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Additionally someone in the sub posted that they spoke to some of the band who confirmed a BC return in 2023.
I really want to see them live, but I'd rather get two nights at Roadrunner or Leader Bank Pavilion, with 4-6 hours of music, than 75 minutes at Boston Calling.
I really enjoyed Goose at Boston Calling, but they're another band that does long headlining shows. That's not a big deal if a band follows up a spring festival set with one or two nights in town later that year, but there's no guarantee of that. King Gizzard at Boston Calling may mean no full length show in town until 2024 or 2025.
Glad they're doing boston calling, perfect for them. Getting tickets for leader bank would be a nightmare, could still see them coming back in the fall for a couple nights at roadrunner
Again, all presale tickets may have sold out, but not the entire inventory of tickets for each show was included in presale. I'm checking some Ticketmaster available seating charts for their shows and I haven't found a sell out yet. Some of the shows have moved very respectable numbers, but some haven't. It is worth noting that they're not selling seats behind or to the sides of the stage, which appears to be taking 20%+ of tickets out of play for each show.
MSG numbers are very decent, although not sellouts yet:
My take? Sure, they should definitely be doing NBA/NHL arenas in the top 10 markets, but may be playing to some near empty sections in slightly smaller markets. Of course, that could change if the album does well and, given the timing of the tour dates, a lot of college students may buy tickets later, when their post-spring semester plans become clearer. Right now, I'm sure that a lot of college students don't necessarily know whether they're going back home for the summer, staying in their college town, or doing a summer internship somewhere else entirely. I'd think that any artist with a lot of 18-25 year old fans will move more tickets throughout the first half of the new year, as students' plans become clearer.
So, yes, I may have misjudged their popularity. While I have yet to be shown any proof of a sell out, they're not doing so badly on any of the seating charts I checked that they should have booked smaller venues.
So, I'm willing to give credit where credit is due...
Every one here that you said was a strong seller is completely sold out and did so in almost no time. Any tickets you’re seeing are resale tickets.
Edit: Okay other than a few stray single upper level seats available.
If it was purchased for the purpose of sale in the secondary market, then it's an available seat and not necessarily indicative of the bands popularity in a market. Purchasing tickets for resale is a speculative investment. Individuals and ticket brokers buy up tickets for the purpose of resale. They're not an reliable indication of how many tickets will actually be purchased by fans for the purpose of attending the show because sometimes the secondary market seller doesn't sell out their stock of tickets for a given show.
Then there’s literally no example of a true sell out because Ticketmaster will always hold back tickets for the secondary market. Be it 10% or 20%, you can’t find one example of a Live Nation show not doing that. Metallica (you know, the last Boston Calling headliner) were even caught red handed doing this themselves.
Then there’s literally no example of a true sell out because Ticketmaster will always hold back tickets for the secondary market. Be it 10% or 20%, you can’t find one example of a Live Nation show not doing that. Metallica (you know, the last Boston Calling headliner) were even caught red handed doing this themselves.
Secondary market tickets count once they're sold on the secondary market. That means that someone bought them so they could go to the show.
Purchase by ticket brokers counts in terms of revenue, but not in seats purchased for the intended purpose of attending the show.
Then there’s literally no example of a true sell out because Ticketmaster will always hold back tickets for the secondary market. Be it 10% or 20%, you can’t find one example of a Live Nation show not doing that. Metallica (you know, the last Boston Calling headliner) were even caught red handed doing this themselves.
Secondary market tickets count once they're sold on the secondary market. That means that someone bought them so they could go to the show.
Purchase by ticket brokers counts in terms of revenue, but not in seats purchased for the intended purpose of attending the show.
Dude there will always be tickets on the secondary market no matter what the original intent was. If a show is listed as “sold out” it’s because all the tickets from the original point of sale are purchased. There’s no way to keep track of the tickets that are sold on the secondary market. Plus, for those shows where the only tickets available are resale, those tickets obviously would have been purchased by fans at face value.
