And no, they’re not paying me to say that. But yes, Boston Calling is the one to finally deliver a top-to-bottom strong lineup for a U.S. festival, 

While Coachella brought the heavyweights, Boston Calling tops it in depth on the initial announce. You have to travel pretty far down the lineup of the May festival before you hit some more obscure offerings, while Coachella’s lineup struggles to go four lines deep each day. 

It’s a refreshing sight indeed, as we told you a while back about how challenged some of the U.S. festivals would be given that many bands seemed to opt for Europe this summer. The three-day Boston festival will bring eclectic headliners including hard rockers Tool, folk sensation Mumford & Sons and the wildly talented and dynamic Chance the Rapper. From there it doesn’t let up as Bon Iver, The xx, Sigur Ros, Solange, Run the Jewels, Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, Brandi Carlile, Danny Brown, Mac DeMarco, Frightened Rabbit, Modern Baseball….(deep breath), Car Seat Headrest, Cage the Elephant, Whitney and Strand of Oaks also highlight the bill, among others.

U.S. festivals now seem to be either bowing to the control of our corporate overlords or flying pleasantly under the radar while delivering solid lineups (See: Knees, Shaky) and it’s always a pleasant surprise to see a lineup with the depth of a Boston Calling. Surely (hopefully) there are more to come. 

Today’s lineup announcement also brings to a close a brief period of turmoil for the festival, who announced in May of 2016 that they would relocate to Allston, MA for this year’s event (they did) and the September edition of the festival would also be axed.

Nothing spells out doom quite like the ol’ venue relocation (All Good, anyone?) and the cancellation of a second weekend, but festival organizers promised that the new changes would allow them to “expand our offerings to include a combination of music, film, comedy and visual art.” This year, they deliver one of the best lineups of the summer (so far) and boast a film companion to their event hosted by none other than Natalie Portman.