🤯🎶 Is THIS the new Boston Calling?

⚾🍻 Help Bleacher Bar win Best Sports Bar in America! This iconic Fenway bar is the only New England finalist competing in USA TODAY's contest, and they need our votes. Vote here daily through May 11 and help Boston take the crown.

🥳 HBD to B-Side Members Dominic Hupp, Sabrina F., Lauren F., and Caroline Litra! If there were a best reader award today, it would be a four-way tie. <3

👀 What’s on tap today:

Up first…

There’s a Boston Calling-sized hole in our hearts. ICYMI: Boston’s biggest music festival, which usually goes down over Memorial Day Weekend, is taking a gap year. 

So we’re using this loss as an ~opportunity~ to explore other local music festivals. Here’s what’s going down:

🎸 Mojo Boston Music Festival, May 9. This newcomer is the brainchild of “a bunch of 23-year-olds living in Southie” hoping to bolster local music scenes. It’s bringing 10 hours of tunes from national and local bands, along with live art, food trucks, and bars to City Hall Plaza (the OG Boston Calling site). Tickets are ~$49. Here’s the lineup.

🔥 Campfire Festival, May 22 to 25. For over 25 years, this festival has been a hotspot for soon-to-be big acts like Lake Street Drive and Anais Mitchell. Throughout the weekend, dozens of up-and-comers across the city and country will take the stage for a series of intimate shows. Tickets are $20/day, or $35/weekend. Here’s the lineup. 

🧊 Boston Chilling, June 6. Boston may not be calling this year, but it is chilling thanks to Harpoon’s new music fest at the Lawn on D. The lineup is still under wraps, but a rep told us that the vibes are aptly low-key, featuring lawn games, plenty of beer, and hours of live music. Bonus: It’s free to attend! Keep your eyes peeled for a lineup drop here.

🎤 Levitate Music Festival, July 18 to 19. This Marshfield-based fest is the closest thing here to a true Boston Calling dupe, with major headliners like Caamp, Alanis Morissette, and Royel Otis (and some local acts!). Bonus: There will be tons of art and food. Tickets are $159/day, or $269/weekend. Here’s the full lineup. 

😎 NICE, a fest, July 24 to 26. Consider this a celebration of Boston and New England’s indie music scene. Each of the festival’s 60+ acts have ties to the area, performing at three venues across Somerville’s Davis Square. Tickets are $92, which covers all three days. Here’s the lineup, plus a curated playlist from the festival.

🎶 If all else fails, pick a PorchFest! There are quite literally dozens of the free, local DIY music festivals around Greater Boston this summer, including the biggest one, Somerville PorchFest, on May 9.

🏐⚽ Volo Sports is making it easier to get outside, meet people, and build a crew that actually shows up consistently. Their leagues cover everything from volleyball and soccer to cornhole and pickleball, with built-in social events so you're not just sweating together and awkwardly dispersing after. No tryouts, no pressure, just regular hangouts with people who also needed an excuse to leave the house. Leagues run year-round across Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, and beyond. Love it? Become a Volo member for unlimited drop-ins, unlimited pickup games, and $10 to $50 off leagues. 

🚃 This may be the longest MBTA shutdown … ever. The MBTA announced it’s closing the Green Line’s Symphony station for nearly … three YEARS. Yup, you read that right. It’ll be OOO starting June 6, and won’t reopen until the summer of 2029 while crews make some much-needed accessibility upgrades to elevators, platforms, and bathrooms. The silver lining? It makes this weekend’s Blue Line shutdown between Airport and Bowdoin look a LOT better. Shuttles will stop at Airport, Maverick, and Haymarket. The Eastie Ferry will also be free. *opens Uber app in defeat*

🥲 Boston renters may be catching a rare break. The number of available apartments has surged to the highest level in years, which = a little more leverage for apartment hunters. Boston’s current availability rate — which measures apartments that are or will soon be vacant — is 45% higher than last year, driven by a mix of factors like fewer international students, broader economic uncertainty, and inflation. For renters, that may mean more options and time to decide while apartment hunting. That said, rent is still rising, up 2.53% year-over-year.

