Boston Calling feels like the culmination of a lot of booking trends I haven't liked of theirs over the past like five fests or so. It used to be a two day fest with really steady, deep lineups and perhaps not amazing headliners, but such good undercards that you could go at nearly any time and if you stayed four hours you could see 8 performers most of whom you might know and like. They moved to a new location that was larger and jacked up the prices (as did all fests) and began by improving headliner quality while, slightly, reducing undercard quality but also added a comedy and/or film tent to supplement. Post COVID, that went away so they could upcharge that area as a "sit down and drink" location, and they added a fourth local stage. Each year the undercard gets more and more unknown and they try to sell tickets and hit homeruns on the headliners. This year LiveNation took over and now we're here where once you get 4-5 artists deep, you're meeting a huge block of unknowns and local artists with a few gems in there.
It's a bummer - I definitely miss the old fest.