Lessons Learned At The Governor's Ball

This past Saturday, a couple friends and I ventured across the Hudson to the Governor's Ball Music Festival, featuring Girl Talk, Empire of the Sun, and Pretty Lights, to name a few. As expected, the day turned out to be a hipster's dream: neon wayfarers, Native American war paint, the works.  This was my trip to Governor's Island, and here are a couple things I learned...

1. Governor's Island is creepy as shit. I need to take a minute to discuss the creepiness. Is this where Shutter Island was filmed? Vacant buildings with burned out windows, overgrown weeds....weird. Not to mention the bizarre kiddy festival happening just outside the festival gates. I am sure those kids learned a lot about how drugs are bad for you and how passing out half-naked in public is un-acceptable.

2. The Ferry is pretty worthless when you have thousand of people trying to get to an island and there are not other means of transportation. My first experience on the ferry was over an hour wait to get on it and only made tolerable due to a near by beer stand.

3. Passing out by noon is perfectly acceptable. We arrived at the festival around 1pm and were greeted by this chipper foursome.

4. Day-Drinking + Vendor Shopping = an ass load of neon gear that I now own but have no need for.

5. VIP doesn't mean anything, other than a neon green wrist bands and blue fuzzy VIP lettering to separate the VIPers from the masses.

6. Costumes are the norm, not the exception. Performers' costumes were pretty amazing (Empire of the Sun especially), but fans costumes were equally as great. Just a sampling below....

7. People are willing to do anything to get to the front of a beer line.

8. Clowns are creepy, but everyone already knows that.