At this point you are just saying whatever you can to maintain the view that Paramore aren’t a Boston Calling headliner-level band.
I’ve never seen an arena/stadium show not have secondary tickets leading to the show date which means, no artist has ever truly sold out so no one could ever headline Boston Calling.
Post by lobstercorndog on Nov 12, 2022 21:37:32 GMT -5
This conversation about sell outs... like many others in this thread make me wish i was unalive.
If a ticket is sold. it's sold. Imma buy 1 ticket for every show of tw12s favorite artist and put it on the resale market for such a high price so that i can claim said artist is garbage for being unable to sell out ANY show.
Then there’s literally no example of a true sell out because Ticketmaster will always hold back tickets for the secondary market. Be it 10% or 20%, you can’t find one example of a Live Nation show not doing that. Metallica (you know, the last Boston Calling headliner) were even caught red handed doing this themselves.
Secondary market tickets count once they're sold on the secondary market. That means that someone bought them so they could go to the show.
Purchase by ticket brokers counts in terms of revenue, but not in seats purchased for the intended purpose of attending the show.
By who’s metric? I’ve never once heard someone say a show wasn’t sold out because scalpers bought to immediately resell and people didn’t buy them for their jacked up prices. That happens with every single concert known to man so you’re telling me there is no such thing as a sell out.
Just to recap this thread: You have gone from saying there’s no way Paramore would headline BC to saying that they wouldn’t be a good headliner to saying that nobody can name a Paramore song to saying that they wouldn’t sell their arena tour well to now saying that sold out shows don’t exist. For the love of God, just take the L. Stop this.
Secondary market tickets count once they're sold on the secondary market. That means that someone bought them so they could go to the show.
Purchase by ticket brokers counts in terms of revenue, but not in seats purchased for the intended purpose of attending the show.
Dude there will always be tickets on the secondary market no matter what the original intent was. If a show is listed as “sold out” it’s because all the tickets from the original point of sale are purchased. There’s no way to keep track of the tickets that are sold on the secondary market. Plus, for those shows where the only tickets available are resale, those tickets obviously would have been purchased by fans at face value.
At this point you are just saying whatever you can to maintain the view that Paramore aren’t a Boston Calling headliner-level band.
Obviously, they are big enough now to be a Boston Calling headliner.
But it's easy to track secondary market tickets offered through Ticketmaster resale, because they're literally visible on the TM seating chart and you can see how those tickets are moving to actual fans over time. It's clear that tickets purchased for any show as soon as they go onsale and are immediately offered on the secondary market weren't purchased by fans. They were bought by ticket brokers and individuals looking to make a profit. (Now, when secondary market tickets are later purchased, the people buying them are fans.)
Dude there will always be tickets on the secondary market no matter what the original intent was. If a show is listed as “sold out” it’s because all the tickets from the original point of sale are purchased. There’s no way to keep track of the tickets that are sold on the secondary market. Plus, for those shows where the only tickets available are resale, those tickets obviously would have been purchased by fans at face value.
At this point you are just saying whatever you can to maintain the view that Paramore aren’t a Boston Calling headliner-level band.
Obviously, they are big enough now to be a Boston Calling headliner.
But it's easy to track secondary market tickets offered through Ticketmaster resale, because they're literally visible on the TM seating chart and you can see how those tickets are moving to actual fans over time. It's clear that tickets purchased for any show as soon as they go onsale and are immediately offered on the secondary market weren't purchased by fans. They were bought by ticket brokers and individuals looking to make a profit. (Now, when secondary market tickets are later purchased, the people buying them are fans.)
But lots of fans will put tickets on the secondary market as well, if they decide they can't or don't want to go. There is no way to know how many times a ticket has exchanged hands. Still, that doesn't matter. If they were purchased then they were purchased. Again, if those tickets were face value then they all would have been bought by fans. You can't say a show isn't sold out because all the jacked up resale tickets haven't been bought by fans.
Secondary market tickets count once they're sold on the secondary market. That means that someone bought them so they could go to the show.
