Preview: Governor's Ball Music Festival

This Saturday, June 18th, marks the inaugural Governor's Ball, a dance-centric music festival located on Governor's Island in New York City, featuring some high energy headliners. The event also boasts numerous art installations, interactive events like a satellite Beer Pong tournament, table tennis, beach volleyball, and much, much more. Here is a little information about a few of the headliners.

Pretty Lights - Still Rockin (Big Apple Stage 10:30pm - ???)


Pretty Lights is Colorado-based producer, Derek Vincent Smith's most recent musical project. Relying heavily on old funk, soul, and hip-hop samples, Pretty Lights infuses this blend with his own style of Bass heavy music, and electro beats, to create a very unique and evolving sound. Smith performs live with fellow producer and drummer, Adam Deitch. Together, Pretty Lights has become one of the most sought after live performances in electronic music today, and with the combination of talented musicians, unique performance style, remarkable stage production, and high-energy sound, it is easy to see why.

Girl Talk - Still Here (Gotham Stage 9:05pm-10:25pm)


Musically, nothing is sacred when it comes to Pittsburg native Greg Gillis, aka Girl Talk. The self proclaimed king of the mashup has been starting dance parties around the country for the last few years, combining everything from Elton John to Notorious B.I.G. to create some of the most notable mashup mix tapes of the last decade. Expect to sweat, suddenly notice a large portion of the crowd has climbed up on the stage, and see Gillis standing atop this sweaty writhing masse of people, shirtless, laptop in hand, showing you why he deserves his title.

Empire Of The Sun - We Are The People (Big Apple Stage 8:00pm-9:00pm)

Known around the world for their ostentatious performances, and synth-pop anthems, this Australian electronic duo is no stranger to high energy events like Governor's Ball. I've never seen them before, but know few people who haven't heard some of their music by now, so I'm excited to see what they'll have to offer.

Neon Indian - Ephemeral Artery (Big Apple Stage 5:55pm-6:50pm)

After the release of their debut LP Psychic Chasms, this Texas-based group has been garnering both critical and popular attention, and are hitting this summer festival season hard, performing at Camp Bisco X and the North Coast Music Festival in addition to Governor's Ball. The group also recently partnered with Pitchfork for their 3d Music Video series with their song Mind, Drips. It will be interesting to see what they have in store for this performance.

Tickets to this event are still available, and can be purchased here, or at the gate on Saturday morning. Tickets include round trip ferry, and the first one leaves 11:15am from Pier 11.