Editor’s Note: Welcome to V3 Weekend, Vanyaland‘s guide to help you sort out your weekend entertainment with curated selections and recommendations across our three pillars of Music, Comedy, and Film/TV. It’s what you should know about, where you need to be, and where you’ll be going, with us riding shotgun along the way.
Music: OUTLOUD Music Festival at The Stage at Suffolk Downs
It’s Pride month across the land, and OUTLOUD Music Festival is holding court at a volume raised so high, it’ll be heard all year round. The California-based fest makes its East Coast debut on Saturday, throwing down a vibrant showcase of sounds at The Stage at Suffolk Downs. And we’re getting approval from Mother Nature, as Boston will experience its first dry Saturday since mid-March. The lineup is banging, with longtime V fave Kim Petras (pictured above) leading the charge alongside Trixie Mattel, Flo Milli, Rebecca Black, G Flip, Hannah Rad, and Frankie Grande (brother of Ariana!). LGBTQIA+ artists from Boston are well-repped, with emcees Oompa and Big Body Kweeng, DJ MATH3CA, and longtime party Gay Bash’d as co-presenter. “In today’s political climate, it’s more important than ever to uplift queer voices and provide a platform for LGBTQ+ artists,” says OUTLOUD founder Jeff Consoletti. “Bringing the OUTLOUD Music Festival to my hometown of Boston is a surreal and full circle moment for me, a moment that isn’t lost in today’s climate of hostility towards my LGBTQ community.”
OUTLOUD MUSIC FESTIVAL :: Saturday, June 21 at The Stage at Suffolk Downs, 25 William F McClellan Highway in Boston, MA :: 2 p.m., all ages, $69.42 :: Event info :: Advance tickets
Music: Green River Festival at Franklin County Fairgrounds
We’re always looking for any excuse to head out to Western Mass, and this weekend’s Green River Festival, going down today through Sunday at Greenfield’s Franklin County Fairgrounds, certainly provides some allure. This year’s three-day lineup is solid — so much so that we covered the reveal twice — with headliners Mt. Joy, Courtney Barnett, and Waxahatchee leading the way alongside the likes of Kevin Morby, MJ Lenderman & The Wind, and Mo Lowda & The Humble, who we caught up with last month at Boston Calling. As expected, the New England representation is super-strong, with Vermonters THUS LOVE, Connecticut’s Funky Dawgz Brass Band, and a wealth of Massachusetts acts — Coral Moons, Ali McGuirk, Lost Film, All Feels, Mark Mulcahy, Kimaya Diggs, bobbie, Winterpills, Silvie’s Okay, The Grownup Noise, and others — rounding out the weekend.
GREEN RIVER FESTIAL :: Friday, June 20 to Sunday, June 22 at Franklin County Fairgrounds, 89 Wisdom Way in Greenfield, MA :: Festival info :: Advance tickets
Music: Cults at The Sinclair
Do you believe in fate? We sure do. The Boston area has not experienced a rain-free weekend since before St. Patrick’s Day, and now the band that’s been telling us to “Go Outside” every spring since 2011 rolls into town on the first dry Saturday in months. Wild. So we welcome back Cults, who post up at The Sinclair in Cambridge and show off last summer’s sterling new album To the Ghosts. The cinematic sounds of New York duo and multi-instrumentalists Madeline Follin and Brian Oblivion returned after a four-year break, and their modern-pop escapism is needed now more than ever. “Without knowing it, we’ve spent our whole career building a world of our own,” says Oblivion. “We just try to create the emotion that we want to feel. This record is another piece of the picture, but the picture isn’t done yet. We’d be in Cults no matter what. It’s the way we live our lives.” Adds Follin: “This is the first record where I would pick up the microphone and sing whatever I was feeling. The vocals and the lyrics really helped inform the direction rather than the other way around. Every track brings me back to what I was going through at the time.” Cut up some “Onions” below.
CULTS + ZZZAHARA :: Saturday, June 21 at The Sinclair, 52 Church St. in Cambridge, MA :: 7:30 p.m., all ages :: Event info :: Advance tickets