While there were less zeitgeisty moments in this edition, acts like Young Miko and Benson Boone still brought energy to New York’s cheaper Coachella
For the past year, I have dined out on the story of being in the Sunday crowd at last year’s Governor’s Ball. That sweltering afternoon in the sun, the largest crowd of New York’s premier music festival – more than could fit on the lawn of Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens – gathered at an unusual hour for a mid-bill set. If you’re lucky, there are a few times in the life of a regular concertgoer when it is not just another great show, when you can feel the gravity of the zeitgeist shift. Chappell Roan, dressed as the Statue of Liberty and ferried to the stage in a giant apple, belting Red Wine Supernova to a sea of pink cowboy hats in one of the loudest sing-backs I have ever heard, is one of those times, a clear sonic boom of a cultural rocket taking off.
Roan’s star-making moment turned out to be a stake in the ground of a tentpole year for women in pop music, and the 2024 Gov Ball happened to find itself at the center. The festival lucked out in booking Roan before she blew up, unofficially launching her successful campaign for Grammys best new artist. Same for Sabrina Carpenter, also given mid-day booking before Espresso became the song of the summer. From Palestinian-Chilean singer Elyanna to proudly queer Broadway crossover Reneé Rapp to headliner SZA, the festival palpably hummed with hype for female acts both ascendant and bankable, taking advantage of Coachella’s so-called flop year for a cheaper, more accessible, banner weekend for, as I heard more than once, the “girls and the gays”.
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