Last year, Boston Calling had major artists such as Ed Sheeran, Megan Thee Stallion and Chappell Roan to the festival, while showcasing rising artists such as Blondshell, Ric Flair and MARIS. This year’s lineup is a mix of country music and alternative/rock headliners, with Luke Combs and Megan Moroney headlining Friday, Fall Out Boy and Avril Lavigne on Saturday and ending the festival on Sunday with Dave Matthews Band and Vampire Weekend.

The most notable thing about Boston Calling’s lineup this year is the way memorable moments in music history and the festival’s own history are being recalled. As the nostalgia for the ‘90s only continues to grow, acts like Sheryl Crow, TLC, Sublime and Public Enemy, continue to bring music’s past into the present, allowing the festival to work with artists currently shaping music and the predecessors that influenced those artists. This will be Sublime’s first music festival appearance since announcing a new album (their first since “Sublime” in 1996) and the first since the death of lead singer Bradley Nowell.

Vampire Weekend’s appearance on the line-up also marks a place in festival history circling back around. The band was Boston Calling’s headliner for their September lineup in 2013. With the band returning this year, it brings a moment of reflection about how far Boston Calling has come as a festival and as a staple national music event.

History of the festival

It had only been a little over a month since the Boston Marathon bombing and the city was still reeling from the terror attack during Boston Calling’s inaugural festival. Boston Calling’s first installment in May 2013 would come at a period when the city needed to rally itself together. As the first major event in Boston since the Marathon bombings, security was high, especially since the event had sold out.

Boston Calling was the first of its kind for Boston. The city had never had its own music festival, which was a gap founders Brian Appel, an alumnus of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Mike Snow wanted to fill. Planning for a music festival for the city of Boston first started in 2012, though the event was initially planned as a music festival for WFNX Radio, where Appel and Snow met. After an opportunity arose to hold an event at City Hall Plaza, the process of doing something for WFNX began, but Appel explained, “WFNX eventually stopped broadcasting.” Despite a momentary setback, Appel and Snow thought of ways to continue the effort to put on a music-oriented event in Boston.

“We still believed in the idea, so we went and got approval from the Mayor’s office to do the event, and that’s how it began,” Appel said.

Appel and Snow had to work closely with the Boston Mayor’s Office to get a space and logistics settled. The two were set on having the music festival in downtown Boston, specifically at City Hall Plaza.

“[It was] critically important that [we] were in the city limits and that it was T-accessible and that we weren’t on the far reach on the outskirts of town that would make it challenging for people to get to,” Appel explained.

Finding space and working around security and traffic proved to be a hurdle. Boston Magazine wrote, “The biggest challenge [Appel and Snow] faced in convincing the city to let them stage Boston Calling was logistical: how to run a festival of this size and duration without disrupting traffic, public transportation, and city life in general.”

After intricate planning throughout 2012, Boston Calling would arrive during Memorial Day weekend in 2013 at City Hall Plaza in downtown Boston. When the festival first premiered it was a two-day festival held on Saturday and Sunday during Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day weekend. The lineup in May was different from the lineup in September, with the latter’s lineup usually announced by the end of the Boston Calling weekend in May.

Boston Calling’s first day came with rain. Undeterred by the weather, festival goers showed up to listen to an array of emerging artists and established performers alike. Sunday was headlined by The National, one of the band’s members being Aaron Dessner, who curated the festival’s lineup. Appel and Snow had met Dessner through some connections; after hearing about the idea for Boston Calling, Dessner wanted to be more involved. Dessner’s involvement with the festival would help in getting some big names for the festival. After The National’s headlining set on Sunday, it was announced that Boston Calling would return in the coming months in September, with the lineup simultaneously announced including Vampire Weekend and emerging name Kendrick Lamar.

Lamar’s appearance at the festival in September 2013 nearly a year after the release of his debut album, “good kid, m.A.A.d city.” He was still a rising talent that had broken through the hip-hop scene to critical acclaim with the music industry. But, in 2013, Lamar was still a new name, yet to become the well-respected and renowned artist we now know him as.

“I was interested in seeing Vampire Weekend, Passion Pit and Kendrick Lamar,” said Liam Armstrong, who attended the festival’s first Labor Day edition. Armstrong had attended the second ever weekend of Boston Calling after hearing about the festival’s success in May. Since the festival was still in its first year, its notoriety was still being spread by word of mouth.

“I heard about the [spring] one from a counselor at summer camp and decided to go,” Armstrong said, recalling the festival as a “good experience.”

From Lorde in 2014 to Lizzo and HAIM in 2016, Boston Calling captures the figures defining indie music scenes before reaching the mainstream. The festival’s lineup curation has always done well with tapping into the talents of burgeoning music acts that become household names. This also helps in giving musicians on the cusp of a breakthrough a major stage, while speaking to the festival’s uncanny ability to tune into the latest music.

In Boston Calling’s initial years, attendance was consistently around 20,000 people. As the music festival’s notoriety increased, though, some adjustments were made to accommodate increases in attendance. One such change included expanding the amount of stages, and consolidating the festival into one weekend per year in 2015. The most notable change came in 2016 with Boston Calling officially leaving City Hall Plaza.

As Harvard Athletics looked for more programming opportunities and Boston Calling looked for a bigger space, a new forging partnership led to Harvard Athletics Complex the new home for Boston Calling. The new move didn’t just expand space for attendees, but opened for new ventures that would allow the festival to brand itself as a more encompassing arts festival. When the music festival moved to Harvard, everything changed including the feel and aesthetic. The branding shifted from replicating the visuals of the city of Boston towards an “athletic” feel that reflected the field where concertgoers would now be attending the concert.

Moving Forward

After taking a two-year hiatus from 2020 to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Boston Calling’s return in 2022 aimed to continue expanding and improving experiences for festival goers. The new orange stage, unveiled in 2022, integrated more local musicians into the music festival. Introducing this stage served to keep the festival rooted in its origin story–expanding the music scene for the city of Boston.

Last year’s Boston Calling was a wake-up call for the festival in terms of managing the rising crowds of attendees. 2024’s Sunday slot for the festival ended up being a more difficult experience than the previous two days, leading to mass outcry from fans. Hot temperatures alongside the swelling crowd left many festival goers overheated. After the overcrowding during the Sunday slot for last year’s festival, Boston Calling is expanding its general admission area and has designed some stages to open up more walkways within the crowd. The red and green stage will one singular rotating stage. It’s a new logistical answer to managing the overflow in crowd sizes that have happened in the past years.

With new logistical layouts, Boston Calling is attempting to remedy the events of last year.

Other new logistical additions include having more water stations and re-opening the in-door arena on festival grounds as a cooling space to rest. With these new changes, we can hope that the festival’s layout can accommodate new expectations from concert-goers regarding attendee management. This is also part of a larger conversation regarding music festival culture and management in the country right now. This year’s Boston Calling provides an opportunity for the festival organizers to show how they’re working to maintain the strong relationship the music festival has developed with locals since its inception.

Since its beginning in 2013, Boston Calling has become a staple music festival for not only Boston but the entire nation. With notable acts every year, the festival is a highlight for the city and continues to be an event locals look forward to yearly. Boston Calling will be at Harvard Athletic Complex from Friday, May 23 to Sunday, May 25. Tickets are still available, including reduced-cost student tickets.

Suzanne Bagia can be reached at [email protected].