he co-produced a short-lived play with theater veteran David Black. In 2005, he flirted with turning his hit show The Apprentice into a musical. 'The president has an incredible aptitude for music and the arts,' said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, before the Wednesday night performance. 'That's why he is so excited about the much needed changes he is making to the Kennedy Center to restore it as an international icon for the arts.' During his first visit to the Kennedy Center in March, following its MAGA takeover, Trump told a gathering of board members that he had shown a special aptitude for music in his childhood, according to a New York Times report on the meeting. The president said that he could pick out notes on the piano, but that he had never developed his musical talent as his father, Fred Trump, did not approve. 'I have a high aptitude for music,' he said, in the Times' retelling. 'Can you believe that?' 'That's why I love music,' he added. Les Mis has occupied a persistent, if subtle, role in Trump's political career. Trump world sees itself in the musical's hardscrabble revolutionaries, and Trump in its unjustly persecuted protagonist, Valjean; their political opponents are the villainous Inspector Javert, who is so rigid in his worldview that he fails time and time again to offer compassion to the musical's broad cast of characters. It was Javert to whom one of Trump's lawyers compared the court-appointed monitor of the Trump Organization after Trump lost his business fraud trial last year. (Trump, asked before the show which character in Les Mis he identifies with — Jean Valjean or Javert — said that was 'a tough one.') The impulse to see oneself as Valjean and opponents as Javert is centuries old, Hugo scholars say. Civil War soldiers on both sides read Les Misérables, then newly translated, around the campfire. Confederate troops even referred to themselves as 'Lee's Miserables,' in tribute to their leader Gen. Robert E. Lee. 'As a kind of a cultural resource, Les Misérables obviously gets simplified. It gets appropriated. You might say that's the destiny of any successful work — is to get transformed and changed and reused,' said David Bellos, a professor of French and Italian comparative literature at Princeton University. 'And Les Misérables is so rich that you can read a great number of different things into it.' As such, Trump critics have offered alternative readings. Some see him and his administration as the merciless Javert using the power of law to tyrannize the American people — and themselves as the persecuted revolutionaries fighting back. Others see him as Thénardier, the dealmaking innkeeper who serves as the musical's comic relief. Like Thénardier, Trump is always onstage, always selling — and no matter how many times he's knocked down, he's always left standing. And there are challenges with MAGA's reading of itself as the victorious French revolutionaries. For one, the revolutionaries don't win. The musical's favorite rebels, Enjolras, Gavroche and Éponine among them, are all killed by French soldiers during the climactic battle at the barricade; Valjean himself later dies sequestered in a convent, having spent his life hiding from the law. (And the book ends, literally, with Valjean going unremembered, his tombstone blank.) And while Les Mis is indeed populist, MAGA's affinity for it would seem to sit uncomfortably with the liberal causes that the protagonists champion. One of the themes more explicitly outlined in Hugo's book than the musical calls for universal property rights and the redistribution of wealth. (Hugo might have raised an eyebrow at the fact that some theatergoers Wednesday night paid $2 million to sit in a performance box and attend a VIP reception with Trump before the show, though the proceeds do go to support the Kennedy Center.) It's an apparent contradiction some in the movement hold in one hand with their love for the musical in the other. 'It's very populist. It appeals to our sensibilities in that regard,' said one Trump ally who is a musical theater fan, reflecting on that tension. 'But,' the person acknowledged, 'also it's crazy radical lefties — or at least that's implied in the musical — so that's not us.' Hugo scholar Kathryn Grossman, a professor of French at Penn State University, described the tension bluntly: 'Trump has turned the Kennedy Center into an anti-woke arena. This musical is the most woke thing you could ever imagine. Totally woke.' And as much as Wednesday night was a victory for Trump world, it was not an unmitigated one. A handful of cast members boycotted the show. And some critics pointed out the uncomfortable parallels from the day's headlines — armed troops squaring off against protesters in Los Angeles while on a Washington stage actors playing French soldiers assaulted the revolutionaries' barricades. The creators of Les Mis have themselves shied away from taking political stances vis-à-vis Trump. Cameron Mackintosh — who in addition to Les Mis produced Cats and Phantom — was asked by Washingtonian before the play opened at the Kennedy Center during Trump's first term whether the musical had a particular resonance in Washington at that moment. 'You mean because of the political situation? Well, only that it's all about passionate beliefs, which certainly on both sides of the divide is what's happening in your country and indeed in ours,' Mackintosh said. 'People — particularly younger people — are feeling stronger about the way the world is governed than ever, and that is one of the themes that run through it.' Milling in the halls of the Kennedy Center before the show, one Les Mis attendee, who voted for Trump, acknowledged the musical's political undertones, and its resonance for the MAGA movement. 'Look, I understand that there are some songs from Les Mis that are meaningful to him, that draw correlations. But isn't that what the arts are about?' said the attendee, who asked to remain anonymous. 'Like, it can mean something for one person and then mean another thing for another. That is what art is. Why do we have to look at it like, 'Oh, it's now all of a sudden evil, because this one person sees it in one way.' This is art.' As for what he likes about Les Mis, his answer was simple: 'I just love a crescendo.'
