Livin' Like Lauren: The Governor's Ball Music Festival

The Governor's Ball was by far one of the best days of entire life. I know, you might not believe me or think that I'm overreacting but remember that I'm only 19 years old and so saying that so far this has been the best day of my life isn't saying that much. And I'm definitely not overreacting about how truly amazing this day was. I only attended the festival on Friday, as my friends and I didn't want to blow a ton of money on a three day festival ticket, plus food and transportation. My bank account has suffered enough after just one day of the festival.

I starting looking at the weather in New York two weeks before the festival, and every day until the day of, and at first I was haunted by the image of rain clouds on my weather app, but on the day of it showed only clouds and a 20% chance of rain. We expected to be in the clear. Wrong. So of course it started raining as soon as we got on the bus to the ferry. It was cold, raining, and I was dressed in nothing but a crochet crop top, high waisted shorts, and a sad (but fashionable) excuse for a cover-up. The weather put me in a depressed mood the entire ferry ride over to Randall's Island, but as soon as we stepped off the boat and I saw the signs and stages for "Gov Ball NYC" my mood instantly brightened. So what if there was a little rain? I was at a MUSIC FESTIVAL for crying out loud! I had dreamed of this day for months!

The hardest thing about music festivals is choosing which shows to go to. At the Governor's Ball there were two artists playing at two different stages every hour and a half or so. So, during each time period you had to choose which artist to see. And there's no breaks! The music stops for no one to take a bathroom break, get some food/water, or go to the bathroom. There were a few time periods where the artist didn't interest my friends and I so that's when we took the time to do those things. But we ended up seeing Priory, Rae Sremmurd, Future, Odesza, The Decemberists, and Drake. Just looking back at this list I feel so extremely lucky that I got the chance to see all of these amazing artists perform live. It was almost euphoric to be standing in the huge crowds of people, dancing with my friends, and enjoying the music. Overall all the artists I got the chance to see were awesome live. Priory was a great way to kick off the festival, especially with their performance of "Weekend." Rae Sremmurd got the crowd hyped up until Slim Jimmy fell off the stage. I was only like 100 feet away from him! #PrayForSlimJim. Very memorable moment. I had only little interest in Future but a lot of people said he was good and my brother suggested I see him, so we did and he did not disappoint. Now, Odesza is one of my favorite artist EVER so you can only imagine how excited I was for that. I cannot even explain how amazing that concert was. Every time I think about it it feels like I was in a dream state. After it was over I actually wanted to cry. The Decemberists were excellent live; and then my phone died. How unfortunate that that had to happen right before the Drake concert. In a way it kind of made it better though. I felt like I was much more in the moment without a cell phone to distract me. The crowds at every concert weren't even that bad until we got to Drake. It seemed like everyone at the festival was waiting all day for him (most of them probably were). My friends and I managed to push our way through a sea of people to about halfway to the stage, where we met a group of guys, and one of them let me get up on his shoulders to get a better view of the show. Now that was awesome. The Drake performance was so mind-blowing, as I'd been listening to Drake every since middle school and now here I was listening to him perform live in front of me!

The whole festival was so surreal, almost too good to be true. I think back on it and feel overcome with a sense of great happiness that I got to experience it all, but also a slight sense of sadness that it is over. I wish it could've lasted forever. What could be better than that? Now that I've dipped my toes into the festival world I've developed a greater appreciation for live music and I'm eager to attend more festivals and concerts in the future. Perhaps Bonnaroo 2016? ;)