The Town and The City Festival is Massachusetts’ ultimate music festival.
In a state with the long-running, always-awesome Rock ‘n’ Roll Rumble and megafest Boston Calling, crowning The Town and The City seems like a bold claim. But a look at 2025 line up playing downtown Lowell April 24 – 26 reveals a carefully curated slate of locals that runs from unknown to already-gone-national acts.
First, everyone should enjoy the art they enjoy, so zero shade intended toward the other fests. The Rumble has spent nearly 50 years launching homegrown rock royalty from ‘Til Tuesday to Darkbuster. But it is, obviously, rock centric. As is the wonderfully weird Nice!, a fest, which has been around half a decade and is based in Somerville.
Boston Calling has worked harder at giving a platform to local baby bands and that’s great. But 2024 headliner Ed Sheeran is neither a local nor a legendary get.
Beyond that, the Green River Festival and Levitate Music Festival have become amazing annual events that we are lucky to have.
There’s simply no shortage of big and small, old and new New England festivals. But The Town and The City Festival feels different. It feels intentional in a really special way.
Named for Jack Kerouac’s Lowell-set first novel, this is the T&C’s sixth edition. But could be its first or 60th — the bookings are both fresh and expected (if you pay close attention to the scene). Not crammed into a random field or campus, the fest is set in clubs, cafes, galleries, book stores, and unique spaces through downtown. The line up is as diverse as the locations.
If you want rumbling rock, you have plenty of it — 1999 Rumble winners the Sheila Divine and 2024 champs (and Mill City residents) the Ghouls will both play sets. Same goes for soul of all different flavors with aces Ali McGuirk and Melo Green showing up. And for folk and bluegrass, American and indie rock, see Lady Lamb, Jeffrey Foucault, Twisted Pine, Girl With a Hawk…
Just listing the well-known acts playing is impressive enough. Just listing the genres represented (Ska! Stoner metal! Plus stand up comedy!) would take a couple of paragraphs. But dig in and you get beyond genre. You get the sound of now.
Lowell’s own Kid Renaissance doesn’t belong to a genre as much as a modern vibe, a dreamy blend of ambient electronica and trippy tropicalia and stranger, cooler stuff. Boston’s the Infinite Wet Secret finds new spaces between noise rock, math rock, and jazz. T&C is packed with emerging acts redefining rock and pop and more.
It’s hard to surprise people these days. That’s why there are a million festivals that don’t even try. Sometimes booking Ed Sheeran and filling in the undercard with random bands is enough. What does shock these days is an authentic vision.
The realness of The Town and The City is what makes it standout. The vision of it is plain to see: Book bands that represent classic and modern New England and book them in a classic and modern New England downtown.
For tickets and details, visit thetownandthecityfestival.com
