All excerpts taken below are from an exclusive interview with Boston Calling Founders Brian Appel of Crash Line Productions & Josh Bhatti of The Bowery.
By Max K.
The year was 2012 and music was booming across the USA. Major music festivals were popping up in every major metropolis including Miami, New York, LA, and Chicago. The infusion of Wall Street money, coupled with the unprecedented demand for more festivals provided a powerful combination to drive this new market. Insomniac events, Live Nation, ID&T, Made Events, and the new SFX Entertainment conglomerate were amongst the powerhouses fueling the frenzy of mega production and promotion companies. However, despite the rapid emergence of music festivals sweeping across the United States, nowhere in Boston, the most American of all US cities, could a multi-stage, multi-day festival be found.
Fast-forward to 2013. New York plays host to EDC-NY, Sensation, Electric Zoo, Governor's Ball, Mad Decent Block Party, and all the massive events at Governor's Island. Still, no announcement of a major festival in Boston until...
Read More after the break
, finally, the calling comes. Boston Calling that is. News finally came in late winter of a festival taking place on Memorial Day weekend in Boston's Government Center at City Hall Plaza.
Thanks to the partnership of Crash Line Productions and The Bowery, Boston finally had a festival to call its own. The duo recognized the absence of a festival in Boston and seized the opportunity to fill the void. Brian from Crash Line explains in his exclusive interview with EDMBoston.com, "We started to go down the road of a fenced in music festival in the Plaza when we worked for WFNX a couple of years ago, and when WFNX went out of business that concept went away. We thought it was a viable thing so we broke off what we were doing and started Boston Calling." And that they did.
Drawing from their experience of working with the City of Boston, the duo devised a plan, and presented their vision to city officials, seeking the permitting to bring their dream to fruition.
We asked Brian about the challenges of working with the bureaucracy that is the City of Boston. He said, "I don’t view it as its setup to prevent people from doing great events for the public. I think the City looks at events through the lens of public safety first and foremost. The reason they have lots of steps to get events setup and approved and permitted is to discourage people that don’t have good security plans or a good understanding of how to execute a good event." He went on to say, "We had an understanding of the basics on how to get an event off the ground. From that you build a level of working relationship and confidence of the City. So that’s how we got it done. It took a long time and it wasn’t an over night process."
What they created was unique to the city of Boston: a music festival unlike anything ever seen in Boston city limits, paying homage to our city with City Hall as its backdrop.
It truly was a Boston calling.
With no surprise, Bostonians responded to the call. Boston Calling’s inaugural show in May sold out, leaving the show’s creators excited to bring the festival back. What people did not expect was that the organizers would bring it back merely 3 months later, revamped with a dance lineup.
"EDM and DJs are here to stay and its integral part. We are not EDM festival per se. But we would be short sited to not look at talent like that and invite it to be part of the festival” reported festival organizers.
With the new addition of dance, the production company has made changes to the layout of the plaza. "We setup the fest with a new layout that maximizes space in front of each stages. We don’t want to cram everyone. We want to give them space to enjoy the performances" said Brian.
It's experience and foresight like this that leave EDMBoston staff excited for our newly homegrown festival. With dance acts like Major Lazer, Wolfgang Gartner, and Flume we have to ask ourselves: how could we not be excited?
At the heart of Boston calling's soul is PLUR. When we asked Brian and Josh what they did to incorporate PLUR into the festival they said, "We are trying to create an environment of inclusion, bring kids and friends. Tickets are reasonably priced. Feel free to come early in the day to check out a band and then leave for a while to check out downtown and come back. We are very flexible with how you experience the festival. We don’t want to create an environment where you feel trapped on city hall plaza for 10 hours. Its really all about an attendee experience that they don’t feel like they are being taken advantage of by a company because that’s not what we are and not what this was created for. This was created for people of Boston to feel like they have ownership of it and enjoy it as they see fit. ~Brian
We tried to give an authentic feel to the festival. The food truck selection and beer selection available give that authentic feel. You can tell when you walk in a corporate sponsor venue and what’s happening. We tried to avoid that and not make it feel like you are walking into a corporate sponsored event. We want you to create your own experience. ~Josh"
The organizers outlook is refreshing in a day of $8 water bottles and no-reentry polices. Brian explained that, "It has been our mantra to keep ticket prices low as we can and to make this as accessible as we can. Children under 10 are free and people can bring in food/drinks from outside, so they don’t feel like it’s unreasonable to come to a show. We put bands on the bill that people want to watch."
Finally, the festival’s founders were very humble about the early success of Boston calling when we spoke with them. "We’re really young and still very much a startup. We’re lucky we had a nice event in May and well received. We looked at that and thought of ways behind the scenes on how to improve things. We think people that come in September that were here in may will see those changes. Our focus is to put an event on for the people of Boston and that the city likes, " said Brian.
Answer the calling, Boston. See you September 7th and 8th on City Hall Plaza.
