Governors Ball New York Surprises All Friday Attendees with Free Saturday Passes

Double the days, double the fun: New York City’s iconic Governors Ball Music Festival invited all Friday fest attendees back for free on Saturday.

The beginning of summer = the beginning of festival season. Because really, what’s better than weekends full of live music, refreshing drinks, tasty bites, and dancing in the grass until you can’t feel your toes? The Governors Ball Music Festival, affectionately called Gov Ball for short, is New York City’s premier music festival which always features lineups that span genres and generations.

This year’s fest took place from June 9-11 at Flushing Meadows Corona Park, a first for Gov Ball (past years have occurred at Citi Field and, pre-COVID, Randall’s Island). The lineup featured heavy hitters in all categories including headliners Lizzo, Odesza, and Kendrick Lamar. Other notable acts included Lil Uzi Vert, Diplo, Lil Baby, Aespa, Rina Sawayama, Lil Nas X, Sofi Tukker, and Giveon–and that’s just the shortlist.

Perhaps the biggest news from the fest weekend wasn’t the music itself, but the surprise email that all Friday ticket holders received at the end of the first day. The email, sent from Front Gate Tickets (the ticketing service utilized by Gov Ball), had the subject line, “You’re Invited Back to Gov Ball Tomorrow!”

The body of the email read: “What’s better than 1 day at Gov Ball? A second day! Thanks to our dear friends at Verizon for this year only…we’re able to invite our Friday 1-Day Ticket Holders back for FREE. The party was so fun, we didn’t want it to end, so let’s keep it going.

“KEEP YOUR FRIDAY WRISTBAND ON and we’ll see you tomorrow! It will still be active to scan you into GENERAL ADMISSION areas of the festival tomorrow for SATURDAY ONLY. If you have any issues, visit the Box Office or Ticket Help. We hope to see you again on Saturday!”

The email also included a large button that linked to support.frontgatetickets.com. Saturday featured acts like Lil Baby, Lauv, Oliver Tree, Finneas, Kenny Beats, Snail Mail, and Suki Waterhouse. While not an EDM-specific fest, the day’s headliner was Odesza, which could potentially account for lower Saturday ticket sales for the general music crowd Gov Ball tends to pull in. 

Whatever the reasoning was, Friday attendees were certainly in for a lucky treat–we’ll take all of our music festivals doubled going forward, please!