Panorama came to a close on Sunday, after three days of sunshine, good vibes, amazing art, and a fun, diverse lineup at Randall’s Island Park in New York City. Whether you like alternative hip hop or party bangers, indie rock or alternative rock, or if you just like to dance, there was something for everyone at Panorama. Day three saw a major emphasis on New York-based artists, with the headliners on all three stages–indie-dance heroes Holy Ghost!, hip hop superstar A$AP Rocky, and reunited dance/punk legends LCD Soundsystem–proudly hailing from the New York area. By the end of the day, one thing was certainly clear: these artists and Panorama festival give New York something to be proud of.
The day started early with sets from New Jersey-native Delicate Steve, White Lung, and Queens’ own Flatbush Zombies. The early Sunday crowd found an escape from the intense sun when they packed the Pavilion tent for a performance by singer-songwriter Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, who brought their brand of swampy Nashville folk rock to New York for another festival stop on their huge summer tour.
Kurt Vile & the Violators took the Panorama stage for an hour long romp through his catalog. Keeping the folk singer-songwriter vibes going, Vile rocked and his band was locked in, drawing a noticeable energy from the crowd as they worked through their set. The sun was brutal during this set, yet fans that braved the heat were rewarded with strong versions of “Pretty Pimpin” and “I’m and Outlaw” from Vile’s 2015 release b’lieve i’m goin down. Vile closed the set with a beautiful solo acoustic performance of “Stand Inside” that capped off a great Panorama set.
The Food at Panorama was excellent. Curated by Eater.com, almost every stand at the festival featured an impressive selection that could rival any local food festivals. While some of the stands had long lines, most of them did a good job of mitigating the crowds, and all of the vendors deserve a shout out for crushing it this weekend. Roberta’s was the nearest vendor to the main stage, and they churned out Bee Stings and Margarita pizzas all weekend long, right up until the festival’s 11pm curfew each night. The Black Ant + Temerario served up yummy tacos in the VIP area, while Tica’s Tacos held it down in general admission. Festival-goers were thankfully able to beat the heat with ice cream from Oddfellows, Ice & Vice and Melt Bakery. Honestly, almost everything on site is worth mentioning, so I’ll just drop the list of vendors here so they can all be seen one more time.
Run The Jewels are awesome. They have awesome beats, Killer Mike is a beast, and El-P is one of the best MCs in the game. They brought their brand of uptempo hip hop to Panorama and stole the show with one of the sets of the weekend. El-P is from New York, and Killer Mike called it his “second home”. They were feeling the hometown love so much, they invited their extended families out on the stage, all of whom were gathered in the side-stage area for what turned out to be a heartfelt moment. At one point, local rapper Despot ran on stage for his verse on “Banana Clipper”–Despot, El-P, and Alex Frankel from Holy Ghost! recently opened the throwback Jewish deli Frankel’s in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint neighborhood, and Killer Mike shouted out the new eatery after the song. Run the Jewels received a huge response from the NYC crowd, going nuts for “Lie, Cheat, Steal” and “Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck)”. The group even took an encore when they came back for a fiery version of “Pew Pew Pew”.
Grace Potter brought her solo tour to Panorama and played a fun set at the Pavilion tent. Opening the set with “Hot to Touch”, the beginning of Potter’s set featured mostly material from her 2015 release Midnight. Later in the set, she started featuring some of her older, Nocturnals-era tunes, and really got the crowd going with versions of “Stars”, “The Lion the Beast the Beat”, and a set-closing “Paris (Ooh La La)”.
For the final “sunset” set of the weekend, Panorama booked the elusive Sia. The songwriter-turned-performer turned in her usual performance, starting on a platform in the middle of the stage, face covered by her black and white wig. The platform eventually moved to the back corner of the stage, with dancers taking center stage, recreating the dance moves in her music videos, which played simultaneously on the giant main stage’s panoramic screens. The performance was beautiful, and the videos featured an array of famous actors like Paul Dano and Kristen Wiig. Performing songs like “Big Girls Cry”, “Chandelier”, and playing Rihanna‘s “Diamonds”–a song Sia herself wrote–the set was chock-filled with dance-pop mega-hit, one after the other. This was definitely one of the most packed sets of the weekend, as many at the festival wanted to experience the unique Sia experience.
While Sia was on the Panorama stage, Holy Ghost! was putting on a huge dance party in the Parlor tent. The New York-based dance music group wasted no time in getting people moving, with their 80s-synth vibe, smooth vocals, and drum machine beats sending the crowd into a frenzy early and often. Playing fan-favorites like “Do It Again” and “Hold On”, Holy Ghost! held the crowd in the palm of their hands as they worked through their short-but-sweet 50-minute set. This was only Holy Ghost!’s second show of the year, but they were as tight as ever. Closing out the Parlor stage just in time for DFA label-mates LCD Soundsystem to take the stage, Holy Ghost! truly impressed the Panorama crowds.
This festival was always going to be about LCD Soundsystem. It’s funny; though Arcade Fire have an album of the year Grammy and are festival-headlining-veterans, and Kendrick Lamar is one of the biggest and most revered hip hop stars in the world, both of them are barely playing any festivals in America this summer. LCD is performing almost everywhere this summer, yet…being one of the ultimate New York City bands made this set a bona fide large-scale homecoming (they played two tiny shows at Webster Hall this Spring).
The crowd went absolutely wild throughout the set, screaming along the lyrics to “Us V. Them”, “Tribulations”, and “You Wanted a Hit”. They definitely opened things up on a few tracks, taking “Someone Great” and “Yeah (Crass Version)” out for some funky and glitchy improv moments. The band built up the energy towards the end with “45:33 part one” and “Losing My Edge” the set’s emotional peak in “New York I Love You, But You’re Bringing Me Down”. After a rousing version of “Dance Yrself Clean”, the band turned in a cover of “Bye Bye Bayou” by Suicide singer Alan Vega, who recently passed away and had worked with LCD frontman James Murphy in the past. LCD Soundsystem finished their set with a euphoric “All My Friends” that got the crowd jumping and dancing one last time to close out an epic weekend at Panorama.
Altogether, Panorama was a great success in year one. The music was amazing, the art incredible, the food diverse and delicious, and the vibes were relaxed and the festival felt comfortable. It was very easy to get around, there were great sight lines, most lines were short, there were tons of bathrooms (an absolute godsend), and, perhaps most importantly, the music schedule wasn’t too crammed and allowed for people to catch most of the artists they wanted to see with ease. It’s hard to find a first-year festival that pulls this much off without a hitch, but I suppose that should be expected from a company like Goldenvoice. Even with the minor hiccups they had along the way, there’s tons of good to take away from Panorama’s first year, and we look forward excitedly to it’s return to New York City in 2017. If Goldenvoice is able to move this festival to Flushing Meadows Corona Park, as was originally planned for this year, then this was a perfect test run for what’s sure to be one of New York’s premier festivals for years to come.
Photos by Chad Anderson, check out the full gallery below!
