Boston Calling is taking a year off from its yearly music festival in 2026 and will resume on a different weekend in 2027.
The annual festival will take a brief hiatus before returning from June 4-6, 2027, according to a social media post published by the festival organizers on Friday morning.
The festival wrote on Instagram, “Thank you for making this year’s Boston Calling such a wonderful experience.” We are incredibly grateful for your enthusiasm, support, and energy. As we prepare for an exciting comeback on a new weekend: June 4-6, 2027, Boston Calling will take a brief hiatus in 2026.
In 2013, Boston Calling made its premiere on City Hall Plaza.Luke Combs, Fall Out Boy, and Dave Matthews Band were the main acts at its most recent edition, which took place during Memorial Day weekend.
For the festival’s organizers, Boston Calling 2025 was a kind of test run. C3 Presents: For the first time in years, the festival completely redesigned the layout in response to complaints of crowding in 2024. One of the stages was taken down, and the VIP area that created a chokepoint during Sunday’s performance was moved.
The outcome was a significantly better flow over Boston Calling 2025’s grounds. However, none of the pricing tiers were sold out before the festival began on May 23 for the first time in recent memory, which may suggest that the pleasantly empty environment was caused in part by lower-than-expected ticket sales.
The upcoming Boston Calling will also be the first time the festival has not taken place over Memorial Day weekend since relocating to the Harvard Athletic Complex in 2017, excepting cancellations due to the epidemic.
Since most college students are finishing up their semesters but haven’t returned home yet, and young professionals have the luxury of a long weekend to recuperate after three days of music, Memorial Day has long looked like the ideal time for a festival in Boston.
There are several reasons why the festival might be moved off Memorial Day. It might indicate that the organizers wanted to test another warm-weather weekend when at least some college students are still in the city since they believed they were competing with individuals who were leaving for Memorial Day weekend.
A request for comment on the recently announced decisions was not answered by the festival organizers.
Kevin Slane writes about culture and entertainment as a staff writer for Boston.com. Movie reviews, streaming guidelines, celebrities, and Boston activities are the main topics of his work.
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