Boston Calling has always been a treat for native Bostonians, and as the festival continues to grow, this spring’s edition tried out a larger venue and three music stages, plus a new comedy stage.
As the festival kicked off its first installment of the year on Friday (May 26), fans stood through the pouring rain to see their favorite artists perform. Take a look at some of the highlights below.
4:45 p.m. Francis and The Lights opens his set with a keyboard solo on a bare stage. As the track swells and the bass pops in, he shows off his killer dance moves, hopping around the stage and onto the stacks of speakers at the front. He performed in his sunglasses, despite the rain.
5:28 p.m. Fans swarm the stage and phone cameras pop out as headliner Chance the Rapper joins Francis for a dance choreographed to their recent collab “May I Have This Dance.” As Chance leaves the stage, Francis calls him back, saying, “Chance, my man, I got something special just for you.” The DJ hits a trigger and Francis turns and jumps into a split. Chance heads back onstage laughing and clapping, gives Francis a hug, saying off-mic, “You’re amazing bro. I love you, man.”
5:40 p.m. Sylvan Esso‘s Amelia Meath kicks her way into the crowd’s heart with her eccentric dance moves, contorting her body into impossible shapes. Clad in platform combat boots, she jumps around the stage with ease. Nick Sanborn, the other half of the duo, is bent over the DJ table rocking out so hard his veins are popping out of his neck. As their set begins to take off, he says, “Boston, it’s un-f—ing-believable that we’re with you all today.”
6:55 p.m. People are already antsy waiting for Migos to perform — as their addition to the set was a last-minute replacement for Solange, who stayed home to be with her sister, Beyonce, through the last days of her pregnancy — and were made even more anxious as DJ Durel played a seemingly endless hype set. Fans were not disappointed though, as Quavo and Takeoff took the stage (Offset did not make an appearance) accompanied by a hype video by none other than DJ Khaled. The standout moment, of course, was when the group played their hit “Bad and Boujee”: The audience’s screams could be heard from the other side of the complex where Mac DeMarco was playing his set.
8:45 p.m. The rain begins to pour again, but that doesn’t deter Bon Iver‘s fans from screaming the words to “Skinny Love.” The hypnotizing projections from the background of his stage light up the entire field while Chance the Rapper fans line up to get as close as they can for the headliner’s set.
9:35 p.m. Chance the Rapper emerges through fireworks, smoke and flames on a mini motorcycle as the rain continues to come down. As he opens his set with Coloring Book track “Mixtape,” the crowd goes crazy, screaming the words to even the fastest rap verses.
He introduces his band, which features up-and-coming group Thirdstory as his background vocalists and his original group, The Social Experiment, who collaborated with him on his previous records. He screams out into the crowd, “Boston, I need y’all to turn up with me!”
Chance’s set included both old and new favorites, including “Cocoa Butter Kisses” from 2013’s Acid Rap (which featured an energetic arrangement and heavy flashing lights) and “All Night” from Coloring Book. He even sang “Same Drugs” from a stage set up behind the sound booth so the people in the back could see him. As he closed his set, he emotionally thanked his fans, saying, “I couldn’t do this without y’all. Thank you for believing in me.”