Photos: Day 1 Of Governors Ball With Lorde, Chance, And Perfect Weather

Governors Ball took over Randall's Island Friday, landing a cloudless sunny day on the mega-festival's first day back since last year's Kanye-cancelling rainout. The food was perfectly Instagrammable, the water stations generously spaced, and the night's two big headliners, Chance the Rapper and Lorde, put on stellar performances. There were also very long entrance lines and $13 beers and a seemingly bottomless supply of bros in basketball jersey looking to buy exactly one cigarette. You take the good with the bad at these things—click through the gallery above to see it all.

My personal Gov Ball day got off to a rocky start, as I made it all the way to South Ferry before learning that Governors Ball is not actually held at Governor's Island. But our photographer Scott Lynch reports that first round of music, including Danny Brown, Bleachers and Francis and the Lights, kept the daytime crowd moving. Charles Bradley, clearly still funky as hell, also delivered his first onstage performance since a 2016 stomach cancer diagnosis.

I did make it in time for Lorde, whose rapturous dance party of a set—plus a Robyn cover!—was as good as any outdoor festival performance I've ever witnessed (more Lorde gushing here). She interspersed crowd favorites with new songs off her forthcoming album Melodrama, and closed out the set with a pyrotechnic-heavy version of the album's lead single, "Green Light." With apologies to Carly Rae Jepsen, it's very clearly the Song of the Summer.

Afterward, Chance the Rapper finished out the night with his own brand of magic, which these days involves leading thousands of adoring fans through full-fledged worship music. This mass gospel-rap recitation is quite the spectacle, especially in a mostly white crowd like this one, something that Chance and his Social Experiment seemed fully aware of—at one point, the rapper asked us if we liked hanging out at Terminal 5, then asked the same of hip-hop club SOBs, and laughed at the difference in reactions. Chance ended the set by bringing Ty Dolla $ign on stage for "Blessings," moshing through the benediction before thanking the crowd "for being there for me."

On the way out, the day's hefty security presence definitely made itself felt, as police and counter-terrorism officials lined the long path to the ferry. According to ABC News "There is stepped up security this year...layers of checkpoints at the entrance with NYPD counter-terrorism units and K-9s. Plus, there are 500 private security guards hired by the festival."

Day two is underway, with Phoenix and Childish Gambino joining hometown favorites Wu-Tang Clan and ASAP Ferg. It looks like the sunny weather will hold through the weekend, though after some rain late last night, we can't rule out the possibility of another mud party.