What to expect at Boston Calling 2023
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Glass Animals at last year's festival. Photo: Astrida Valigorsky/Getty Images
The volume will be up in Allston this weekend as Foo Fighters, the Lumineers and Paramore headline this year's Boston Calling music festival.
Why it matters: Boston Calling is the area's biggest music festival and features huge international touring acts.
- Last year's shows were headlined by Metallica and Nine Inch Nails after Foo Fighters had to drop out because of the death of drummer Taylor Hawkins.
Other acts include the Dropkick Murphys (stepping in for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs due to an illness in the band), the National, Niall Horan and Chelsea Cutler playing before Foo Fighters today.
- Alanis Morissette, the Flaming Lips, Mt. Joy and Fletcher perform before the Lumineers Saturday.
- Queens of the Stone Age, Bleachers, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Maren Morris and 070 Shake are set for Sunday before Paramore.
- The smaller orange stage features local acts.
Details: The festival is at the Harvard University athletic complex on Soldiers Field Road in Allston, just across the river from the Harvard Kennedy School.
- Four stages across the field area will each host four or five acts today, Saturday and Sunday. Gates open at 1pm and the music lasts till 10:45pm each night.
Tickets are still available for today and Sunday starting at $159.99, but only premium passes are left for Saturday.
Catch up fast: Boston Calling started as the brainchild of WFNX veterans Brian Appel and Mike Snow in 2013 as a festival in City Hall plaza.
- There were biannual concerts in the spring and summer before moving to an annual three-day format.
- Cincinnati indie rock band The National is sometimes considered the "house band" of Boston Calling because of their frequent appearances and festival curation by guitarist Aaron Dessner.