Purchase by ticket brokers counts in terms of revenue, but not in seats purchased for the intended purpose of attending the show.
By who’s metric? I’ve never once heard someone say a show wasn’t sold out because scalpers bought to immediately resell and people didn’t buy them for their jacked up prices. That happens with every single concert known to man so you’re telling me there is no such thing as a sell out.
Just to recap this thread: You have gone from saying there’s no way Paramore would headline BC to saying that they wouldn’t be a good headliner to saying that nobody can name a Paramore song to saying that they wouldn’t sell their arena tour well to now saying that sold out shows don’t exist. For the love of God, just take the L. Stop this.
1) I'm not talking about scalpers offer tickets on the street or on other sites, I'm referring to the official Ticketmaster page for the show. This is a very binary thing; either any given seat is available on the seating chart or it's not.
2) They didn't seem likely to headline BC based upon the artists that have been booked since the move to Harvard (regardless of whether or not they performed). Chance The Rapper seemed to be the one artist substantially less popular than the rest, although his career did seem to be on an upward trajectory at the time. Jack White was also not quite at the usual level, but Seven Nation Army is huge and The White Stripes were very popular for their relatively short run. But can anyone here claim with a straight face that Paramore has the drawing power of Metallica, RHCP, Nine Inch Nails, The Killers, or Eminem? Or any songs remotely as well-known or popular as the biggest hits of any of those artists?
Every festival has it's own dynamic, based upon everything from the overall live music scene & festivals in that area, whether it's an urban festival attracting mainly locals or one designed primarily as a travel destination, the number of stages running concurrently, to people's expectations about a particular festival based upon what they've done before. Paramore just doesn't seem as big and most of the artists they've booked since the move to the larger grounds, and (1) because Boston doesn't have a lot of festival action and (2) the "size" of recently booked headliners, they don't seem big enough to be a Boston Calling headliner.
3) Sold out shows do exist, and the seating chart on Ticketmaster or AXS is the source of truth. If a show is sold out, there aren't any tickets available through those sites. If tickets are listed on those sites as being available, the show isn't sold out.
Obviously, they are big enough now to be a Boston Calling headliner.
But it's easy to track secondary market tickets offered through Ticketmaster resale, because they're literally visible on the TM seating chart and you can see how those tickets are moving to actual fans over time. It's clear that tickets purchased for any show as soon as they go onsale and are immediately offered on the secondary market weren't purchased by fans. They were bought by ticket brokers and individuals looking to make a profit. (Now, when secondary market tickets are later purchased, the people buying them are fans.)
But lots of fans will put tickets on the secondary market as well, if they decide they can't or don't want to go. There is no way to know how many times a ticket has exchanged hands. Still, that doesn't matter. If they were purchased then they were purchased. Again, if those tickets were face value then they all would have been bought by fans. You can't say a show isn't sold out because all the jacked up resale tickets haven't been bought by fans.
Sure, some fans put tickets up for sale on the secondary market over time, but nobody who wants to go to a show buys their tickets immediately upon the first sale date and then puts them up for resale on the secondary market that same day.
You do have a good point, though, about jacked up prices way above face value (+ the usual service charges) not being a good indication of demand. Isn't it likely, though, that those listed prices will drop as the show date approaches? If you bought concert tickets for the purpose of turning a profit on the secondary market and, months later, the show is a week or two away and nobody's buying what you're offering, isn't it likely that resellers will drop their prices at that point and try to make a more modest profit or break even?
never seen someone write so many words about a band they don’t care about
Well, I do care about who headlines Boston Calling and I'm frankly astounded that after leaning into very popular and well-known artists for a while now, they booked a band that's a step or two down the ladder, compared to their recent top line bookings.