💡 Local artists want to give the Tobin Bridge a literal glow up. Art collective MASARY Studios proposed a new installation that would cover the bridge in animated light, matching the tidal patterns of the water around it. The goal: Raise awareness about climate change’s local impacts, especially in Chelsea, which is uniquely vulnerable. The visuals are very ~vibey~. If all goes well with permitting and fundraising, the bridge could light up by 2027 or 2028.

🏅 These Bostonians are SPEEDY. Every year, the city presents awards to the Bostonians with the fastest times in the Boston Marathon. This year, Eastie’s Michael Schmidt took the men’s prize with a time of 2:22:32 (5:26 min/mile); North End resident Tara Lyons won the women’s in 2:48:41 (6:26 min/mile); Allston’s Danielle Bishop took the non-binary prize in 3:21:28 (7:41 min/mile); and Delmace Mayo from JP took home the men’s wheelchair award in 1:51:11 (there were no women’s wheelchair racers). Moral of the story: You’re slow!

🎨 Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with a cocktail. $25 gets you a drink and the materials to paint your own cantarito — a traditional clay cocktail cup — at Stillwater’s cantario craft night tonight.

🫘 Score a free snack. The Hummus Shop on Beacon Hill is celebrating International Hummus Day on May 9 by dishing out 1,000 pounds of its homemade fresh hummus for FREE.

🌶️ Add some spice to your life. Enter: The Boston Hot Sauce Fest on May 9. Head to the Foundry for spicy food challenges, cooking demos, and all the sweat-inducing bites your heart desires.

🎲 Play bingo in the club. We’re serious! Bingo Loco, a live bingo game slash rave, is coming to Big Night Live on May 9. Expect music, drinks, and EPIC prizes.

💝 Show your mama some love. Calling all procrastinators! First Street Market’s Mother's Day Market on May 9 is the perfect place to pick up a last-minute gift. Think: 20+ vendors, art, flowers, and baked goods!

🧘 Move your body mindfully. The BPL’s Honan-Allston branch is hosting a free, beginner-friendly yoga flow on May 9. Yoga mats will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. 

🏉 Try some free footy. If rugby and football had a baby, it would be Australian Rules Football, a.k.a. “footy”. The Boston Demons host a beginner-friendly open training sesh on Saturdays.

🪻 Stop and smell the lilacs. Head to the Arnold Arboretum on May 10 for its annual Lilac Sunday, where its 400+ lilacs will be in full bloom. Don’t forget a picnic lunch — it’s the only day of the year they’re allowed!

B-Siders, we have a new favorite influencer couple. Meet Chris and Barb, a.k.a. @walkingintosixty. 

The local couple make content about “embracing adventure, challenge, and discovery at any stage of life.” The best way we can describe them is if your best friend’s very New England parents were microinfluencers. If you look up “wholesome” in the dictionary, there’s probably a pic of them.

Their latest adventure? Trying and ranking the best ice cream shops in Camberville, which they call “Ice Cream Week.” Over six days, the pair hit Christina’s, Toscanini’s, Honeycomb Creamery, Gracie’s, Jamie’s, and West Side Creamery, rating each one on flavor, portion, and price. 

No spoilers, but ultimately, there was a clear winner. 

— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario

🍦 Thanks for reading! Chris and Barb, if you’re reading this … will you adopt us?

💜 Special shoutout to today’s sponsor, Volo Sports, for supporting local journalism and giving us the gift of adult recess (and a social life) season after season.

💬 The results are in: The B-Siders have spoken, and 77% of them said it’s simply “Back Bay,” with no “the” in front. One reader said: “Who is saying The Back Bay?! Aliens?!”

💃 Keep up with us @BostonBSide on IG, TikTok, and Twitter. Send comments and suggestions to [email protected] or [email protected].