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Gov Ball 2025's 10 Best Moments: RAYE Sings in the Shower, Benson Boone Flips, Hozier Plays Through the Pain & More
The 13th Governors Ball festival went down in Queens, NY's Flushing Meadows Corona Park over the weekend (June 6-8) with three days of music, partying and largely unpredictable weather. Though the latter wreaked havoc on the fest's second day — resulting in an opening that was delayed by four hours, and leading to many acts' sets being compressed (with some cut altogether) — the first two ultimately carried the weekend, with a strong, deep lineup of breakthrough acts and returning favorites, and three top-flight headliners. More from Billboard Olivia Rodrigo Brings Out David Byrne for Scorching 'Burning Down the House' (And Does Some of His Dance Moves) at Gov Ball Governors Ball 2025 Delays Headliners, Cancels Early Sets Due to Weather on Day 2 If Benson Boone Didn't Hand You a JBL Speaker Out of the Trunk of His Car, You Can Score One Here Instead While hip-hop, dance, R&B, reggaetón and top 40 pop were all certainly represented at the festival, this year's roster featured a return to more of the alt-rock and alt-pop acts that Gov Ball was largely centered around in the early 2010s — with big-drawing bands who have recently leveled up to arena status, and singer-songwriters on the precipice of outright pop stardom, which all felt in relatively short supply in the late '10s and early '20s. (By contrast, EDM, also once a major pillar of the festival, had a somewhat more muted presence this year.) And headliners Tyler, the Creator, Olivia Rodrigo and Hozier all repped for the alternative set in their own unique ways, while still providing plenty of crowd-pleasing moments and general mass catharsis. Here are our 10 favorite moments from a diverse and balanced Governors Ball 2025, in roughly chronological order — from vogueing Pride Month celebrations to unofficial rain dances to plenty of backflips. (We already listed our favorite moments from Tyler, the Creator's and Olivia Rodrigo's headlining sets, so we didn't include them again here.) 'We're gonna play two kinda-pop songs,' frontwoman Missy Dabice laid out the gameplan to the fans in attendance for Mannequin Pussy's mid-day set, 'and then we're gonna get real f–king rowdy.' The Philly punk outfit brought the fury as promised, both in their riotous set of jaggedly beautiful thrashers, and in Dabice's timely on-stage condemnation of America's current 'descent towards Christian fascism' and 'return to so-called conservative values,' delivered in a mock-coquettish breathy whisper. And as the cameras panned to fans wearing 'Just Say 'Pussy'' hats, Dabice made sure the men in the crowd — who she called out for their gender's sexist discomfort with the band's name — did just that, demanding they 'pay for the sins of [their] brothers' by leading them in a top-of-their-lungs 'PUSSY!!' howl. 'MONTAY! Why ain't nobody dressed up?' T-Pain yelled to his DJ about a half-dozen songs into his Gov Ball set. 'I thought this was supposed to be a Ball for the Governor!' Indeed, the veteran singer/rapper, donning a black tux with red trim to match his red sneakers, was looking much more refined than the thousands assembled at the main stage to see him play through his staggering catalog of 21st century hits. Despite his faux-disgust, T-Pain continued with the crowd-pleasing set — but kept things classy, performing an audience-participation number set to the tune of Mozart's 'Rondo Alla Tuca.' The actually inclement weather would wait for Saturday, but on Friday, brought the storms on stage with gales of guitar, synths and generously deployed laser sound effects — with sporadic pop hooks cutting through the tempests like rays of sunshine. One such light beam was actually borrowed from an unexpected source: '80s funk band Cameo, whose delectable 1986 hit 'Candy' made a brief appearance, before its bass pops and drum slaps gave way to own Two Star & The Dream Police highlight of the same name, an album and set highlight. 'Did you just say, 'Do a flip?'' Benson Boone asked incredulously of a demanding fan near the stage partway through his Friday evening performance on the Kiehl's stage. 