The fact that Boston Calling headliners generally play unopposed, except for 15-30 minutes or so over overlap with the Blue stage closer on a few occasions, ups the stakes here. When you've got an alternative to the day's headliner, all that really matters is that there's something you'll enjoy at the end of the day, regardless of which stage it's on. I can see how some of the people giving me shiz here who may be used to going to ACL or Bonnaroo might not really understand why people (not just me) go on at length on message boards and social media about whom they do and don't want to see headlining this particular festival. It's because nobody wants to leave a festival early for the day just because they don't dig the headliner and because when you're lukewarm on a headliner, you think about who could have been playing in that spot, instead.
Last Edit: Nov 13, 2022 18:18:51 GMT -5 by tw12 - Back to Top
never seen someone write so many words about a band they don’t care about
Well, I do care about who headlines Boston Calling and I'm frankly astounded that after leaning into very popular and well-known artists for a while now, they booked a band that's a step or two down the ladder, compared to their recent top line bookings.
The fact that Boston Calling headliners generally play unopposed, except for 15-30 minutes or so over overlap with the Blue stage closer on a few occasions, ups the stakes here. When you've got an alternative to the day's headliner, all that really matters is that there's something you'll enjoy at the end of the day, regardless of which stage it's on. I can see how some of the people giving me shiz here who may be used to going to ACL or Bonnaroo might not really understand why people (not just me) go on at length on message boards and social media about whom they do and don't want to see headlining this particular festival. It's because nobody wants to leave a festival early for the day just because they don't dig the headliner and because when you're lukewarm on a headliner, you think about who could have been playing in that spot, instead.
Literally the only thing you had to say from the beginning is “I don’t really know or like Paramore so I’d prefer they don’t play” but instead you have been way too insistent that they are irrelevant and not worthy to headline when it has been pretty clear that they are very relevant and very capable of headlining. If it’s just your personal preference then no one would argue with you but you came in here saying they were undeserving of it, which is not true.
By who’s metric? I’ve never once heard someone say a show wasn’t sold out because scalpers bought to immediately resell and people didn’t buy them for their jacked up prices. That happens with every single concert known to man so you’re telling me there is no such thing as a sell out.
Just to recap this thread: You have gone from saying there’s no way Paramore would headline BC to saying that they wouldn’t be a good headliner to saying that nobody can name a Paramore song to saying that they wouldn’t sell their arena tour well to now saying that sold out shows don’t exist. For the love of God, just take the L. Stop this.
3) Sold out shows do exist, and the seating chart on Ticketmaster or AXS is the source of truth. If a show is sold out, there aren't any tickets available through those sites. If tickets are listed on those sites as being available, the show isn't sold out.
Ticketmaster can operate just like Stubhub now. Fans can put up tickets for resale there at any point from now until the concert, just as they can on Stubhub, SeatGeek, or any other secondary market. Those tickets are counted as sold when they are originally sold. That is fact.
Also Paramore absolutely has songs that are more popular than any Nine Inch Nails song. Several of them, in fact.
3) Sold out shows do exist, and the seating chart on Ticketmaster or AXS is the source of truth. If a show is sold out, there aren't any tickets available through those sites. If tickets are listed on those sites as being available, the show isn't sold out.
I've read some incredibly stupid shit on this board but this is up there with the stupidest.
Your ass must be sore from all the talking you're doing out of it.
Well, I do care about who headlines Boston Calling and I'm frankly astounded that after leaning into very popular and well-known artists for a while now, they booked a band that's a step or two down the ladder, compared to their recent top line bookings.
The fact that Boston Calling headliners generally play unopposed, except for 15-30 minutes or so over overlap with the Blue stage closer on a few occasions, ups the stakes here. When you've got an alternative to the day's headliner, all that really matters is that there's something you'll enjoy at the end of the day, regardless of which stage it's on. I can see how some of the people giving me shiz here who may be used to going to ACL or Bonnaroo might not really understand why people (not just me) go on at length on message boards and social media about whom they do and don't want to see headlining this particular festival. It's because nobody wants to leave a festival early for the day just because they don't dig the headliner and because when you're lukewarm on a headliner, you think about who could have been playing in that spot, instead.
