Gov Ball 2025: Recap & Best Moments

“We’re gonna play two kinda-pop songs,” frontwoman Missy Dabice laid out the gameplan to the fans in attendance for Mannequin Pussy’s mid-day set, “and then we’re gonna get real f–king rowdy.” The Philly punk outfit brought the fury as promised, both in their riotous set of jaggedly beautiful thrashers, and in Dabice’s timely on-stage condemnation of America’s current “descent towards Christian fascism” and “return to so-called conservative values,” delivered in a mock-coquettish breathy whisper. And as the cameras panned to fans wearing “Just Say ‘Pussy’” hats, Dabice made sure the men in the crowd — who she called out for their gender’s sexist discomfort with the band’s name — did just that, demanding they “pay for the sins of [their] brothers” by leading them in a top-of-their-lungs “PUSSY!!” howl.

“MONTAY! Why ain’t nobody dressed up?” T-Pain yelled to his DJ about a half-dozen songs into his Gov Ball set. “I thought this was supposed to be a Ball for the Governor!” Indeed, the veteran singer/rapper, donning a black tux with red trim to match his red sneakers, was looking much more refined than the thousands assembled at the main stage to see him play through his staggering catalog of 21st century hits. Despite his faux-disgust, T-Pain continued with the crowd-pleasing set — but kept things classy, performing an audience-participation number set to the tune of Mozart’s “Rondo Alla Tuca.”

The actually inclement weather would wait for Saturday, but on Friday, Mk.Gee brought the storms on stage with gales of guitar, synths and generously deployed laser sound effects — with sporadic pop hooks cutting through the tempests like rays of sunshine. One such light beam was actually borrowed from an unexpected source: ’80s funk band Cameo, whose delectable 1986 hit “Candy” made a brief appearance, before its bass pops and drum slaps gave way to Mk.Gee’s own Two Star & The Dream Police highlight of the same name, an album and set highlight.

“Did you just say, ‘Do a flip?’” Benson Boone asked incredulously of a demanding fan near the stage partway through his Friday evening performance on the Kiehl’s stage. “What show do you think this is? It’s all I do!” True to his word, Boone flipped early and often throughout his triumphant Friday evening performance — sometimes from a standstill, sometimes from atop his piano, and for the eighth and final time, off the stage altogether, as he proceeded to run through the crowd high-fiving his fans to the show-closing strains of “Beautiful Things” — and it remained gasp-worthy (and slightly nerve-wracking) each time.

“If this is a first for you, it’s a first for us too,” offered Wallows frontman Dylan Minnette as the heavy rain — which had already forced Gov Ball into a late start on Saturday — briefly reappeared during the band’s early-evening set, soaking the audience and sending some fans fleeing for shelter. Those who stayed, though, just went even crazier through the alt-rock band’s closing trio of songs, howling the wordless singalong at the end of “Remember When” along with a now-rain-soaked Minnette, and filling in Clairo’s entire guest verse for the group’s signature hit “Are You Bored Yet?”

About halfway into her scorching Saturday set, rapper/singer Young Miko took a second to note how “craaaaazy” it was that she was performing at Gov Ball during the first week of Pride Month. “Is it gay in here or is it just me?” she asked somewhat rhetorically, before shouting out her LGBTQ family in attendance and upping the set’s BPM with her house barnstormer “MADRE,” dancing and even doing a little voguing on stage as the crowd went nuts for the versatile young star.

He may have been about half a month late for Fleet Week, but pop singer-songwriter Conan Gray nonetheless showed up to his main-stage set at Governor’s Ball in full sailor’s garb, with a ship-on-the-ocean set behind him. During ballad “Astronomy,” he even climbed the ship’s mast, and looked out at the crowd through his microphone as if it was a sea telescope. What he saw was one of the biggest non-headliner crowds of the weekend, as the decision to schedule Gray right before his self-professed best friend Olivia Rodrigo proved highly inspired booking — a point driven home by the fans in the audience shown wearing matching “I’m Lacy” / “I’m Heather” t-shirts.

“Who here had a Brat summer?” asked rap-rock-rave duo Joey Valence & Brae — who present like a modern two-man Beastie Boys, albeit one filtered through the EDM and hyper-pop eras — before celebrating the modern-classic Charli XCX LP that turned a year old this weekend with a furious cover of album closer “365.” Charli wasn’t the only club icon the duo paid tribute to, as they also dipped into a bit of dubstep kingpin Skrillex’s remix of Benny Benassi and Gary Go’s “Cinema,” mimicking guns shooting off the remix’s rapid-fire synths. (“We need more Skrillex in our life,” professed Brae.)

U.K. soul-pop star RAYE paused her set early on to ask her audience an important question: Who among them likes to sing in the shower? RAYE met the predictably hearty response by explaining that the reason she, like everyone else, loves the way she sounds in the shower, is because of the reverb effect created by singing in such an enclosed space. To demonstrate, she called on her sound guy to turn up the reverb on her mic, and launched into a series of heavenly vocal runs — raving “I could do this for hours, I f–king love reverb” — which ultimately turned into a gorgeous rendition of My 21st Century Blues‘ “Five Star Hotels.” Suffice to say, RAYE probably sounds slightly better singing in the shower than most of the rest of us.

“For anybody who has never seen me before, I promise I sound at least 5% better on average,” Hozier swore to those in attendance at his closing set on Gov Ball’s final day, as he’d revealed earlier that a nasty virus had recently swept through much of his band. “I am haunted — I am stricken — by the specter of puberty one more time.” The protestations were unnecessary, as despite some visibly heavy eyes, Hozier sounded fantastic throughout his set — and ironically, this specific apology came after perhaps his finest performance of the night, as he walked out to a secondary stage in the crowd for a stunning acoustic solo rendition of 2014’s “Cherry Wine.” And of course, the fans in attendance were more than happy to help out on singing duties anyway, particularly on the crowd-pleasers from his self-titled first album, and on the 2024 Billboard Hot 100-topping “Too Sweet.”