When The Smoke Clears: Can Governors Ball Find Success After Last Year’s Big Win?

“I’m a born and bred New Yorker and I’ve never experienced an earthquake before,” says Tom Russell of Founders Entertainment, which promotes Governors Ball. The day we speak, an earthquake centered in New Jersey shakes New York City and brings back a similarly strange feeling from a year ago — and a day before Gov Ball’s opening.

“We did not see that coming and neither did the city of New York and none of us really knew how to address it,” says Russell referring to smoke from a Canadian wildfire that enveloped Gotham in a sooty ochre haze the day before Governors Ball 2023 was to kick-off for the first time in Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens. “It basically looked like Mars in the city of New York on Wednesday and Friday was our day one. It was a lot of conference calls and conversations. We worked together to work through it and closely monitor the insanity that it was. By that time the skies had cleared and returned to a normal color, we were quite lucky the wind was blowing in the right direction.”

Last year, literally and figuratively, the winds for Gov Ball shifted. Since 2011, the fest has been plagued by bad weather and venue challenges among other issues. Former homes on Governors Island, Randall’s Island made access to Gov Ball difficult at best; while the parking lot next to CitiField, where it was housed two years before last, left a lot to be desired. Add the vagaries of June weather in NYC, and The Ball, many times, is a risky proposition.

All that agita seemed to evaporate last year with Gov Ball’s debut at the idyllic Flushing Meadows Corona Park, vastly upping its quality and success. This included a fest footprint with shady tree-lined walkways and grassy areas; ease of access with NYC’s MTA subway and LIRR train (17 minutes from Grand Central or Penn); innovative art installations; well-integrated sponsorship activations (mmm, Dunkin Donuts); easy crowd flow and, not least, the incredible vestiges of two NYC World’s Fairs (1939-40 and 1964-65) adjacent to the fest and which includes the iconic Unisphere,

“The survey results from last year’s festival were the best we’ve had in our history,” Russell says. “The experience was better than ever before. With 95 to 100% of festivals, the majority of the experience is impacted by the venue. To be in a park that was literally built and imagined for large-scale events and one that is so easy to get to, really paid off.”

Russell also says the response to last year’s fest from C3 Presents/Live Nation, which acquired a majority stake in Founders Entertainment in 2016, was, “All positive. Everybody who was there from industry folks to artists to staff to attendees, everybody was really impressed. They saw that the venue not just works, but it’s really, really special and different. There’s not that massive mainstage, open field like you see in a Zilker Park (ACL’s home) or a Grant Park (Lollapalooza). It’s super unique, going back to how many trees there are, it adds to the vibe and makes it feel much more intimate and it’s a much cooler event.”

Now, with this year’s Gov Ball slated for June 7-9 and featuring headliners SZA, Post Malone, Peso Pluma, 21 Savage, The Killers and Rauw Alejandro, the question is how can the fest continue and build upon last year’s momentum and consensus success?

When asked, Foundation is taking an “if it ain’t broke…” approach. “We took all of that good buzz and excitement from last year and pinpointed things we could improve upon and better,” Russell says. “We’re making minor tweaks to the layout to incorporate more of the Unisphere, which we’ve opened up and made it front of house and moved our food village next to it.”

Gov Ball is also upping its food game with a wise and delectable partnership with the Queens Night Market, founded by John Wang, and will feature some of its vendors. There’s also more Latin programming this year with Peso Pluma, Rauw Alejandro and Farruko, which Russell said was based on fan feedback.

With a softer festival market, when Russell’s asked if Gov Ball is experiencing any issues, he says no. “Not for Gov Ball. Every festival and every market is different. We always want to provide value for consumers, especially in New York City, because things are so darn expensive. When we price our tickets, we do so with value in mind. And for the lineup we put together on the music side, on the food and beverage side, on the experiential side, there’s real value in a Gov Ball ticket. We’ve always thought that way, but this year we brought our prices down a little bit to provide more value. And it’s really paid off.”