Music festivals are the perfect opportunity to spend time with your friends, discover new talent, and experience your favorite artists live. The Meadows Music and Arts Festival took place last weekend in Queens, New York, giving me and many other Fordham students the chance to experience a music festival midway through the semester. The Meadows lineup included Kanye West, Chance the Rapper, J. Cole, Kygo, The 1975, Post Malone, Bryson Tiller, Cage the Elephant, Mac Miller, Chromeo, and even more. With this amount of amazing performers, I, along with many others, were forced to choose between which performer we wanted to watch more, with many artists performing at the same time.
As a whole, the festival was filled with unforgettable moments. I’m currently experiencing post-Meadows sadness, as I’m getting ready for midterms, so I decided to recap some of the artists I was #blessed to experience live.
1. J. Cole
Double platinum rapper J. Cole was the headliner for Saturday night, and did not disappoint, even after The Weeknd cancelled for the second time. He’s frequently mentioned Queens is one of his favorite cities in the world, making his show at Citi Field even more meaningful. He performed many of his hits, including “Wet Dreamz”, “Love Yourz”, and “Work Out”. During his set, he mentioned that the show was going to be one of his last for awhile, stirring up rumors that he may be taking a long hiatus from music or even retiring permanently.
2. Post Malone
Post Malone, best known for his hit single “White Iverson”, gave everyone at Meadows a chance to get a taste of his other hip-hop tracks. He had an impressive stage presence and even got off the main stage to engage directly with the audience. He gave an emotional performance of “Too Young”, which he dedicated to his friends who had passed away at a young age, and “Go Flex”, a song that he also played the guitar on.
3. Chromeo
Even though Meadows was a hip-hop heavy music festival, Founders Entertainment, producers of Meadows, made sure that all music lovers would be accomodated in the music they would be able to experience. Chromeo gave great energy to the audience with its electro-funk music. The duo gave an upbeat performance of their hit single “Jealous (I Ain’t With It) and another popular hit, “Come Alive”, among many others. Their use of the electric guitar, keyboards, synthesizers, and talk box shows how many instruments are essential for their dynamic sound and vibrant performance.
4. Chance the Rapper
Hip hop recording artist Chance the Rapper gave a performance of a lifetime. His set at Meadows was even more important since it accounted for his only New York stop on his Magnificent Coloring World tour, making it obvious that this would be an entire production, which is uncharacteristic of most performances at music festivals. He performed his hits “No Problem”, “Same Drugs”, and “All We Got”, complete with DJs, a choir, and puppet singers. He ended his set blasting the audience with confetti, giving the audience more than enough energy to last throughout his whole hour and 15 minute set.
5. Bryson Tiller
R&B artist Bryson Tiller gave festival goers a chance to take a break from the high-energy performers to listen to his more mellow set. He gave emotional performances of his hit singles “Exchange” and “Don’t”, along with other songs, such as “Set Free” and “Rambo”. In breaks between his songs, he explained his desire to provide a better life for his daughter, as a motivation to be the award-winning artist he is today.
6. Kanye West
If I didn’t address the Kanye West situation, it’d be a crime. Even though he did start his set late and leave early, I’m not upset at all given the situation that Kim was in. Nevertheless, during the time that he was on stage, he gave the most energetic performance out of all the performers at Meadows. He performed many of his news hits including “Famous” and “Facts”, and his older hits such as “Black Skinhead” and “Heartless”. He opened his set with fireworks and left in the most dramatic way possible- it couldn’t have been more Kanye.