In some ways, it was a typical wedding.
Attendees mingled before the ceremony, sipping drinks, comparing outfits and discussing the various forms of transit they had taken to get to the venue. There were guests of honor, a gushy first-dance song and concerns that the looming chance of rain might affect the event.
The weather cooperated, and around 9 p.m. on Friday, the Grammy-winning musician Lucy Dacus oversaw the marriage of nine couples onstage during the middle of her set at the “All Things Go” music festival at the Forest Hills Stadium in Queens. Thousands of concertgoers whooped and cheered as the couples all said “I do.” The actor Havana Rose Liu, acting as a de facto flower girl, flitted around the stage, handing out roses to the newlyweds during the ceremony.
OK, in some ways, it was not a typical wedding.
In July, amid ongoing efforts by the Trump administration to eliminate protections and programs for L.G.B.T.Q. people, Ms. Dacus posted a call out on Instagram looking for couples who might be interested in getting legally married onstage during her tour stops. (Ms. Dacus is queer.)
The response, she said in an interview earlier this month, was “overwhelming.”
“I wish it was rote and it wasn’t calling to mind any threats to people’s rights,” Ms. Dacus said of officiating marriages in the current political climate. “But I can tell it’s coming up in everyone’s mind, everyone who’s onstage, everyone in the crowd. There’s no getting around everyone wondering if this is a temporarily possible moment,” she added, referencing the ongoing political debate over same-sex marriage.
Still, she tempered her somberness with some hope.
“I think people are very brave to make this decision now, because you’re really aware of what it’s granting you,” she said. “You’re choosing who your family is and you’re choosing who knows you well enough to represent you when times are tough.”
At stops on her tour in recent weeks, Ms. Dacus has welcomed couples to the stage during “Best Guess,” a pragmatic, gorgeous love song about how relationships often boil down to luck.
“It’s a song that is basically admitting that you can’t control anything, you can’t predict the future, but you can make your best guess,” Ms. Dacus said.
“I think that has helped me and my concept of relationships,” she added. “I think actually the more that I accept the idea of divorce, the closer I am to the idea of marriage.” (Ms. Dacus is in a relationship with Julien Baker, a musician who is also a member of the supergroup boygenius, along with Ms. Dacus and Phoebe Bridgers.)
On Friday night, the group of soon-to-be-wed couples gathered backstage. Over the din of Ms. Dacus’s music, members of her team shouted instructions. The nerves were palpable as couples hugged each other, fixed their hair and got ready to take the stage. Many had dressed for the occasion, including plenty of white. There was no shortage of happy tears, including some from Ms. Dacus’s team.
Circled up shoulder to shoulder with hearts racing, the group had the air of a sports team getting ready for a big game. That night, the stakes were even higher.
Among the couples were Mac Craighead and Frankie Terrone, a couple from Ditmas Park, Brooklyn. The pair, who began dating seven years ago after a chance meeting during a drag show where Mr. Terrone was performing, said Ms. Dacus’s music had played an important role in their relationship.
“The first love letter I ever wrote Frankie had a lyric from her song ‘Trust’ in it,” Mr. Craighead, who is a paraprofessional in addition to a drag performer, said. The couple, both 32, applied “on a whim” after seeing Ms. Dacus’s post on Instagram.
“We joked it’s the most convoluted way to get an autograph,” Mr. Terrone, who is an event producer, said.
Also part of the group were Ashley Huynh and Matt Moore, a couple who met as children growing up in a suburb of Atlanta. They were both in the school band. Ms. Huynh, 28 and a software engineer, recalled first encountering Mr. Moore and thinking, “Who is the tiny little guy holding this massive saxophone?” She played the flute.
Ms. Huynh and Mr. Moore, who is 27 and works at a trimming store, have been together since 2017 and now live in the East Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. They got engaged in August and had planned on having a courthouse wedding followed by a bigger celebration with friends and family later.
“This kind of sped things up,” Ms. Huynh said, “which ended up working really great for us.”
Maria Botero and Bella Langlois, another couple who married on Friday, got emotional talking about their relationship journey. Like Ms. Huynh and Mr. Moore, the two women, who live in Norwich, Conn., also met in high school. They started out as friends, then best friends, then college roommates, before their relationship eventually turned romantic.
“Coincidentally, we met in chemistry class,” said Ms. Langlois, who is 25 and works in public relations.
Ms. Botero, 24, started to cry when talking about her relationship with Ms. Langlois, particularly when recounting coming out as a couple.
“It felt really scary at the moment, but afterward, it just felt so natural and right,” said Ms. Botero, who works at a public school. “Now, unfortunately, everything happening with this administration is a reminder of what that other percent of the world thinks about pure love.” She said it felt “really special” to be part of a “statement wedding with lesbians, by lesbians just celebrating love proudly.”
As the group headed to the stage, several participants spotted Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, who happened to be waiting in the wings for a cameo appearance later in the show. Some couples hopped out of line to shake Mr. Mamdani’s hand and take photos with him. The mayoral candidate offered warm wishes and congratulations.
Ms. Dacus and her band began to play “Best Guess” as the couples filed onto the stage and began to dance with each other. Swaying and peering out into the crowd, the couples twirled and giggled, whispering sweet final words to each other in front of the crowded stadium. At the end of the song, Ms. Dacus stopped singing and started the proceedings while her band vamped the music.
“Are you all ready to get married?,” she asked the couples.
Then she pulled out a piece of paper and read a brief ceremony. “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to celebrate the love of all these people,” Ms. Dacus said. She read each couples’ names, giving the crowd a pause to cheer for each one.
The group recited their vows in unison, not that anyone could hear them over the band and cheering. It didn’t matter. The love radiating off the stage could be felt from the front row to the back of the house.
Ms. Dacus then quickly walked across the stage and greeted each couple individually before returning to her microphone as her band finished playing.
Ms. Dacus, who was previously ordained by the Universal Life Church, legally officiated two of the nine marriages at Forest Hills Stadium but was unable to solemnize the rest because of a clerical issue. Instead, an employee from her management team acted as officiant for those couples while Ms. Dacus signed their marriage certificates as a witness.
Outside the stadium after the ceremony, two of the newlyweds, Grace Messimer and Jessica Bajorinas, stood wrapped in a hug with several sobbing friends. “I don’t even know any Lucy Dacus songs,” one friend said jokingly, offering a faux apology to Ms. Dacus and saying she would not have missed the wedding for anything.
Their moms and siblings were still inside watching the show, Ms. Messimer said.
As for an after-party, the couple had low-key plans.
“Maybe get ice cream, ice cream seems good,” Ms. Messimer added.
Madison Malone Kircher is a Times reporter covering internet culture.
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