'What show do you think this is? It's all I do!' True to his word, Boone flipped early and often throughout his triumphant Friday evening performance — sometimes from a standstill, sometimes from atop his piano, and for the eighth and final time, off the stage altogether, as he proceeded to run through the crowd high-fiving his fans to the show-closing strains of 'Beautiful Things' — and it remained gasp-worthy (and slightly nerve-wracking) each time. 'If this is a first for you, it's a first for us too,' offered Wallows frontman Dylan Minnette as the heavy rain — which had already forced Gov Ball into a late start on Saturday — briefly reappeared during the band's early-evening set, soaking the audience and sending some fans fleeing for shelter. Those who stayed, though, just went even crazier through the alt-rock band's closing trio of songs, howling the wordless singalong at the end of 'Remember When' along with a now-rain-soaked Minnette, and filling in Clairo's entire guest verse for the group's signature hit 'Are You Bored Yet?' About halfway into her scorching Saturday set, rapper/singer Young Miko took a second to note how 'craaaaazy' it was that she was performing at Gov Ball during the first week of Pride Month. 'Is it gay in here or is it just me?' she asked somewhat rhetorically, before shouting out her LGBTQ family in attendance and upping the set's BPM with her house barnstormer 'MADRE,' dancing and even doing a little voguing on stage as the crowd went nuts for the versatile young star. He may have been about half a month late for Fleet Week, but pop singer-songwriter Conan Gray nonetheless showed up to his main-stage set at Governor's Ball in full sailor's garb, with a ship-on-the-ocean set behind him. During ballad 'Astronomy,' he even climbed the ship's mast, and looked out at the crowd through his microphone as if it was a sea telescope. What he saw was one of the biggest non-headliner crowds of the weekend, as the decision to schedule Gray right before his self-professed best friend Olivia Rodrigo proved highly inspired booking — a point driven home by the fans in the audience shown wearing matching 'I'm Lacy' / 'I'm Heather' t-shirts. 'Who here had a Brat summer?' asked rap-rock-rave duo Joey Valence & Brae — who present like a modern two-man Beastie Boys, albeit one filtered through the EDM and hyper-pop eras — before celebrating the modern-classic Charli XCX LP that turned a year old this weekend with a furious cover of album closer '365.' Charli wasn't the only club icon the duo paid tribute to, as they also dipped into a bit of dubstep kingpin Skrillex's remix of Benny Benassi and Gary Go's 'Cinema,' mimicking guns shooting off the remix's rapid-fire synths. ('We need more Skrillex in our life,' professed Brae.) U.K. soul-pop star RAYE paused her set early on to ask her audience an important question: Who among them likes to sing in the shower? RAYE met the predictably hearty response by explaining that the reason she, like everyone else, loves the way she sounds in the shower, is because of the reverb effect created by singing in such an enclosed space. To demonstrate, she called on her sound guy to turn up the reverb on her mic, and launched into a series of heavenly vocal runs — raving 'I could do this for hours, I f–king love reverb' — which ultimately turned into a gorgeous rendition of My 21st Century Blues' 'Five Star Hotels.' Suffice to say, RAYE probably sounds slightly better singing in the shower than most of the rest of us. 'For anybody who has never seen me before, I promise I sound at least 5% better on average,' Hozier swore to those in attendance at his closing set on Gov Ball's final day, as he'd revealed earlier that a nasty virus had recently swept through much of his band. 'I am haunted — I am stricken — by the specter of puberty one more time.' The protestations were unnecessary, as despite some visibly heavy eyes, Hozier sounded fantastic throughout his set — and ironically, this specific apology came after perhaps his finest performance of the night, as he walked out to a secondary stage in the crowd for a stunning acoustic solo rendition of 2014's 'Cherry Wine.' And of course, the fans in attendance were more than happy to help out on singing duties anyway, particularly on the crowd-pleasers from his self-titled first album, and on the 2024 Billboard Hot 100-topping 'Too Sweet.' 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