Local News
Festival organizers announced last week that Boston Calling will be taking a “short break” in 2026, returning on a new weekend in 2027.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu offered new insight on Monday into why behind Boston Calling is taking a “gap year” in 2026.
The organizers of the annual music festival announced Friday that Boston Calling will pause in 2026 for a “short break” and return on a new weekend in 2027. No additional explanation for why the festival will not be held next year has been given by the organizers.
Asked about the change on Monday by WBZ NewsRadio, Wu said the factors behind the festival’s hiatus have nothing to do with city regulations or problems with the event itself.
“They had reached out to me to share that because next year will be so busy, between the 250th anniversary celebrations, between FIFA coming, that there will just be a lot of strain on hotel rooms and events and sponsorships,” Wu told the station. “And so given all that is happening in that exact same window in Boston, that it would be better not to have different sponsorships that are conflicting or stretched too thin and really do it right so that we can enjoy the Boston Calling event bigger and better when it does come back.”
Organizers said Boston Calling will return on June 4-6, 2027, marking the first time the festival will not be held on Memorial Day weekend since it moved to the Harvard Athletic Complex in 2017. The music festival first debuted on City Hall Plaza in 2013.
The festival will be welcomed back by Boston when it returns, according to Wu. She told WBZ the city would have found a way to “make it work” in 2026 even with the other big events happening.
“In my mind, the more events, the better,” she told the station. “But I’m not the one who has to worry about finding the sponsorships to fund them. We worry about public safety and how to permit and manage that. So we will always find a way to make it work. We welcome anyone who wants to throw something that can activate our city and bring people together. But I totally understand and respect the organizers decision that with so much going on, at such a large scale, they wanted to focus and be part of what’s already happening, and then focus on this for the year after.”
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