Undeterred by a rainy forecast, the 2025 Governor’s Ball captivated New Yorkers and tourists alike from June 6-8. This year‘s headliners included Tyler, The Creator, Olivia Rodrigo and Hozier.

This year marked the 14th annual music festival for New Yorkers, and its third at Flushing Meadows Corona Park. Three main stages sprawled the nearly-900 acre park, complete with gigantic screens for an audience of tens of thousands to view.

On Friday, pop group Strawberry Launch — a band featuring nearly all NYU alumni — performed the festival’s opening set on the Grove Stage, as well as an acoustic set at the Kona Big Wave Stage later that afternoon. For the band, which initially formed in 2018 while four out of five of its members attended the university, the weekend was both long-awaited and over too fast. 

“We’ve been preparing for Gov Ball for like, six months,” lead singer Riiza told WSN. “You know so far in advance, and we couldn’t tell anybody for a long time, either. So it was like, ‘We have to prepare for the biggest show of our lives and we can’t say anything?’ I’m so sad it’s over. It went by quick.”

The following acts continued to drum up energy from the festival’s crowds. Dogpark, an indie band that first formed while its members attended the University of Richmond, performed. Gov Ball is the penultimate stop of the band’s spring tour, which featured other festival appearances, headline shows and gigs supporting Marcus King Band — a series of performances that the band feels has strengthened its live music game.

“I think our low, our miss is a lot higher,” drummer Christian Conte told WSN. “Our ceiling is higher, and also our floor of how well we perform, and how much energy we have on stage, is higher. We’re just becoming a better live band with every show. That’s why reps are a real thing — like, we’re getting our reps in.”

The shows have also been an opportunity to showcase new songs from their 2025 EP, “Until the Tunnel Vision Melts.”

“The difference from the crowd after it came out, the amount of fun you have playing the song, it’s like night and day,” lead singer Eamon Moore told WSN. “They can sing along, and that’s really what it’s all about.”

Friday’s headliner, Tyler, The Creator, began his set with a number of selections from his most recent album, “CHROMAKOPIA,” accompanied by thundering bass and its iconic visuals: A shock of vivid green lighting, a suit and a mask. The night concluded with the artist unmasking to bring a series of earlier hits to life.

Storms delayed Saturday’s start for four hours, canceling opening sets of smaller bands and shortening the remaining artists. Many fans missed opening acts, waiting in line to enter for over two hours even after doors opened. Indie band Wallows performed under a perfect rainbow, then a massive downpour while fans shielded themselves with plastic ponchos to preserve their spots for the main event — headliner Olivia Rodrigo. 

Rodrigo’s set combined her iconic pop hits with classic rock and grunge. Most of the teenage audience seemed not to recognize the special guest, David Byrne of The Talking Heads for “Burn Down The House,” But the set was electric nonetheless.

Fresh off of shows in Brooklyn and Boston, Snow Wife’s Sunday morning set featured selections from her dance-pop EP ‘Bodyology,’ released on Friday. It marked early live performances of some of the featured songs within.

“My favorite songs change every day,” she told WSN. “I think I’ve been super surprised to see the reaction to [‘If God is Real, Then Heaven is a Club]’ though, because I always thought that that song was a bit left, and that’s like that my personal taste is a bit more left as a music listener. So it’s been really exciting to see that for a lot of people, that’s their favorite song on the project. I’ve been more and more excited to show that song, for sure.”

In spite of facing illness, Hozier closed out the weekend with characteristically powerful vocals and advocacy for a ceasefire in Gaza. When speaking about an ongoing worldwide rise in imperialism, he encouraged listeners to resist.

“The mentality of imperialism that would look at someone else’s homeland and say, ‘That’s real estate for my fucking ruling class,’ is the same imperialism that would squeeze you dry,” Hozier said to the crowd.

His set brought emphasis to the inherently political nature of music and art, with stock market like tickers of increases in international military spending and homelessness during “Eat Your Young” and paying homage to the similarly motivated songs of greats like U2 and Joan Baez during “Nina Cried Power.” His intentional lyricism and strong parting words rendered him a powerful closer to the weekend.

“Things can seem so dark, and it can seem like there’s so much division and so much violence in the world.” Hozier said. “But every single day I see acts of goodness, acts of solidarity. I’ve been spending time in New York City and the fucking solidarity, the spirit of city solidarity, community, antiracism that I see here is special. It’s a very, very special place.”

Contact Julia Diorio and Eleanor Jacobs at [email protected].