“This really sucks” was how Bethany Cosentino put it at the beginning of Best Coast’s water soaked set Friday afternoon. It did indeed suck.
Smart enough to skip the Ferry I had a ticket for and which there were hours of delays, I took the subway to 125th, bought a poncho and walked across the bridge to Randalls Island in the pouring rain with many other people, all wet, all cold, all miserable to celebrate New York City’s biggest Music Fest, Governor’s Ball Day One. Why wasn’t it cancelled?
Randall’s Island was hellish. You couldn’t walk for the mud; when I was a kid I used to have to go for long distance runs though the English countryside where the rains made bogs and every step sunk you deeper into the mud. This was just as bad. And before you start thinking that maybe it was a a summer storm, “Woodstock” type, man, we’re a city pulling together stuff: it wasn’t a summer storm. It was cold, constant rain that started bad and got worse and didn’t stop for one second.
The bands were miserable, me in the VIP Tent, I was miserable, the fans were miserable. Everybody was miserable except for the guys who own Gov’s Ball who should have never let the day start and instead kept in going in conditions so unsafe that Feist almost got electrocuted.
I promise you, I couldn’t see one happy person. This was just terrible. And it is all the owners of the Gov’s Ball’s fault because:
1. It was too early in the year for the Festival. About a month too early.
and
2. It should have been cancelled before it started, it should have never been allowed to hapen. It is outrageous they would force people into such dangerous conditions for no good reason.
Anyway, I caught Polica, Holy Ghost, Dinosaur Jr and left after the Best Coast set (I’ll review the music tomorrow). I was covered in mud, freezing cold and drenched from head to skin not by the time I left BY THE TIME I GOT THERE.
Meanwhile, back home Helen and I have been monitoring the rest of the night on tweeter. Pretty Lights and King Leon were not allowed to play because of unsafe conditions (now they figure it out?) and the night just ended like 20 minutes ago. Apparently, the Ferry’s are jammed packed and very slow, the cars are stuck in the mud and the police are trying to move them, and I guess the bridge to Manhattan is packed as people walk to 125th street.
Absolutely disgraceful, where’s my refund?