💅🎸Boston Calling is getting a glow up

It’s Tuesday, Boston.

🌯 Want free Chipotle for a year? You gotta run for it. Literally. Chipotle is teaming up with Strava to offer Bostonians a simple challenge: Complete more attempts on this segment challenge than anyone else, and win free Lifestyle Bowls for a year. Find out more info here.

👀 What’s on tap today:

• The Pats’ biggest flop of all

• Mystery stench at Raising Cane’s

• A Boston queen on the big screen

Up first…

BOSTON CALLING

Boston Calling’s new look

BREAKING: Boston Calling just dropped its 2025 plans. And spoiler: The music festival is shaking things up. 

🎸 Let’s start with the lineup: This year’s headliners are *drumroll* Luke Combs on Friday, Fall Out Boy on Saturday, and Dave Matthews Band on Sunday. Other big names include Vampire Weekend, Avril Lavigne, Cage The Elephant, T-Pain, and Megan Moroney. Indie lovers, look out for Remi Wolf, Kyle Dion, and Goth Babe. If you loved last year’s pop-heavy lineup, the vibes are … a departure, which some Gen Z fans aren’t loving. But hey, at least we’ll all get to sob to “Fast Car” together. Peep the whole lineup here.

🎤 There’s a sweet selection of local acts, too. Boston Calling is known for carving out space for some homegrown music, and this year is no exception. Be on the lookout for Boston- and New England-based artists like Bebe Stockwell, Latrell James, Simon Robert French, Rebuilder, Layzi, Megan From Work, and more.

🎶 The where and when are business as usual. It’ll go down at the Harvard Athletic Complex in Allston over three days on Memorial Day weekend. This year, that’s May 23 to 25. 

📍 But the setup will be tweaked to prioritize safety. If you were anywhere near Chappell Roan’s set last year, you probably understand why folks criticized the fest for “dangerous” crowds. This year, organizers are making some safety-minded changes, like swapping the  two biggest stages (Green and Red) for one rotating stage to “improve crowd flow and ease congestion.” There will also be additional water stations and an indoor cooling area with special programming. This is what the full festival map looks like.

🎟️ Ticket prices are *slightly* less painful. After hearing complaints about the pricing structure, organizers modestly lowered ticket prices — (think: $10 less for a three-day GA pass and $64 less for a three-day GA+ pass.) You can peruse all the ticket options here. 

🧑‍💻 If you want to go: The presale with “access to the lowest-priced tickets” kicks off tomorrow, Jan. 8 at 10 a.m. The sale will open to the public at noon if tickets remain. Sign up for the presale or grab tickets here. 

💬 Any other questions? More announcements, including food and drink vendors, will be dropping in the coming months, but you can find all the most up-to-date information here.

QUICK QUESTION!

🎸 What do you think of this year’s Boston Calling lineup?

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CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

🏈 The Patriots closed out their flop season with a bang: Firing single-season head coach Jerod Mayo. Team owner Robert Kraft didn’t waste any time, dropping the news shortly after the Pats won their final game of the season. The win brought their record to 4-13, ironically costing them the No. 1 draft pick next year. Now, the team will kick off the search for its third coach in three seasons — and there are some prime candidates. It’s only up from here … right?

📲 Don’t click that fishy text about a parking ticket! These phishing scams are getting crafty. Recently, Boston residents have been getting fraudulent texts from “the city of Boston” asking them to pay a small “parking invoice” to avoid "a late fees of 35$." (yes, that’s how it’s written). Long story short, if you get the text, it’s NOT real, so definitely don’t click on it. And if you don’t get the texts but reading about them reminded you of all your unpaid parking tickets, you can pay those here.

🥶 Boston, it’s COLD outside. Nothing says “Happy New Year” like a cold snap with single-digit wind chill temperatures — though at least it’s not snowing (yet). But this info might (literally) warm you up: The Mass. Home Energy Assistance Program (MassHEAP) can help some eligible renters and homeowners pay for a portion of their winter heating at no cost — regardless of the type of heat or whether it’s included in rent. Literally all you need to do is apply. 

👃 New in town: A restaurant, a grocery store, and a mysterious stench. First, the stench: Allston’s Raising Cane’s location has been ordered to close until they can get rid of a mysterious smell. In better-smelling news, Shy Bird is bringing its famous rotisserie and brunch to its third (and largest) location in the Fenway this month, and Asian grocery chain H Mart is coming to Davis Square this week — with some pretty sweet promotions.

ONE LAST THING

A Boston queen on the big screen

If you haven’t heard of local drag queen Kori King, a.k.a. “the Black Barbie from Boston,” you will soon enough. She’s on season 17 of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” after rising through the ranks of Boston’s scene over just two years of performing. 

As for her vibe … all you need to know is that, not only did she theme her entrance look around Dunkin’, but she also visited a random Boston Dunkin’ in full drag just for fun to promote it. Simply put: We love her. 

Episode one premiered on Friday, but you can catch the rest of her season on MTV, Hulu + Live TV, or YouTube TV. Or, for the highlights, you can follow her here.

— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario

💅🏾 Thanks for reading! She got us with this one. 

💜 Special shoutout to today's sponsor, Boston College School of Social Work, for supporting local journalism and empowering the next generation of change-makers.

🏘️ The results are in: B-Siders have SPOKEN. If there’s one prediction that’s definitely coming true in 2025, 82% of readers predict that the rent just won’t stop rising. One reader said: “Sometimes I look at rent prices in Chicago just to make myself sad.” Don’t leave us!

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