SONIC BOOM

Just because New York City is a permanent music festival doesn’t mean it can’t also host the sort of weekend megafest more often found in the sticks of Tennessee or SoCal. Hence we have the Governors Ball, the three-year-old gathering that this weekend brings, for starters, Kings of Leon, Guns N’ Roses, Animal Collective, Pretty Lights, Kendrick Lamar, Nas, Erykah Badu, Best Coast, Icona Pop, and Azealia Banks to Randall’s Island. Today, arrive early for sets from rap traditionalist Freddie Gibbs and rockers HAIM, and stick around for headliner Kanye West, he who recently tore up the SNL stage with new tunes “Black Skinhead” and “New Slaves.”

Fri., June 7, 11 a.m.; Sat., June 8, 11 a.m., 2013