BOSTON CALLING Music Festival 2019: Good Times, But Could Have Been Better [Festival Review & Photos]

The Boston Calling Music Festival took place in, you guessed it, Boston, from May 24th to May 26th at Harvard Stadium with three stages and an arena full of comedy and various performances. Honestly, this was one of the best organized and easily navigated festivals I have been to. Plenty of restrooms provided minimal wait (maybe five minutes?), stages were no more than a ten-minute walk, lots of food options, and a map accessible in a phone app that would give you directions on where to go. Speaking of the app, it would also allow you to favorite the artists you wanted to see, where it would then show you a list of artists in order by appearance time each day, with the stage listed.

Boston Calling really let their local area businesses shine throughout the three days. Newbury Comics had a tent where you could spin a wheel to win a prize and/or purchase select items that you would typically find in their brick and mortar locations. Over 21 food spots, the majority of which were local were set up giving everyone something to fulfill any and all food cravings. From ice cream (FoMu Ice Cream), and grilled cheese with Roxy’s(who also has a location in the Boston area with a speakeasy-style arcade), to the local burger joint, Tasty Burger. Also, by far, some of the best pricing I’ve seen at a festival; water was two dollars, Red Bull, four dollars, and most food choices clocking in around 9 to 12 dollars.
While there weren’t many activities, we did have Angry Orchard, Sam Adams, Miller Lite, and Truly, each with their own version of a “beer garden” or hangout spot. Vans had a photo opportunity where you could jump inside a trailer and they would impose a backdrop of screaming fans to catch you. In between bands, you could hang out at the NBC 10 area where they had some lawn games like “corn hole” to play, or you could take a ride on the UBL Ferris wheel.

One of my favorite parts of the festival was the arena. It’s a nice addition to the venue, as it gives people a place to sit in a chair that is out of the sun and in an air-conditioned environment. It was a bit different than what I’ve seen at other festivals, showcasing DJs, comedians, a lecture, and ballet. However, this is the best thing about the arena, and also the worst. People going to a festival may not necessarily go to a comedy show, or go to see Imogen Heap demo/talk about her MiMu gloves, which was apparent, especially during Imogen Heap’s Saturday “performance.”

She talked about how there wasn’t really a description of what she was there to do, but that she would not actually be performing and instead would be discussing her gloves, and the technologies surrounding it. She sang part of, “Hide and Seek,” twice, once to demonstrate how they work, and once to demo how it makes her performance more interactive while she walked through the crowd.

While it was fascinating to learn all about this, those that were very obviously not there for a lecture loudly talked throughout the entire presentation. Persons standing around the sound booth, myself included, could barely make out what was being said, and it was really unfortunate that the festival did not make it a point to tell people to be quiet or to try and quiet them during her time. Imogen Heap’s patience for this was untouchable, and she made it through her entire presentation despite the rude crowd and technical difficulties.

The comedians that performed on Saturday were top notch. Lamont Price, Marina Franklin, and Jenny Slate all delivered their style of a great performance, but comedy is very much an energy/crowd-driven performance, and we did not deliver, collectively. While I love the idea of adding comedy to a music festival, I also feel that if a Venn diagram was created of comedy fans, and music fans attending Boston Calling, it’s a much smaller audience than expected.

Beyond the arena, some of my personal favorites of the weekend were Christine & The Queens, Logic, Twenty One Pilots, Betty Who, and Travis Scott. They all brought fantastic energy to their performances despite the heat at some points throughout the weekend.

While situated in a great location, getting in and out of the festival was a nightmare, with no parking nearby, and most of the roads closed off which made it hard to Lyft in. Which is why the festival staff made you walk about ten minutes to a Lyft pick up spot. Sunday night, Lyft prices soared to 40 dollars per car and 30 dollars per pool. The train stop was backed up with a wait (after an almost mile-long walk). I even waited for a bus that never showed, and after having walked the festival and surrounding areas for three days, all I wanted was to be back at my hotel, which took roughly ninety minutes before prices were reasonable again.

Overall, Boston Calling was enjoyable. Lots of great performances in a mostly excellent venue, but there was plenty of room for improvement. There were more activities outside of the bands, but affordable merchandise would have been nice —hoodies started at 60 dollars and went up to as much as 100 dollars. More options for getting to and from the festival without having to walk a ton at the end of the day are necessary, and some sort of guidelines for performances at the arena (or more transparency about what to expect from those performances) is also needed. As Boston Calling continues to grow and draw larger audiences, it will be interesting to see what changes they make to further improve upon things for the festival’s 2020 edition.