By Max K.
The year was 2012 and music was booming across the USA. Major music festivals were popping up in every major metropolis including Miami, New York, LA, and Chicago. The infusion of Wall Street money, coupled with the unprecedented demand for more festivals provided a powerful combination to drive this new market. Insomniac events, Live Nation, ID&T, Made Events, and the new SFX Entertainment conglomerate were amongst the powerhouses fueling the frenzy of mega production and promotion companies. However, despite the rapid emergence of music festivals sweeping across the United States, nowhere in Boston, the most American of all US cities, could a multi-stage, multi-day festival be found.
Fast-forward to 2013. New York plays host to EDC-NY, Sensation, Electric Zoo, Governor's Ball, Mad Decent Block Party, and all the massive events at Governor's Island. Still, no announcement of a major festival in Boston until...
Read More after the break
, finally, the calling comes. Boston Calling that is. News finally came in late winter of a festival taking place on Memorial Day weekend in Boston's Government Center at City Hall Plaza.
Thanks to the partnership of Crash Line Productions and The Bowery, Boston finally had a festival to call its own. The duo recognized the absence of a festival in Boston and seized the opportunity to fill the void. Brian from Crash Line explains in his exclusive interview with EDMBoston.com, "We started to go down the road of a fenced in music festival in the Plaza when we worked for WFNX a couple of years ago, and when WFNX went out of business that concept went away. We thought it was a viable thing so we broke off what we were doing and started Boston Calling." And that they did.
Drawing from their experience of working with the City of Boston, the duo devised a plan, and presented their vision to city officials, seeking the permitting to bring their dream to fruition.
We asked Brian about the challenges of working with the bureaucracy that is the City of Boston. He said, "I don’t view it as its setup to prevent people from doing great events for the public. I think the City looks at events through the lens of public safety first and foremost. The reason they have lots of steps to get events setup and approved and permitted is to discourage people that don’t have good security plans or a good understanding of how to execute a good event." He went on to say, "We had an understanding of the basics on how to get an event off the ground. From that you build a level of working relationship and confidence of the City. So that’s how we got it done. It took a long time and it wasn’t an over night process."
What they created was unique to the city of Boston: a music festival unlike anything ever seen in Boston city limits, paying homage to our city with City Hall as its backdrop.
It truly was a Boston calling.
With no surprise, Bostonians responded to the call. Boston Calling’s inaugural show in May sold out, leaving the show’s creators excited to bring the festival back. What people did not expect was that the organizers would bring it back merely 3 months later, revamped with a dance lineup.
"EDM and DJs are here to stay"
"EDM and DJs are here to stay and its integral part. We are not EDM festival per se. But we would be short sited to not look at talent like that and invite it to be part of the festival” reported festival organizers.
With the new addition of dance, the production company has made changes to the layout of the plaza. "We setup the fest with a new layout that maximizes space in front of each stages. We don’t want to cram everyone. We want to give them space to enjoy the performances" said Brian.
It's experience and foresight like this that leave EDMBoston staff excited for our newly homegrown festival. With dance acts like Major Lazer, Wolfgang Gartner, and Flume we have to ask ourselves: how could we not be excited?
"We are trying to create an environment of inclusion"
At the heart of Boston calling's soul is PLUR. When we asked Brian and Josh what they did to incorporate PLUR into the festival they said, "We are trying to create an environment of inclusion, bring kids and friends. Tickets are reasonably priced. Feel free to come early in the day to check out a band and then leave for a while to check out downtown and come back. We are very flexible with how you experience the festival. We don’t want to create an environment where you feel trapped on city hall plaza for 10 hours. Its really all about an attendee experience that they don’t feel like they are being taken advantage of by a company because that’s not what we are and not what this was created for. This was created for people of Boston to feel like they have ownership of it and enjoy it as they see fit. ~Brian
We tried to give an authentic feel to the festival. The food truck selection and beer selection available give that authentic feel. You can tell when you walk in a corporate sponsor venue and what’s happening. We tried to avoid that and not make it feel like you are walking into a corporate sponsored event. We want you to create your own experience. ~Josh"
The organizers outlook is refreshing in a day of $8 water bottles and no-reentry polices. Brian explained that, "It has been our mantra to keep ticket prices low as we can and to make this as accessible as we can. Children under 10 are free and people can bring in food/drinks from outside, so they don’t feel like it’s unreasonable to come to a show. We put bands on the bill that people want to watch."
"Our focus is to put an event on for the people of Boston and that the city likes."
Finally, the festival’s founders were very humble about the early success of Boston calling when we spoke with them. "We’re really young and still very much a startup. We’re lucky we had a nice event in May and well received. We looked at that and thought of ways behind the scenes on how to improve things. We think people that come in September that were here in may will see those changes. Our focus is to put an event on for the people of Boston and that the city likes, " said Brian.
Answer the calling, Boston. See you September 7th and 8th on City Hall Plaza.
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