Literally the only thing you had to say from the beginning is “I don’t really know or like Paramore so I’d prefer they don’t play” but instead you have been way too insistent that they are irrelevant and not worthy to headline when it has been pretty clear that they are very relevant and very capable of headlining. If it’s just your personal preference then no one would argue with you but you came in here saying they were undeserving of it, which is not true.
They're not at the level of recent Boston Calling headliners. I'm not saying that they may not be suitable headliners for any number of festivals, but after the names that Boston Calling has put on their top line in the last five years, it's a definite step down, even if they are doing good business right now with arena ticket sales.
Have you ever been to Boston Calling, or even familiarized yourself with the previous lineup posters? I've noticed a lot of people who've been giving me the most shit here lately are out-of-towners I've never seen on any of the previous Boston Calling threads, which suggests that you might not be coming at it from the same perspective as locals who've been to a few editions. When I comment on other festivals here, I try to keep in mind that if I don't know what this particular festival is like to attend, that any comments beyond things like radius clauses, what posters say about who's on the road, or really liking a lineup are probably uninformed. For example, I can look at a schedule grid for any festival, but if I haven't attended, I don't know the walking time between stages and can't know what's likely doable on any given day for the people who are attending. If it's an in-city festival, I'm probably not conversant with which bands have played there recently, which ones haven't, and how that impacts the question of what's a strong lineup for that particular festival in that particular market.
Last Edit: Nov 14, 2022 10:57:58 GMT -5 by tw12 - Back to Top
3) Sold out shows do exist, and the seating chart on Ticketmaster or AXS is the source of truth. If a show is sold out, there aren't any tickets available through those sites. If tickets are listed on those sites as being available, the show isn't sold out.
Ticketmaster can operate just like Stubhub now. Fans can put up tickets for resale there at any point from now until the concert, just as they can on Stubhub, SeatGeek, or any other secondary market. Those tickets are counted as sold when they are originally sold. That is fact.
Also Paramore absolutely has songs that are more popular than any Nine Inch Nails song. Several of them, in fact.
I doubt that any Paramore song is recognizable to as many people as Closer or Hurt.
Dude there will always be tickets on the secondary market no matter what the original intent was. If a show is listed as “sold out” it’s because all the tickets from the original point of sale are purchased. There’s no way to keep track of the tickets that are sold on the secondary market. Plus, for those shows where the only tickets available are resale, those tickets obviously would have been purchased by fans at face value.
At this point you are just saying whatever you can to maintain the view that Paramore aren’t a Boston Calling headliner-level band.
Obviously, they are big enough now to be a Boston Calling headliner.
But it's easy to track secondary market tickets offered through Ticketmaster resale, because they're literally visible on the TM seating chart and you can see how those tickets are moving to actual fans over time. It's clear that tickets purchased for any show as soon as they go onsale and are immediately offered on the secondary market weren't purchased by fans. They were bought by ticket brokers and individuals looking to make a profit. (Now, when secondary market tickets are later purchased, the people buying them are fans.)
Think he just admitted to taking the L
Also on the NIN/Paramore comparison, look at their Spotify plays. Paramore has like 4x the amount.
Anecdotally the handful of people who go to BC every year that I know are all very excited for Paramore. Alot of them didn't even really know NIN, despite NIN being one of my favorite bands.
Also looks like Lizzo is out as a headliner. Hartford show in May and will be on West Coast BC weekend.
Obviously, they are big enough now to be a Boston Calling headliner.
But it's easy to track secondary market tickets offered through Ticketmaster resale, because they're literally visible on the TM seating chart and you can see how those tickets are moving to actual fans over time. It's clear that tickets purchased for any show as soon as they go onsale and are immediately offered on the secondary market weren't purchased by fans. They were bought by ticket brokers and individuals looking to make a profit. (Now, when secondary market tickets are later purchased, the people buying them are fans.)
Think he just admitted to taking the L
Also on the NIN/Paramore comparison, look at their Spotify plays. Paramore has like 4x the amount.
