Festivals like Coachella and Governors Ball are celebrations of music and artists – both established and up and coming. In order to draw in a bigger audience, it is important to find a balance between the two. Unfortunately, when a festival lacks artists with “A-list” credibility, the festival tends to become disappointing and underwhelming.
The Governors Ball music festival returns to Citi Field, New York June 10-12 of 2022. The festival will headline artists like Kid Cudi, Halsey and J. Cole. It also highlights other artists like Migos, Jack Harlow, Roddy Ricch, Playboi Carti, Clairo and Becky G.
Even with these popular artists, Staples students find the 2022 Governors Ball lineup to be underwhelming, especially considering the costly price of the tickets.
“I bought my ticket for Sunday, but A) the ticket was too expensive for the ‘meh’ lineup,” Adela Ardrey ’24 said. “B) the main artists from every single day [are] all just not good.”
Also disappointed by the lineup, Ruby Kantor ’24 prefers the featured artists over the headliner.
“It’s annoying that Halsey is headlining and not Roddy Ricch because he is a lot more relevant and his songs are more popular than Halsey’s,” Kantor said. “Even though she just came out with a new album, I feel like it’s not getting that much attention.”

Although Halsey’s name is more well-known across generations, teens following music trends are not immediately drawn to her name. Instead, their eyes look for artists like Roddy Ricch. The anticlimactic headliners have discouraged students from buying tickets, as the first names shown on the lineup do not meet the same standards the artists from the 2021 Governors Ball met.
Some Staples students consider the lineup to be subpar. The headliners aren’t as popular as the featured artists and many of the featured artists are unrecognizable by those who are casual music listeners.
“I feel like they also struggled to get good artists,” Ardrey said, “because they already had such good artists in 2021.”
With the 2021 Governors Ball being in September and the 2022 ball in June, many students find themselves discouraged from going to this upcoming festival as it does not compete with Billie Eilish, A$AP Rocky and Post Malone, who were featured back in September.
“It’s really hard to pick a new round of [artists] that are well-known every year,” Catherine Hassell ’24 said. “Some of their choices are really odd, but I guess they support small creators.”
Presenting artists that are popular but also attract diverse audiences is not an easy task. Regardless of the lineup, there are still Staples students that are eager to party with their friends and enjoy the festival whether they know the artists or not.
“It might not have the huge headliners, but it’s very deep,” Rory Tarsy ’22 said. “It’s got a lot of good artists that are a little bit underground to the non-music listeners that can show out.”