A Summer Kick Off: Boston Calling Music Festival

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A few months ago, my boyfriend Cameron called me up and casually dropped the name of this cool music festival he had seen online, Boston Calling. After one look at the lineup, we immediately decided that we had to be there. Boston Calling began in 2013 and has historically had some hiccups as a festival. A quick google search will bring up horrors of long bathroom lines, sparse food vendors, and running out of food by day 3. But even those past tales were not enough to keep us away from our favorite bands. We bought our 3-day passes early and never looked back! A cliff notes review before the review that is this blog post: we loved it, it was so awesome, and here is why you must attend Boston Calling next year!

The Journey

The festival took place over Memorial Day Weekend so we took off Friday, got up early in the morning and started our journey from Philadelphia to Boston. FYI If you are planning a roadtrip anywhere this summer, I highly recommend using the app called Waze. We did not use it on the drive up, but on the way home it cut almost an hour and a half off of our trip. Although we threw around the idea of flying a few times (Delta had really cheap flights), we really wanted the whole roadtrip experience. Plus how would I have fit 10 pairs of shoes in my carry on??

We jammed to all the tunes we were about to see live, ate a whole bunch of cheetos, oreos, and kettle corn, and enjoyed some invaluable quality time in the car together. Fortunately my family lives in the suburbs of Boston, so due to their generosity and hospitality, we were able to stay at my uncle’s house in Weston, Massachusetts, a quick 20 minute drive to the venue. We drove straight to his house and were immediately chauffeured straight to the venue by my wonderful cousin. (P.S. Get 15% off all Sudio bluetooth headphones like mine with this code: MYDARLINGJOJO)

The Venue

Neither of us had been to the actual city of Boston before, so a few words immediately came to mind as we arrived: pristine, immaculate, beautiful, nothing like Philadelphia (Joking! Philly is the greatest.)… This venue is a dream. Boston Calling takes place at Harvard Athletic Complex in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which means that all of the stages are on Harvard’s beautiful turf fields. When you arrive at the gates, you go through a really reassuring security check point, complete with metal detectors and thorough bag checks. This really made us feel safe after all the terrors that have occurred at concerts in the last few years. You emerge onto one of their football fields, lined with every type of food vendor you could ever think of. Is this Heaven?

At the end of the field (or two) of food vendors, you can see two of the three stages for the festival, the green and red stage. Off to the left of security, was a third stage and an indoor arena where they held film viewings and guest speakers, like Natalie Portman. There were multiple areas of porta potties (not that bad, I might add), a few free water trucks, a merchandise tent, adult beverage stands, and lots of really cool pop-ups sprinkled throughout. Every festival-goer wants a Coachella-esque photo by a ferris wheel, so don’t worry folks, they had that too! In the end, I never waited in line for a bathroom or a drink and at the busiest of the food stands, I waited a grand total of 5 minutes. News horror stories and rumors of failure be damned. This year’s Boston Calling went off without a hitch.

The Food & Drinks

You want a lobster roll? Pierogis? A bowl of ramen? A scoop of cookie dough? A full pizza? Tater tots? You name it, you can eat it. Cam and I had so much fun picking out what we wanted to eat for each meal. If you are planning a trip to Boston, most of these vendors have storefronts around the city as well. There was just nothing better than standing in the 50 degree and rainy weather that rolled in on Sunday with a big bowl of steaming ramen in your hands. Here are some of our favorite items that we ate (I wish we had more room in our tummies for all of the great options):

One of the coolest features of Boston Calling was their cashless/wallet-less system. Each attendee was sent a wristband in the mail for the days they were attending or for the whole weekend, and you could pre-register your band with your credit or debit card. Any time you bought a drink, food, or merchandise all you did was swipe your wrist and insert your pin number. Almost made it too easy! You also get all your receipts instantly emailed to you as you go. I did a big “select-all-delete” on Monday morning.

Around the venue, there were a few different pop-up bars you could hang in. Our favorite was the Miller Lite stand, complete with tons of swag and prizes. We walked away with two beer koozies, a hat, some earplugs (?), and the memory of Jo drinking two beers in a row. WHAT. We also enjoyed the sour beers from the craft beer tent, a silk screened festival pennant pressed before our very eyes at the 47 Brand tent, and the very weird/cool/bizarre #IkeaFestival, which reminded us a lot of Entertainment 720, if you have ever seen Parks and Recreation. Is that girl being paid $100,000 to dance on that wood palette? Maybe.

The Music

Did you think I forgot the most important part? I didn’t. I could never forget this lineup. Cam and I have gone to a lot of concerts together over the last 6 years and Boston Calling really captured the bulk of the bands we had been dying to see. From Maggie Rogers, to the National, Julien Baker, The Killers, Portugal the Man, Jack White, The Decemberists, Mike D from the Beastie Boys, St. Vincent, Fleet Foxes, all the way to Eminem. And those are just a few of our favorites. The music did not disappoint.

One of the hardest parts of the festival was having to decide between bands that played at the same time. Although the green and red stage never overlapped, the blue stage had shows at conflicting times. We unfortunately missed out on Khalid, Paramore, and Tyler the Creator due to some tough decision making. But that’s ok! Here are some of the coolest musical moments of Boston Calling:

Seeing Maggie Rogers; remember that viral video of her and Pharrell?
Watching the sun go down behind the ferris wheel in 90 degree weather with a lot of other happy people drinking beer and wine
Natalie Portman walking out on stage to introduce The National. “Hi my name is Natalie Portman”….yea, we know.
The Killers starting off their show with Mr. Brightside
The Killers bringing up an audience member to play drums during For Reasons Unknown
Jack White
The Decemberists playing The Mariner’s Revenge Song as a big inflatable whale covered in tattoos flew over the crowd
Dancing in the rain to Mike D’s set (Beastie Boys member)
Seeing Fleet Foxes in all their harmonious glory
Eminem performing Toy Soldier with fireworks shooting off overhead

Festival Pro-Tips

Now that we are obviously festival pros after one time, here are some tips we picked up along the way:

Get a clear purse. It makes security so easy.
Travel light. Anything you bring, you will be holding all day.
Know your best route home. I did a lot of research and asked a lot of people how to get home from the concert on the T. Really helpful to know when an Uber was surging 3x to $75.
Dress smart. I know the heeled booties look cute, but they won’t feel cute after about an hour. Wear walking shoes. Also, if it’s raining and 50 degrees, ditch your skimpy festival look. You will get hypothermia and die.
Go! Even if it’s raining. The best times we have had at concerts were when we were wearing over-sized ponchos, bean boots, and dancing in the mud. Worth it!
DO NOT WEAR A JUMPSUIT. I looked dang cute, but ya know what was not cute?… Drinking lots of water, having to pee all the time, and taking that jumpsuit off in a porta potty. Do as I say, not what I did.

Boston Calling: The Recap

This was one of the most memorable weekends of my life. The days were long, the T was surprisingly easy to navigate, the area was gorgeous, and everything was so worth it! Cam and I had such a lovely time exploring the area of Cambridge, pretending we went to Harvard, and chowing down on rooftop brunch at The Sinclair. Everyone we met, whether attendees or festival workers, was so kind and happy. Even the college kids, on their feet all day serving everyone else, were just so darn happy to hand us a beer when we ordered. We felt carefree, well fed, inspired, and just happy to be experiencing something so cool and doing it all together.