Anecdotally the handful of people who go to BC every year that I know are all very excited for Paramore. Alot of them didn't even really know NIN, despite NIN being one of my favorite bands.
Also looks like Lizzo is out as a headliner. Hartford show in May and will be on West Coast BC weekend.
Spotify's just one way of listening to music. Vinyl & CD sales, radio airplay, Pandora, Apple Music, iTunes, and YouTube are all part of the mix, too.
Plus, artists who appeal to younger music fans may wind up getting more streams per song because that young stan who likes one or two artists might play a handful of their songs 50 to 100 times each, as opposed to someone older who's got broader tastes and moves around from artist to artist, album to album. But each person, regardless of listening habits, only needs one wristband to walk through the gate.
Paramore may be more popular than I thought, but they're just not on the same level as recent Boston Calling top line bookings like The Killers, Eminem, Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nine Inch Nails, and Foo Fighters (not that everyone booked actually played).
Because I’m bored, Paramore shows that are (99.9%+) sold out so far (excluding Platinum):
Charlotte - Spectrum Center Atlanta - State Farm Arena NY - Both nights @ MSG DC - Capital One Arena Cleveland - Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse Toronto - Scotiabank Arena Orlando - Amway Center Hollywood, FL - Hard Rock Live Fort Worth - Dickies Arena Austin - Moody Center Houston - Toyota Center Denver - Ball Arena San Diego - Viejas Arena Inglewood - Both nights @ the Forum San Francisco - Chase Center Seattle - Climate Pledge Arena Portland - Veterans Memorial Coliseum
New Orleans, Salt Lake City, Tulsa, and St. Louis are selling much worse than others. Only a couple other dates not listed here.
Also on the NIN/Paramore comparison, look at their Spotify plays. Paramore has like 4x the amount.
Anecdotally the handful of people who go to BC every year that I know are all very excited for Paramore. Alot of them didn't even really know NIN, despite NIN being one of my favorite bands.
Also looks like Lizzo is out as a headliner. Hartford show in May and will be on West Coast BC weekend.
Spotify's just one way of listening to music. Vinyl & CD sales, radio airplay, Pandora, Apple Music, iTunes, and YouTube are all part of the mix, too.
Plus, artists who appeal to younger music fans may wind up getting more streams per song because that young stan who likes one or two artists might play a handful of their songs 50 to 100 times each, as opposed to someone older who's got broader tastes and moves around from artist to artist, album to album. But each person, regardless of listening habits, only needs one wristband to walk through the gate.
Paramore may be more popular than I thought, but they're just not on the same level as recent Boston Calling top line bookings like The Killers, Eminem, Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nine Inch Nails, and Foo Fighters (not that everyone booked actually played).
Obviously Spotify is not the only way to listen to music, but it’s one of the most popular ways, and Paramore has 7 songs that have more plays than the most popular Nine Inch Nails song. And I can guarantee that popularity carries across to other platforms. The difference on Youtube plays is actually even greater. Decode by Paramore has over 15x the plays (423M) than Closer by NIN (28M). I can tell you right now there aren’t hundreds of millions of people sitting around listening to Nine Inch Nails on vinyl or the radio.
Literally the only thing you had to say from the beginning is “I don’t really know or like Paramore so I’d prefer they don’t play” but instead you have been way too insistent that they are irrelevant and not worthy to headline when it has been pretty clear that they are very relevant and very capable of headlining. If it’s just your personal preference then no one would argue with you but you came in here saying they were undeserving of it, which is not true.
They're not at the level of recent Boston Calling headliners. I'm not saying that they may not be suitable headliners for any number of festivals, but after the names that Boston Calling has put on their top line in the last five years, it's a definite step down, even if they are doing good business right now with arena ticket sales.
