Forget the summer solstice: Gov Ball is the official start of the partying season.

The iconic outdoor music festival – which has long ago shed it’s signature location at Governor’s Island and now takes place at Flushing Meadows Corona Park – seems to outdo itself each and every year. For the 16th anniversary of Gov Ball, the lineup was as star-studded as they come: Lorde led the main…

Hip-hop fan or not, there’s a chaotic, emotional energy that permeates the air at Rolling Loud, the genre’s biggest festival for the past decade. The punishing Miami heat, bodies crashing in the pit, the buzzing excitement shared by the thousands entering the gates every day to see rap’s brightest and finest; it is a sight to behold.

Youth counterculture has evolved from the punk of…