Boston Calling mixes decades and genres with its 2025 lineup 

As January’s teeth-chattering cold holds us in its grip, news about a Memorial Day weekend music festival delivers some summery vibes. Boston Calling organizers have released their lineup for this year’s annual jamboree at the Harvard Athletic Complex.

The three headliners are (drumroll please): chart-topping country superstar Luke Combs, the 2000s-era pop-punk band Fall Out Boy, and the Dave Matthews Band which was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in October.

Combs takes the stage Friday, May 23; Fall Out Boy on Saturday, May 24; and the Dave Matthews Band wraps up the weekend on Sunday, May 25.

None of the headliners are women, but Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow is high on the bill, along with country star Megan Moroney and pop-punk pioneer Avril Lavigne, who last performed at Boston Calling in 2022.

A mix spanning decades fills the multigenre festival’s roster of more than 50 acts. Surviving members of the 1990s girl group TLC are on deck for Friday. They follow R&B/hip-hop artist T-Pain (a.k.a. Faheem Rashad Najm) who ignited controversy by embracing Auto-Tune correction in the 2000s.

Other throwback artists include The Black Crowes, the seminal hip-hop group Public Enemy, the Spin Doctors and three surviving members of the California ska/punk/reggae band Sublime. They released their first new song in nearly three decades last year titled “Feel Like That.”

Rockers Vampire Weekend are returning to Boston Calling. They first played the festival in 2013 when it was held at City Hall Plaza. Cage the Elephant — whose song “Neon Pill” is nominated for Best Alternative Music Performance at the upcoming Grammy Awards — are back for their second festival appearance. That band's debut was in 2017.

Other artists on the Boston Calling bill include Lucius, an indie-pop four-piece from Brooklyn, Griffen Washburn’s solo project known as Goth Babe, mike. (Michael Jordan Bonema’s rapper persona), English singer-songwriter James Bay, San Diego’s retro-soul trio Thee Sacred Souls, Arizona rockers The Maine; Tom Morello (guitarist for bands including Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave and the super group Prophets of Rage), and the Irish folk band Amble.

A few rising stars are coming to Boston Calling, including Nashville’s Max McNown, the 19-year-old whisper-singer and violinist SOFIA ISELLA (who was one of the five female acts to open for Taylor Swift at Wembley Stadium), Liberian-born singer-songwriter Mon Rovîa (now based in Tennessee), and alt-pop songwriter/fashion model Sam Austins.

More than a dozen artists with regional connections will play on the festival’s Orange Stage, which is dedicated to showcasing Northeast talent. Hip-hop artist and producer Latrell James will represent Boston along with Bebe Stockwell, Vivid Bloom,  Copilot, Future Teens, the pop-punk group Rebuilder, art-pop maker Layzi, the cinematically-inspired punk band PINKLIDS, and Battlemode, a chiptune/electro-pop trio. The experimental music project sidebody of Somerville, and New Hampshire low-fi performer Meghan from Work, were also invited to perform at this year’s fest.

Speaking of stages, some big changes are coming to the ones at Boston Calling. Last week the festival announced a few improvements, including the merging of its two main stages (Red and Green) into one. And get this: it rotates.

Organizers aren’t elaborating on exactly how this new system will work, but according to today’s announcement, it will “improve crowd flow and ease congestion, making it easier for attendees to move between performances.”

Another change this year is the addition of a two-day festival pass. In the past, only one and three-day tickets have been available. There's also a two-pack "buddy" option for single-day General Admission (while supplies last).

Tickets for Boston Calling go on sale Wednesday, Jan. 8 at 10:00 am.

Luke Combs
Megan Moroney
Sheryl Crow
T-Pain
TLC
mike.
Thee Sacred Souls
Max McNown
Wilderado
Infinity Song
Kyle Dion
Bebe Stockwell
Holy Roller
Latrell James
Megan From Work
Future Teens
Battlemode

Fall Out Boy
Avril Lavigne
Cage The Elephant
The Black Crowes
All Time Low
James Bay
The Maine
Lucius
Valley
Mon Rovîa
Amble
SOFIA ISELLA
Timmy Skelly
simon robert french
Rebuilder
sidebody
PINKLIDS

Dave Matthews Band
Vampire Weekend
Sublime
Public Enemy
Remi Wolf
Goth Babe
Tom Morello
The 502s
Spin Doctors
I DONT KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME
Mo Lowda & the Humble
Sam Austins
SNACKTIME
Layzi
Copilot
Vivid Bloom
Nate Perry & Ragged Company

Boston Calling runs Memorial Day weekend, May 23-25. Tickets go on sale Jan. 8.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the year of Avril Lavigne's previous Boston Calling appearance. We regret the error.