This Memorial Day weekend in the city of Boston, the iconic concrete façade of City Hall Plaza will transform into a colorful, dizzying texture of music and celebration. Over two days, 18 bands are scheduled to perform on two stages at Boston’s new multi-day music festival: Boston Calling. Chicago has Lollapalooza, Manchester has Bonnaroo, Palm Springs has Coachella, there’s Austin City Limits, and San Francisco has Outside Lands. All have been fixtures since at least 2008, succeeding year after year while the surge in annual U.S. multi-day music and arts festivals peaked last year with 178. Sold out of GA weekend passes, Boston Calling expects to draw almost 20,000 fans to fill a regional void and become the premier New England attraction for live music lovers, as well as the biggest and best acts in live music.
With an attractive range of bands slated to perform at the first-time festival, music will fill City Hall Plaza from 1:30PM until 10:30PM on Saturday and Sunday. Of Monsters & Men, The Shins, Andrew Bird, Young The Giant, Portgual. The Man, & Ra Ra Riot are just some of the names you might know for this weekend’s indie rock and alternative pop concert event. Headliners Saturday evening are Grammy award winners, Fun. who will be fresh off a May 24th appearance on The Today Show’s Summer Concert Series. With over 50 mostly sold-out shows in the U.S. & Europe on their 2013 schedule, vocal-pop heroes Fun. are one of the biggest and busiest bands appearing at Boston Calling. Sunday’s closing act, Brooklyn-based indie-rock vanguards The National, will be touring in support of their sixth album due out this week, Trouble Will Find Me and have an ambitious calendar filled with appearances at more major festivals as well as headlining gigs across North America and Europe.
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Such large acts playing at a first-time festival might be more curious if it wasn’t for the experienced team behind Boston Calling. Crash Line Productions is officially producing the festival, and the event organizers behind the operation are former colleagues from extinguished alternative rock radio station, WFNX. Brian Appel and Mike Snow co-founded Crash Line Productions after their initial music festival concept began in 2011. “We always thought that the city would be receptive to a big music festival that was enclosed and ticketed if it was done properly and curated well,” said Appel. “We knew that this city had the right demographic and the right connection with music. We are thrilled with the lineup that we have, especially for a first-time festival.”
When WFNX ceased regular operations in 2012, it put their plans in limbo but the founders felt strongly that their festival model was viable. They decided to start working on getting backing from officials anyway, as Appel knew there might be some challenges for an ambitious first-time festival. “There’s a lot of departments at City Hall that need to be dialed in on the plan. CrashLine Productions is new to the market in terms of our business, and even though we have event experience in Boston, we’ve never done anything on this scale.”
The key to gaining momentum for Boston Calling turned out to be personally recruiting Aaron Dessner of The National, who jumped at the chance to help in personally curating the festival. Appel knew that the artists would follow once The National signed on, and he valued Dessner’s insight. “Having the National confirmed to headline one of the days was a big win because bands always look to play with them. They are an inspiration to a lot of bands so that made everything a little bit easier.”
“Once we got that piece of the puzzle in place we forged a relationship with Bowery Presents because we like the way that they do business and respect the relationships they have within the community and the music community.” So with a perceivable draw for artists and a renowned booking/promotional office on board, Boston Calling took shape.
Loosely based on the 1979 masterpiece London Calling by The Clash, Appel hopes their updated moniker is a beacon that attracts people to Boston. “We thought that the name was good, in terms of welcoming people from all over the place to come to the festival.”
Bob Kennedy Jr. is the Festival Director and has personally been involved as producer or co-producer for 20 or more festivals including Mumford & Son’s Gentlemen of the Road, Wilco’s Solid Sound, as well as of Gathering of the Vibes (co-founder). “I think that any time you are building something new, there’s a lot of excitement just in the development of the concept,” says Kennedy. “ You’re not only putting a major event together, but you’re planting the seeds as to how you want it to be defined down the road too. Boston is the perfect place for a world-class event like this and the people from the city have been amazing to work with.”
There is an exciting sense of pride as Memorial Day weekend nears the Hub. Boston has shown incredible resiliency over the past few weeks since the bombings of April 15th at the Boston Marathon. When the city’s premier athletic contest was struck by an unfathomable act of terror, we wondered how the region would respond. What would it mean to the healing city of Boston to have this music festival take place?
“This city is exceptionally proud and resilient, the message coming from both city hall and the general population is that this event will make the city stronger, and won’t change the way Boston operates,” said Appel. “Our event has focused on safety as our #1 priority since inception, and we have worked with police throughout this process, and more so recently, to ensure that our event is executed in a safe and secure manner.”
Kennedy adds, “it’s meaningful on so many levels to be able to get everyone together after that tragedy – most importantly because music is also a great healer. Gathering everyone together shows how resilient Boston is and how awful things like that don’t make life grind to a halt for Bostonians.”
Music fans have responded loudly, and clearly. General admission tickets, selling well as of mid-April, were completely sold-out before May 1st. A delicious Food Truck lineup (Roxy’s Grilled Cheese, Kickass Cupcakes, Chipotle, and others), a partnership with Wicked Wines, and a promising Beer Garden help make the call an easy one for attendees. Most area hotels have special rates for festival-goers. Children under 10 are free to get in, and MBTA transportation is encouraged for anyone traveling into the area for the all-ages festival.
With any luck from mother nature, all the hard work put in by the many organizational teams involved in Boston Calling will pay off huge dividends. The accolades for Mike and Brian are already pouring in, anyway. “Meeting Mike and Brian and understanding their vision for this festival has been a great experience. They are doing it for all the right reasons – they love music, they love Boston and they care deeply about the experience that the fans will have. They are in this for the long haul and it shows. It’s a privilege to be a part of it,” shared Kennedy.
Boston is calling, music fans.
WHAT: Boston Calling
WHERE: City Hall Plaza, Boston, MA
WHEN: Saturday 5/25 & Sunday 5/26 (Gates open 12pm)
HOW: MBTA (Orange Line: Haymarket or State Street, Green Line: Government Center, Blue Line: State Street, Red Line: Park Street)
WHO: (Saturday) Fun., The Shins, Marina & The Diamonds, Matt & Kim, Portugal. The Man, Cults, Ms Mr, St. Lucia, Bad Rabbits. (Sunday) The National, Of Monsters And Men, Young The Giant, Andrew Bird, Dirty Projectors, Ra Ra Riot, The Walkmen, Youth Lagoon, Caspian.
More information: www.bostoncalling.com
