On September 4th, 5th, and 6th, around 45,000 people from all age groups gathered in City Hall Plaza for The Boston Calling Music Festival. Boston Calling began in May 2013, and has become an annual show in May and September.

I was one of the unfortunate 22,000 festival goers who had to evacuate on Saturday. I bought tickets for my friend’s birthday, who was excited to see his favorite rapper, Childish Gambino. Single-Day general admission tickets were $75, weekend passes were $135, and 3-day passes were $175. Although we were aware of the storm warnings, the weather seemed sunny, humid, and the tickets said “rain or shine”, so we assumed the best.

The first act we saw was The Bleachers, an American indie pop band who began in New York City. My favorite part of their act was the end, where the crowd sang along to their hit song “I Wanna Get Better”.

After The Bleachers we left to walk around Boston and Faneuil Hall. As we left, the wind picked in the storm began around 5. We decided to walk back to festival, where we were evacuated and told to find shelter.

While we were waiting for the re-open, our phones buzzed with a tornado warning for Boston. The streets were packed, and were being controlled by Boston police. They announced another storm was coming in an hour, and everyone needed to find shelter and be respectful of law enforcement.

To our relief, they broadcasted that Lorde and Childish Gambino would be perfoming, but acts Girl Talk and Volcano Choir were cancelled. This resulted in many upset fans, who argued that the tickets said “rain or shine” so the festival should have given a refund or rescheduled. Boston Calling responded to the fans on twitter saying: @Boston_Calling: Artists are always subject to change, and we are a rain or shine event. The show must, and did, go on. No refunds will be issued.

Lorde, a New Zealand singer-songwriter, began her performance around 9 p.m. on the Red Stage, with a 50 minute performance. Although we watched from the other stage, Lorde was still entertaining with her short and snappy staccato movements and unique voice. She sang songs from her album Pure Heroine, and even did an onstage costume change. Lorde was very interactive with the audience, and thanked the fans for sticking through the storm. ”

Childish Gambino immediately followed, on the Blue Stage, and we were lucky enough to be close to the stage, around fourth row. Gambino is really a jack-of-all-trades; an American actor, writer, comedian, rapper, producer, and can play multiple instruments, such as drums and guitar. His performance was a refreshing distraction from the earlier storm, and the audience was interested by his smooth dancing and movements all over the stage. Not only did he sing his single “3005”, but he also sang songs from his first album, Camp, such as his song “Heartbeat”. Due to an 11 pm noise curfew, Gambino ended the performance with his powerful and vigorous song “Bonfire”, followed by his fans chanting “Donald Glover” to end the night.