The very first The Meadows Music & Arts Festival took place in the parking lot of New York City’s Citi Field -- four stages and 40 artists worth of awesome music for the thousands of music lovers who attended.
The lineup included Kanye West (who, despite his cut-short set, still rocked it), Chance The Rapper, Kygo, The 1975, Bryson Tiller, Chromeo, Mac Miller,BØRNS, Pusha T, Post Malone and Grimes.
We spent both days at the festival taking in some amazing live performances from all of the above-mentioned artists, and others on the lineup. Check out 10 of the best moments from the weekend below:
Kanye West
By now, you've already heard that Kanye West had to cut his set short due to a family emergency, which involved his wife Kim Kardashian being robbed at gunpoint in their Paris apartment. However, despite the performance ending sooner than intended, Ye definitely delivered during the time he did spend on stage -- even in a festival setting he recreated his Saint Pablo Tour setup. He performed songs ranging from "Blood On The Leaves," to his collaboration with Drake "Pop Style," to his ScHoolboy Q collab "That Part, to "Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 1," to "Black Skinhead," among others.
The crowd had been building for Ye the entire day, and for a music festival, you've never seen a stage so packed out as you did for Kanye. And much of the crowd was wearing his tour merch, as the line to buy t-shirts and sweatshirts was constant during both days.
Angela Weiss /AFP/Getty Images
Kygo
At the same time West was on The Meadows stage, behind him was Kygo on the Queens Blvd stage. If there was ever a time to wish you could be in two places at once, this was it. Kygo gave fans an awesome set, which included guest appearances by the producer/DJ's "Stay" collaborator Maty Noyes, as well as Shaggy.
And as if that wasn't enough, Kygo had one of the most epic endings to his performance ever. He sat down in front of a piano on stage, next to a string quartet, to perform his hit single "Firestone" LIVE with Conrad. After performing the song, Kygo went back up to the DJ booth with the singer to kick things up a notch, ending in Conrad belting out the song behind A LOT of pyro.
Jason Koerner / Getty Images for iHeartMedia
J. Cole
Guess what? It's a COLE WORLD, and we're just living in it. At least that was the vibe at The Meadows on the main stage as J. Cole closed out the first day of the festival. A MASSIVE crowd descended upon The Meadows stage to watch the rapper, who ended up being the headliner in place of The Weeknd do his thing. In fact, he told the crowd "I'm not even supposed to be here," but based on how fans reacted and rapped every song lyric along with him during his set, we're betting they were glad he was. Dreamville, indeed.
Robin Marchant / Getty Images for ESPN
The 1975
Just before Kanye and Kygo took to their respective stages, The 1975 drew a crowd of their own on the Shea stage. Lead singer Matt Healy even announced to fans that it was almost "Kanye Time," while also shouting out Chance The Rapper as one of his favorite artists right now. The band's stage setup was very eye-catching, as various tones of neon and picturesque backdrops spread across four LED columns, and screens behind them.
The band kicked things off with their single "Love Me" from their latest album I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It, then continuing to perform several songs off of the new record, in addition to some favorites from their debut self-titled album like "Chocolate," "The City," and "Girls."
Angela Weiss /AFP/Getty Images
Chance The Rapper
There is a lot of buzz surrounding Chance The Rapper right now, and rightfully so. And if you caught his set at The Meadows, it's clear to see why. Taking The Meadows stage before Kanye, Chance and his cast of characters gave fans an awesome, eye-catching, and ear-pleasing set.
Joining Chance for his Meadows performance was his lion buddy Carlos behind the DJ booth, who helped the 23-year-old Chicago-born hip hop artist steer his set as he performed music both older and new. Also on stage with Chance was a purple-haired puppet, who sat next to him at the piano, a gospel choir of bird-like muppets, and Nico Segal (a.k.a. Donnie Trumpet) on trumpet.
Chance performed songs like "Juke Jam," "Sunday Candy," "Same Drugs," "Blessings," and "No Problems," among others.
If you EVER get the chance to see Chance in concert -- DO IT. You will not be disappointed.
Tasos Katopodis /Getty Images for Live Nation
Post Malone
Is it possible to drink a Bud Light and rap at the same time in front of thousands of people? Yes, it is. And that's exactly what happened during Post Malone's set at The Meadows. In front of a screen which flashed "Stoney" -- the name of his long-awaited, forthcoming full-length album -- Posty performed songs like "Too Young," "Go Flex" (and yes, he was flexing), and of course, "White Iverson," which he closed with, among others.
Speaking of Stoney, we caught up with Post Malone backstage after his set, and he told us of his album, "It should be coming up very soon, and I'm sorry for the wait, but I think it'll be worth it. I have to get everything just tweaked correctly."
Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images for Anheuser-Busch
Mac Miller
Packing out the Shea Stage before The 1975 on day two of The Meadows was Mac Miller. It's an exciting time for Mac as he just dropped his brand new album The Divine Feminine, which includes features from Anderson .Paak, Kendrick Lamar, Ty Dolla $ign, Ariana Grande (who was at The Meadows to support Mac), CeeLo Green, and more. On stage during The Meadows, Mac's album title -- The Divine Feminine -- was prominently displayed behind him as he performed a handful of songs from his latest release, in addition to some older crowd favorites.
We got to chat with Mac right after he got off stage, and he told us of his The Meadows performance, "It was beautiful. I was not expecting that. It's just amazing to see people that pack the stage still, it blows my mind. And also, that they're there for the whole ride, like from the earlier songs to now, it's great."
Dale Berman / Getty Images for MTV
BØRNS
Like chicken soup, BØRNS is just good for the soul. Rocking a bright yellow blouse, BØRNS kicked off his set at The Meadows on the Linden Blvd stage with his 2014 song "Seeing Stars." The absolutely MASSIVE crowd sang along immediately, as they continued to do throughout the entire performance from beginning to end.
During his set at the festival, BØRNS performed songs from his debut full-length album Dopamine, including "10,000 Emerald Pools," "Overnight Sensation," "The Emotion," his latest single "American Money," "Electric Love," and more. The singer/songwriter also performed an AWESOME cover of Elton John's chart-topping 1973 single "Bennie and the Jets."
Charley Gallay / Getty Images
Grimes
Before J. Cole closed out day one of The Meadows on the festival's main stage, Canadian singer/songwriter/producer Grimes drew a very large crowd to her set. If you're already familiar with Grimes, then you're already aware of her tremendous talent, but did you know she can rap in Russian? Because she can, and she did at The Meadows. And it. Was. GLORIOUS.
Things got loud during Grimes's performance at The Meadows, as she performed songs like "Realiti," "Go," "Scream," and her Janelle Monáe collab "Venus Fly." She also stopped to talk to the gigantic crowd before her as she introduced each song, which she claimed she wasn't good at, but we beg to differ. She's awesome.
Matt Cowan / Getty Images
Original article by Nicole Mastrogiannis at iHeartRadio.