Dozens of concertgoers were already waiting outside before gates opened at the Harvard Athletic Complex in Allston to get into Boston Calling on the first day of the 3-day music festival, which kicked off on Friday, May 24.
Friday’s weather was ideal for a music festival, with conditions that were breezy, sunny and warm with highs in the upper 70s to low 80s.
Seventeen artists performed throughout the day on each of the festival’s four stages including several local acts such as Divine Sweater, Kieran Rhodes, The Wolff Sisters, Beach Weather, Justin Clancy, JVK and Kei.
However, all eyes were on Friday’s headliner Ed Sheeran, who took the Green Stage just before his scheduled time of 8:40 p.m. People were sardined on the field in front of the stage to get a close-up view of the Grammy Award-winning artist, while others packed the turf going all the way back to the food village.
Using his signature loop pedal, Sheeran performed a plethora of his hits including “Shivers,” “Thinking Out Loud” and “Don’t,” which he mixed in with Stevie Wonder’s hit “Superstition” for a groovy portion of this 2-hour set.
Meanwhile thousands of cellphone cameras lit up the night sky as Sheeran played his first debut single “The A Team” which came off his first album “+ (Plus)” in 2011. Also before playing his song “I’m A Mess,” the English singer shared a short background on how the song came to be.
“This song I’m going to plat was the last song I finished from that record,” Sheeran said, hinting at his sophomore album “x (Multiply).”
“I wrote this in a shower,” he added before chuckling.
Sheeran also shared another anecdote about a hit song that he did not record, but wrote for another artist. That song was “Love Yourself” which was recorded by Justin Bieber and released off the Canadian singer’s 2015 album “Purpose.”
“This is a song when I was writing ‘Divide’ I was writing a lot of songs about a lot of different things, and I wrote this song and honestly, I played it to people and they went, ‘Meh,’” Sheeran said during a show at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Florida earlier this month, Page Six reported.
Sheeran said he played the song for Bieber, who decided he wanted it for himself.
“I went, ‘Cool, have it,’ and then it got very big,” Sheeran reportedly said.
While “Love Yourself” became a No. 1 hit for Bieber, Sheeran’s songwriting credits allow him to “always play it,” the singer said, according to Page Six.
Other performance highlights included Reneé Rapp’s clarification on how she doesn’t actually hate Boston and Leon Bridges’ suave set featuring his talent background singers.
Day two of Boston Calling will kick off when the festival gates open at 1 p.m. on Saturday, May 25.
Headliners include Jessie Murph, Trey Anastasio and Classic Tab and Tyler Childers. You can see more of MassLive’s coverage of Boston Calling here.
