The 2025 Boston Calling lineup is straight of out 1995… and 2008… and 2025.
We’re still in the early weeks of festival announcement season, but it’s unlikely that another fest will outdo Boston Calling in terms of stacking clear eras of performers. Luke Combs, Fall Out Boy (pictured above), and Dave Matthews Band will headline this year’s edition of the Memorial Day weekend festival, which is scheduled for May 23 to 25 at the Harvard Athletic Complex in Allston.
But to appreciate the true variety of the lineup — and its respective time warps — you have to zoom out. Sheryl Crow, TLC, The Black Crowes, Public Enemy, Sublime, and Spin Doctors represent a strong 1990s contingent, while T-Pain, Avril Lavigne, Vampire Weekend, and Cage the Elephant recreate a sweet spot from the mid-to-late 2000s.
Another unexpected entry in this year’s lineup is Tom Morello, who was supposed to headline Boston Calling in 2020 and 2022 as the guitarist of Rage Against the Machine; the 2020 edition of the festival was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the band withdrew from the 2022 festival in January of that year.
As in recent years, Massachusetts and New England artists comprise a hearty portion of this May’s lineup, with 13 acts on deck to dole out the area’s most promising hip-hop (Latrell James), folk and Americana (Bebe Stockwell, simon robert french, Nate Perry & Ragged Company, Copilot), various shades of rock and indie (Vivid Bloom, Future Teens, sidebody, Megan From Work, PINKLIDS, Rebuilder), and electro-pop (Layzi, Battlemode).
The festival also last weekend outlined a few changes for 2025. Performances will be spread between three stages this year, as opposed to four. The Red and Green stages — which are typically situated next to each other — have merged into one rotating stage, while the Blue and Orange stages will remain unchanged. Boston Calling has also announced that indoor programming will return to the complex’s air-conditioned arena, although more details about this portion of the festival are TBA.
Single-day tickets and weekend passes will go on sale this Wednesday (January 8) at 10 a.m. Check out the full lineup and updated festival map below.
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