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.
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.)
