Boston Calling Festival is Boston’s premier music festival, and it took place over Memorial Day weekend.
The three-day event featured a plethora of artists like Ed Sheeran, making his first festival appearance (aside from Jazz Fest) in the US since 2015, The Killers, Tyler Childers, Trey Anastasio Band, and Hozier.
However, the artist that most are concerned about post-festival is one that wasn’t even billed in the top two lines of the poster: Chappell Roan.
When Roan was booked, sometime in 2023, she had a mere 1,000,000 monthly listeners, which is about how much you’d expect from an artist playing the Green Stage at 4:45 pm. In fact, just one month ago, she had around 5,000,000 monthly listeners. However, she is at nearly 20,000,000 listeners on Spotify as of the end of May.
On Instagram and Reddit, many festival goers complained about the crowd and amount of people at the Chappell Roan set. Some even accused the festival of removing negative comments on Instagram.
While some people only commented about standard festival complaints, like more water stations and more food, many were furious about the crowds and timing of Roan’s set. One Redditor said “Several crowd crushes happened Sunday and it’s a miracle none were fatal. Overselling the festival that badly is willfully negligent.”
However, the festival put out a statement revealing that the amount of people at the festival was under the capacity issued by the city.
“We deeply appreciate the audience, staff, and performers who make Boston Calling possible, and want to acknowledge feedback from Sunday.
While attendee count was several thousand below the official capacity rating of the site, we never want anyone to feel uncomfortable or unsafe at the show.
The safety and well-being of our fans, artists, guests and staff is paramount. We will continue to work with public officials and our operations team to improve the experience, layout, and ultimately create a better environment for everyone.”
Following the statement, NJ Music Festivals sent out a survey on Instagram and Discord, asking festival-goers about their time at the festival, specifically during Chappell Roan’s set.
The majority of the responses were from people who went to the festival for the first time in 2024, or have gone just once before. Out of the responses, nearly 20% said their favorite set of the festival was Chappell Roan’s.
While nearly everyone did not believe Roan’s set would be so packed, and that they felt there were too many people, most people said they did not feel unsafe at all during the festival. Most said the festival was oversold, despite the statement saying they were in fact under the capacity.
While there were complaints, there were also many positives that came out of the festival: the people were great, lines weren’t too long, and there were many props for the Blue Stage, which was set up in a different park of the venue from the Green and Red stage.
However, in the survey, there were continued complaints about the amount of people at the festival. One response said “having only one area for bathrooms and water stations was inconvenient and even dangerous,” and many agreed that there were too many people towards the end of the day.
Scheduling was a major complaint, with some noting “crowd rushes” after certain sets. A user on Instagram stated how there was a rush of people leaving Hozier’s set, but there was nowhere to go as it ended just minutes before The Killers’ headline set.
It seems that everyone can agree that there were too many people at the festival to feel completely comfortable, and most are blaming this on the fact that Chappell Roan played a set at 4:45 pm, but this situation was pretty unavoidable for the festival producers.
The producers of the festival, C3 Presents, who work alongside Peter Boyd, are objectively one of the best festival producers in the US, running festivals like Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, GovBall, and Sea.Hear.Now. It would have been difficult to predict that Roan would have such a burst in popularity, who had a percentage change of nearly 1700% monthly listeners on Spotify.
While many complained that BC’s statement was a “classic PR statement” and that “Chappell Roan’s set should have been moved”, it ultimately comes down to how festivals are booked in the first place.
When festivals book artists of this caliber, the agreement and contract generally doesn’t allow the festival to move around time slots and change the schedule. Everything is set in place early in advance, and if there is one change, it can affect the entire day or lineup.
The same scenario happened with Noah Kahan at festivals in 2023, with his burst in popularity happening after he was already booked for everything. There’s a reason festivals like Bonnaroo aren’t switching Roan from a small tent to the main stage: there are too many scheduling and billing conflicts that would follow.
Even though there were many negatives from Boston Calling, there were also a lot of pros, and it’s a good sign that the festival released a statement acknowledging the negative aspects of the weekend.
One of the ways fans would like to see the festival improve is by simply changing the layout of the festival to spread the crowd out more, or lessen the crowd altogether. Attendees also want to see more water stations and more accessible restrooms, according to the survey sent out.
Another way to get the festival to see your complains is by completing their official survey, which will be emailed out to everyone who got a wristband for the festival. By filling out the form, producers get a feel for what the fans really felt, and usually take it into account, based on the differences we see year-to-year at other C3 festivals.
While there were a lot of safety concerns at the festival, it’s safe to say it’s big enough to continue improving, as it has been for the past 11 years.
NJ Music Festivals 