After concert-goers call Boston Calling unsafe, festival says it will improve experience (2024)

For some Boston Calling concert-goers, the last day of the festival was filled with crowds shoving and body slamming them, leaving them feeling unsafe.

Attendees talked with MassLive, posted on Reddit and wrote in comments on the Boston Calling Instagram account regarding their concerns.

“There was just nowhere to go. So everyone was just kind of being like moved in a wave. And all I could think was, if God forbid there was some kind of panic that we were going to get trampled,” Samantha Baron told MassLive.

Boston Calling responded on Tuesday, promising to improve the experience after the feedback.

“While attendee count was several thousand below the official capacity rating of the site, we never want anyone to feel uncomfortable or unsafe at the show,” read a statement to MassLive, which was also posted on Instagram. “The safety and well-being of our fans, artists, guests and staff is paramount. We will to continue to work with public officials and our operations team to improve the experience, layout, and ultimately create a better environment for everyone.”

There were around 40,000 attendees compared to roughly 16,000 on Saturday, according to Boston.com.

The sold-out day had several notable acts including Hozier, The Killers, Megan Thee Stallion and Chappell Roan who all performed on two main stages next to each other — some only a few minutes apart.

There were also 412 medical encounters on Sunday with 13 transported to hospitals, according to a Boston EMS spokesperson. The number of medical encounters Sunday was more than half of all the encounters for the weekend.

Baron, who has gone to the festival in 2015 and 2023, said there was a notable difference in attendee size compared to years past.

Baron said that even though they weren’t close to the stage for Megan Thee Stallion, they felt unsafe and tried to get out of the crowd to hear The Killers from far away.

“We were too scared to get much closer. We stayed in the back the rest of the time. We stayed closer to the exit. We were more careful,” Baron said.

Baron said they also had trouble accessing restrooms and water stations because of not being able to move throughout the festival grounds.

Saffron Donovan, a seven-year Boston Calling volunteer, said she has never seen Boston Calling so crowded.

“I’ve never seen it as crazy unsafe packed as it was (Sunday). Even a couple years ago we had Metallica headline one night and that brought in a massive massive crowd but that was nowhere near as unsafe feeling as between Megan Thee Stallion and Hozier (on Sunday),” Donovan said.

Dozens of comments were left on Boston Calling’s Instagram page pointing to unsafe conditions.

One person wrote “vibes were high until about 4 when the crowds were unbearable and people were passing out left and right from claustrophobia.”

Comments compared the festival to Astroworld Festival — a music event in Houston, Texas, in 2021 that was hosted by rapper Travis Scott — where 10 people died from a crowd crush.

Donovan said she didn’t think Boston Calling was fully prepared for how many people would attend the festival.

Donovan said Saturday looked completely different with the ability to freely walk around the festival grounds and enough space for concert-goers to be able to cartwheel.

She said there weren’t any additional safety trainings or precautions given to her besides the basic training manual for the day.

“I don’t think they were purposefully not giving us information. I think it just wasn’t expected,” Donovan said.

Donovan said Boston Calling has “outgrown” the Harvard Athletic Complex and needs to transition to a bigger venue space.

She said if the festival were to stay there, it would need more designated exits and more planning would be necessary to ensure that bigger acts aren’t on stages next to each other.

Instagram users felt similarly.

“Doesn’t help when 95% of the attendees are crammed into 20% of the venue space with no reasonable travel lanes,” Jacob Lyons wrote.

Some concert-goers claimed comments they made on Boston Calling’s Instagram page complaining about overcrowding were deleted.

One person wrote, “Seeing how my previous comments about how unsafe this was are now deleted, I will say it again. There was nothing sweet about being trapped at the red stage and nobody doing anything about it. The artists were amazing but this was organized so poorly. 5 years and I haven’t seen anything like that. I am so disappointed, do better.”

However, Boston Calling said that’s not true.

“Please be advised, we are not hiding or deleting any negative comments,” an Instagram comment by the festival reads. “Instagram seems to be doing this automatically. We never want to silence important feedback ,especially when it comes to attendee safety.”

They also offered an email address, info@bostoncalling.com, as a way for people to send feedback.

For Donovan, her safety concerns are likely to make this year’s Boston Calling her last.

“That’s really sad to say because I’ve gone to the last seven years or something like this now. But it was a little too scary in that crowd. I couldn’t breathe for a minute. We lost Aubrey for a minute. It was nuts,” Donovan said.

Baron agreed.

“The tickets were like $200 and we couldn’t see anything. We could hear the music, but we couldn’t see anything,” Baron said.