Mt. Joy’s Set with Gigi Perez Becomes a Governors Ball Highlight

Among the renowned lineup of artists that performed in Flushing Meadows Corona Park this past weekend at Governor’s Ball was Philadelphia’s own folk alternative sensation Mt. Joy. New York City’s largest music festival was the event to be at this summer, as it drew an estimated crowd of 100,000 fans.

While Saturday encountered a temporary snag with a rain delay due to expected thunderstorms, Sunday started at the expected time. Thousands of fans lined up outside waiting for the gates to open. Screaming fans holding ponchos — just in case — ran to the Gov Ball NYC main stage to be as close to the barricade as they could.

After a brief moment of pouring rain, Matt Quinn on vocals and guitar, Sam Cooper on guitar, Jackie Miclau on keys, Sotiris Eliopoulos on drums, and Michael Byrnes on bass took the stage under a cloudy (but dry-ish) sky. Fans who had been anticipating Mt. Joy’s set for hours jumped up and down, screaming the lyrics and waving their hands in the air. The band began the set by singing “Coyote” from their recent LP release, Hope We Have Fun. “Coyote,” which begins with the lyrics “Come on get on the bus, there’s room for all of us,” builds tension throughout the verses with layered vocals, deep instrumentals, and increasing volume.

To follow, the band slowed it down by playing the engaging but mellower “Sheep” and “Julia” from their Mt. Joy album. Jumping back and forth between band classics and newer hits, the group performed their summer-feeling love song “Highway Queen.” During the song, while Matt Quinn sang the lyric “Oh, we’re both left home on that airplane running,” he looked up to the sky to see an airplane flying over Flushing Meadows.

Gigi Perez, an alternative singer-songwriter who blew up on social media after the release of “Sailor Song” and is currently on tour with Hozier, made a feature on the recent Mt. Joy release Hope We Have Fun with the song “In The Middle.” The WXPN May 2025 Artist To Watch and Free at Noon alum joined the New York City crowd and the band on stage to perform the recent release for the first time. The special and incredibly powerful performance created an eruption of excitement in the audience. Fans described it online as “life-changing to witness” and begged for the band to bring her out at the shows they will be attending in the coming weeks.

The performance continued to get better as they sang a cover of the classic and nostalgic Wheatus song “Teenage Dirtbag.” Fans pulled out their phones to record the energy-filled moment and kept their hands in the air throughout the rest of the set, which featured Mt. Joy fan favorites such as “Astrovan” and “Dirty Love.” To close the jam-packed legendary set, the band played the classic “Silver Lining.” The group grabbed their drumsticks, setlists, and guitar picks and threw them into the huge crowd.

Mt. Joy’s incredibly powerful and joy-filled set filled Flushing Meadows with excitement, nostalgia, and summer-feeling love. It is still near the beginning of their Hope We Have Fun tour, which means (if you are reading from outside of Philly) you can catch the band at Bonnaroo this week, and in places like Massachusetts, Virginia, and New York. For our Philly readers, to close the tour, they are coming home and performing at The Mann Center for back-to-back shows in September.

Check out the photographs from their set at Governor’s Ball down below.