Each year, during Memorial Day weekend, the city of Boston comes alive with live music at what many call “New England’s #1 music festival”—Boston Calling. This three-day event, which debuted in May 2013, takes place across three stages at the Harvard Athletic Complex in Allston. The festival serves as a way for both artists and local restaurants to promote their work and is a highly awaited event each year. Sofia Maheras Matthews (II), who will be attending all three dates, expresses her excitement by stating, “Ever since I saw the lineup I knew I had to get tickets, and I haven’t been able to wait since.” The 2025 festival is scheduled for the weekend of May 23 to May 25. The official lineup, announced on January 6, has left fans excited for the opportunity to experience these exceptional performers.
The first date takes place on Friday, May 23, and includes a number of notable performances that fans are eagerly anticipating. The first headliner, Luke Combs, is a popular country singer from North Carolina who has been releasing music since 2014 and has received numerous awards, including a Grammy. The second headliner, Megan Moroney, is another country singer hailing from Georgia who blew up in 2022 with her hit song “Tennessee Orange.” Other artists playing this date include Sheryl Crow, T-Pain, TLC, and Mike.
Day two of the festival takes place on Saturday May 24, with artists such as Cage the Elephant, The Black Crowes, All Time Low, and more. The first headliner is Fall Out Boy, a four member rock band formed in Chicago in 2001 who has since released a number of smash hits, including “Centuries.” The second headliner is Avril Lavigne, a punk-pop singer who held a large amount of influence in the pop world in the 2000s.
The final date of the festival takes place on Sunday, May 25, and includes artists such as Sublime, Public Enemy, Remi Wolf, Goth Babe and more. The first headliner is Dave Matthews Band, a rock band formed in Virginia in 1991. The second headliner is Vampire Weekend, an indie rock band formed in New York in 2006 who has come out with a number of hits, including their song “Campus.”
Despite the notable lineup, talk surrounding the festival has not only been of excitement. The 2024 festival faced a number of complaints about unsafe conditions and capacity issues. Mass Live stated that “about 1 in every 100 people suffered a medical issue in the at least 40,000 people crowd.” The weekend saw over 800 reports of medical encounters and 23 hospitalizations. The third day, Sunday, was reportedly the worst with swelling crowds that attendees described as “very scary” and “dangerous.” Sunday alone saw 412 of the medical episodes and all 23 of the hospitalizations. Following the complaints the festival-runners reported that crowd numbers were “several thousand under capacity,” but promised that they would work to remedy this problem the following year.
Shortly after the lineup was announced, Boston Calling announced their plan to revamp the festival’s layout in the name of crowd control. This includes merging the Red and Green stages into a single rotating stage to create a system that allows for more fluid movement of the crowd between sets. They also intend to install more water stations around the complex and introduce more air-conditioned indoor spaces in order to increase comfort among concert-goers.
In the months since the announcement of the lineup, even prior to that, excitement about the festival has been ringing through the city. However, not all are satisfied with the artists playing the festival. Sophia Figuera (II) states, “I was underwhelmed when I saw this year’s lineup.” This is a sentiment shared by many like her, though that is common with all music festivals. Altogether, despite the challenges the festival has faced as well as the criticisms expressed against it, the 2025 show is shaping up to be one of Boston’s top events of the year.
