What, you thought the Mets being in the playoffs was the most exciting thing to happen at Citi Field of late? Nah, that’d be the first annual installment of The Meadows Music and Arts Festival. The new fest from the folks behind Governors Ball went off without a hitch this past weekend– er, until headliner Kanye West left the stage in the middle of “Heartless,” about half an hour into his set. His vague apology about a family emergency hardly appeased those who had been waiting in the massive “Kanye merch” lines.
Many figured it was just ‘Ye being ‘Ye until they soon learned otherwise. But we’ll let the tabloids dwell on all that. (A spokesperson for the fest said in a statement: “We appreciate the great show he put on for fans to close out the inaugural Meadows Festival. Our thoughts are with West and his family.”)
For the most part, the festival was smooth sailing, even if there were less bells and whistles (i.e. VR goggles) than there were at Panorama Festival, and even if planting your tuckus on the cold, hard asphalt of Citi Field’s parking lot isn’t nearly as comfortable as doing so on Randall’s or Governors Islands. We spotted Chris Rock catching Chance the Rapper, Ariana Grande checking out Mac Miller’s set, and we even caught Ilana Glazer of Broad City sidestage during Damian Marley’s set. Click through our photos to see that as well as performances by Yeasayer, Empire of the Sun, Chromeo, Metric and more.