Meadows Festival 2017: Gorillaz, LL Cool J, Future & More Provide The Surprises [Recap]

Photo Credit: Victoria Ford of Sneakshot for Okayplayer

Last year’s Meadows Festival ended early thanks to Kanye West, this year’s event only had an aura of normalcy and was full of surprises.

The 2017 Meadows Music & Arts Festival didn't have the dramatic, abrupt ending that last year's festival had. In fact, in only its second year of conception, the festival — which was expanded from two to three days — seems to have found an aura of normalcy. The weekend ended with a professional performance from Red Hot Chili Peppers. The rock legends had some minor technical issues but delivered a balanced diet of tracks from their 2016 album The Getaway — including "Dark Necessities" and "Sick Love — and '90s classics like "Californication" and "Higher Ground," their infamous Stevie Wonder cover.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers concluded a Sunday stacked with veterans of the rock and hip-hop world, including Weezer, Broken Social Scene, Ghostface Killah, and Nas.

Hometown icon Nas, in particular, gave a spirited, heavily nostalgic performance. At one point, the legendary rapper announced that he was from the "cassette tape era". And he spent a majority of his set performing tracks from the first half of his career, for the most part forgoing the Life is Good chapter of his career.

It was a traditional ending to festival that had its fair share of radical acts, like Migos, 21 Savage, Kamaiyah, and Tory Lanez.

Photo Credit:Victoria Ford of Sneakshot for Okayplayer

Traditionalism was the theme of the Meadows Festival on Sunday, while surprises were the theme on Saturday. It started with LL Cool J who did a greatest hits collection, which included appearances from fellow pioneering legends like Q-Tip, DMC from Run-DMC, and Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five. Later on in the day, Future paid homage to Queens by having Nicki Minaj come out to perform her "Rack it Up" verse to a raucous reception. (Yo Gotti and Young Thung also popped up during Future's set...to a much more subdued reception.)

And then there was Gorillaz, who gave the performance of the entire weekend. (Full disclosure: I didn't go on day one, so I missed Jay-Z's set. I heard it was good.) I've been a long admirer of the band, and I've always wondered what a set from the band was like. Do they use a hologram? Do they use a projector? Well to my surprise the band was there, and they were excellent, despite a thin crowd that, at times, seemed disengaged. ( I could be wrong, but it felt like there was considerably less people on Saturday than there was on Sunday.)

The crowd got its energy when the guests starting coming out: including Pusha T, D.R.A.M., De La Soul — who performed earlier in the day— and Yasiin Bey, who came out with the Gorillaz during their encore. Bey and Peven Everett did a stunning rendition of "Stylo," with Everett taking the place of the deceased Bobby Womack.

All-in-all the weekend was a success. Scroll down to see more pictures.