Have you ever been to Boston Calling, or even familiarized yourself with the previous lineup posters? I've noticed a lot of people who've been giving me the most shit here lately are out-of-towners I've never seen on any of the previous Boston Calling threads, which suggests that you might not be coming at it from the same perspective as locals who've been to a few editions. When I comment on other festivals here, I try to keep in mind that if I don't know what this particular festival is like to attend, that any comments beyond things like radius clauses, what posters say about who's on the road, or really liking a lineup are probably uninformed. For example, I can look at a schedule grid for any festival, but if I haven't attended, I don't know the walking time between stages and can't know what's likely doable on any given day for the people who are attending. If it's an in-city festival, I'm probably not conversant with which bands have played there recently, which ones haven't, and how that impacts the question of what's a strong lineup for that particular festival in that particular market.
While I haven’t been to Boston Calling, I have been following the festival for years. I’ve been interested in and attended festivals for the past 12 years and have been to a few different ones. My experience with Boston Calling has absolutely zero to do with whether or not Paramore fits as a headliner here because I know what their lineups look like. I don’t have to attend the festival to know what a typical BC lineup looks like. They do fit and they are absolutely on the same level as The Killers, Tame Impala, Jack White, etc. How well they’re selling their tour is a very good indicator of that because they’re actually moving tickets better than The Killers or Jack White did on their recent tours.
They're not at the level of recent Boston Calling headliners. I'm not saying that they may not be suitable headliners for any number of festivals, but after the names that Boston Calling has put on their top line in the last five years, it's a definite step down, even if they are doing good business right now with arena ticket sales.
Have you ever been to Boston Calling, or even familiarized yourself with the previous lineup posters? I've noticed a lot of people who've been giving me the most shit here lately are out-of-towners I've never seen on any of the previous Boston Calling threads, which suggests that you might not be coming at it from the same perspective as locals who've been to a few editions. When I comment on other festivals here, I try to keep in mind that if I don't know what this particular festival is like to attend, that any comments beyond things like radius clauses, what posters say about who's on the road, or really liking a lineup are probably uninformed. For example, I can look at a schedule grid for any festival, but if I haven't attended, I don't know the walking time between stages and can't know what's likely doable on any given day for the people who are attending. If it's an in-city festival, I'm probably not conversant with which bands have played there recently, which ones haven't, and how that impacts the question of what's a strong lineup for that particular festival in that particular market.
While I haven’t been to Boston Calling, I have been following the festival for years. I’ve been interested in and attended festivals for the past 12 years and have been to a few different ones. My experience with Boston Calling has absolutely zero to do with whether or not Paramore fits as a headliner here because I know what their lineups look like. I don’t have to attend the festival to know what a typical BC lineup looks like. They do fit and they are absolutely on the same level as The Killers, Tame Impala, Jack White, etc. How well they’re selling their tour is a very good indicator of that because they’re actually moving tickets better than The Killers or Jack White did on their recent tours.
Here we go again...
The Venn diagram overlap between a strong arena headliner and a strong festival headliner (at an urban festival designed to attract locals) is significant, but not a perfect circle.
A strong arena headliner need only have enough fans in a market to move a lot of tickets to fans who want to see them and will fill an arena.
A strong big city festival headliner needs that, but also needs a large number of "kinda sorta like them" fans who'd likely never pay to see them headline at an arena, but for whom their inclusion on a festival poster adds to the appeal of the festival.
Even if Paramore has as many or even more dedicated fans who'd pay to see them right now at an arena than do The Killers, what they don't have is a single song as well-known by people of all ages as Mr. Brightside, Somebody Told Me, Human, Read My Mind, or When You Were Young.
Paramore might be the better choice for a camping and/or travel-driven festival, where being very hot right now, having been off the road for a while, and having a lot of dedicated fans are all motivators to get people to travel to that sort of festival, but if it's an urban festival where the majority of attendees are people who live within day trip distance of the festival grounds and closer, you want headliners whom a lot of people like casually. "Oh yeah, I know that band. I like a few of their songs." -- when you combine the local diehard fans with a huge number of far more casual fans, you'll sell the most wristbands at a Boston Calling-type of festival.