What’s There to Be Excited About BOSTON CALLING 2019? We’ll Tell You! [Festival Preview]

I am so incredibly excited about this year’s Boston Calling Music Festival which will be happening May 24th-26th in, you guessed it, BOSTON (it’s actually Allston, MA). If you do a quick Google search, you find out that Boston Calling is in its 6th year and that it’s been named one of the top 10 festivals in the country. Good stuff, yes, but I think that one of the many things that makes this festival noteworthy is that it’s not just about music! It’s also about comedy, about food, and art, which honestly, is there ANYTHING better? Probably not. But just in case you need some convincing… let’s talk about what separates this festival from others.

The Arena & Three TOP Reasons to Be Exited:
- Let’s talk about this one for a second and understand it. There are already THREE stages at this venue hosting 50 bands, and now, for the first time, they are tossing in the arena - where performances will be running all day and all night. We will see performances by rappers Princess Nokia and Dessa as well DJ performances from Yaeji, Frank White, Naeem, and Chromeo. However, in a sea of festivals all generally doing the same thing, Boston Calling is doing it differently, and here’s what to be excited for...

01. COMEDY:
- I think one of the things that makes this festival really special, is that it has comedy. The comedy was introduced to the festival in 2016. By 2017, they let it take center stage with Hannibal Burress hosting. People to look forward to seeing in this year’s lineup include Fred Armisen, an actor, and musician, who was an SNL cast member for 11 years, co-star/writer/creator on Portlandia. And the lineup doesn’t stop there.

Comedy stage will also feature: Jenny Slate who was Jean Ralphio’s hilarious twin sister on Parks and Rec, and also voices probably no less than a dozen characters (my personal favorite: Tammy on Bob’s Burgers), Michael Che who is co-head writer for SNL which is where you’ve probably seen him as co-anchor on SNL’s Weekend Update, Marina Franklinis not only a comedian, actor, and comedy writer who has made appearances on the Chappelle Show, Conan, Steph Colbert’s Late Show, and Louie.

Need more? Good! How about Mellissa Villasenor, whose voice-over work includes Adventure Time and Family Guy. She’s also an SNL cast member known for her impressions which helped land her a semi-finalist spot on America’s Got Talent. The stage will also feature Boston native, Lamont Price who has performed all over the country and was named the “Best of Boston” comedian for 2018.

02. IMOGEN HEAP:
- Probably one of my most favorite things tucked away on performance list, is Imogen Heap. She is a singer/songwriter/producer from England, and you probably know her work from either the song “Let Go” from the Garden State soundtrack when she was part of Frou Frou, OR Jason Derulo’s, “Watchayasay” song (that’s actually Imogen Heap’s song, Hide and Seek hidden in that track/chorus).

What you probably don’t know, though, is that she has also become a tech innovator in the last handful of years. Imogen has created wireless controller gloves, called “Mi.Mu,” that allow interaction with computer programs and can be worn by a musician so that the performance can be more fluid. She is currently on tour for the first time in eight years, demoing these gloves. For all of us nerds out there, get excited, because she will be giving a keynote address as well as a “Mi.Mu” demonstration Saturday and Sunday at Boston Calling.

03. BOSTON BALLET:
- The Boston Ballet is exactly what it sounds like, a Boston-based classical ballet company and William Forsythe is the choreographer behind those performances you will see. He is an international powerhouse in the ballet world. Forsythe is an installation artist, innovator, and educator. Getting to see the Boston Ballet perform is really a unique experience, and even the Boston Ballet’s site points this out by saying, “This unique collaboration aims to expand the parameters of what a music festival offers.” The Boston Ballet will be performing the Playlist (EP), which you can listen to now on Spotify and features Khalid and Natalie Cole.

You can check out www.bostoncalling.com, where the full line-up has already been announced for all three days of the festival taking place at the Harvard Athletic Complex. Tickets are also available for purchase on the site. Pricing for the 3-day festival starts at $279 for General Admission and goes up from there for VIP & Platinum.

TLDR: 3-day Music Festival in Boston (Allston, MA), music (50 bands on two stages), comedians, the best food in Boston brought to you (you don’t even need to hunt it down), art, a giant Ferris wheel, plus many other activities.