[press invite]
My sixth Boomtown Fair festival and wow what a ride! Chapter 11 was the biggest, greenest, loudest, and also the bravest edition yet. In the lead up to the festival, Boomtown focused all their energy and marketing on their sustainability efforts, particularly over their Green Week, to try and turn the tide on festival waste. They announced that single use plastics would be banned site-wide, and implemented a number of projects to encourage attendees to take their tent home and leave no trace.
Then, in the few days before the festival started, weather predictions turned nasty; strong winds were due to batter the country. Two others festivals cancelled on the day they were due to open (Boardmasters and Houghton) and everyone held their breath to see whether Boomtown would follow suit. Incredibly, the festival went ahead with the site team pulling crazy hours to ensure everyone was safe. Once punters were inside the winds did pick up (particularly Friday night into Saturday morning), but extra campsite patrols were put in place to help secure tents down with extra pegs, and offered shelter to those whose tents had not held up. When the Relic stage had to be closed for Friday evening to ensure everyone’s safety, the DJs due to play there were swiftly moved to the Lion’s Den stage which continued to 3am so no sets were cut.
It was a whirlwind of a weekend with three of my best pals. We were all camped in Boomtown Springs and had some brilliant adventures! Let’s get into my breakdown of the weekend:
Music – an eclectic line up
One of my major highlights from the weekend was most definitely Prophets of Rage on the Sunday night. I knew this was Tom Morello’s ‘new’ band, and that they would likely play some Rage Against the Machine tracks, but what I didn’t realise (because I didn’t do my research, oops!) is that the band is also comprised of two other RATM members, along with DJ Lord & Chuck D from Public Enemy, and B-Real from Cypress Hill. This meant their set list was packed with all the head-banging tunes you want to sing/scream along to, including Know Your Enemy, Insane in the Brain, Jump Around, Bulls On Parade, Testify and of course Killing in the Name Of. I was in HEAVEN at the Town Centre stage for their Sunday night headline slot! We even managed to catch some of Lauryn Hill afterwards, as though they were due to start at the same time, Lauryn was late on stage so we got to enjoy the best of both worlds!
We had a tough decision to make on Saturday night, The Streets on the Lion’s Den stage or Chase & Status on the Relic stage. We originally planned to try and do both; starting with the Streets because they were on slightly earlier. However we were having such a good time and we realised that even if we ran down the hill, we’d only catch 30 mins of Chase & Status, so we stayed. It was also because most of us had seen C&S before. Mike Skinner played an absolute blinder of a set to the amphitheatre of the Lion’s Den, making full use of the stage, even at one point climbing into the waterfall on the right-hand side (epic!), and coming down into the crowd to take a can of Guinness off an eager fan. The atmosphere was intense, and when the intro beats to “Fit But You Know It” came on, the crowd lost their collective minds. I’ve got a little video to give you an idea:
Daytime highlights mostly revolved around the Town Centre stage and included the wonderful Tankus the Henge (Where’s My Tent? favourites!) on Sunday, rightfully drawing a huge crowd, followed by Beans on Toast who’d been moved to the Town Centre having outgrown his traditional 3pm Sunday slot on the Old Mines. He invited the Boomtown Kids Choir onto stage with him for a wholesome heartwarming singalong, it was brilliant! We also had a hilarious jump around to Goldie Lookin’ Chain – I dragged my friends along just expecting a laugh and some nostalgia, but actually those guys are very talented at their particular brand of Welsh rap!
I dove in and out of lots of the smaller venues at Boomtown, and my favourite discovery on doing so were Town of Cats at the Flying Moustache on the Thursday night. They join many of my favourite artists in being a guitar band with a brass section; playing a mix of ska, funk, hip-hop and latino. A foot stomping, fist in the air, sing along, jump up and down band! We squeezed in right to the front and the energy in the crowd was amazing. Hoping to see them again soon.
Our late nights were the Friday and Saturday, both of which we ended up spending at the new Nucleus stage in Area 404 (previously Sector 6). The Friday was a techno-lovers dream with Four Tet headlining. We swayed and bounced to his fluid tracks, with our eyes transfixed on the stage. It really felt enormous, and was so immersive; 3D projections highlighting areas you might not have noticed and bringing the structure to life. It somehow was even more impressive than Sector 6 was, which I didn’t think was possible!
Boomtown Springs – immersive campsite
Boomtown Springs is the high end boutique camping option at the festival. It’s billed as an immersive camping experience, and you become part of the storyline as the Boomtown bourgeoisie. It’s located behind Paradise Heights camping and is relatively flat (compared to most of the site!).
I arrived Wednesday night with my backpack and pulling my trolley. Upon entering Springs I was greeted by some lovely people (actors) dressed in best tennis whites who offered me a glass of prosecco – thank you very much! So I paused at the bubbly reception for a glass, and afterwards, one of the team offered to carry my bag for me – cheers!
There are lots of accommodation options within Springs including bell tents, airstreams and yurts (all gorgeous but as with any boutique accommodation, they can be pricey!), but we had brought our own tents for Pitch Your Own. I pitched up behind the bell tents on a slight hill, and the nice thing is that there’s loads of space in Springs so you won’t wake up to someone having pitched 20cm away from you in your doorway!
The toilets were absolutely lovely! Proper flushing ones with nice mirrors and sinks, and lots of them so I never had to queue. The showers however from Friday morning onwards always had a quite large queue (took me around 40 minutes each time in the morning). I think this was mainly down to not all the showers working all the time. When I went, a few times either the water was cold on one side of the aisle of showers, or the lights weren’t working so they were pitch black… The showers that were in Springs in 2018 I think were much better and more reliable. I’m sure this is something they’ll sort out for 2020! But I will say, when I did get to shower, the water was hot, the pressure was great, and the shower cubicles themselves were lush with a sink and mirror, shelves to put toiletries, and also they had a fold down seat so you could have a sit down shower! (which was a hangover dream!).
There is also a Pamper Parlour which looked brilliant… I did go in to use the hairdryer one time but didn’t make full use of the other facilities personally. They offered massages, festival make up and amazing hair dos. My lovely tent neighbour Jo got her hair done on Saturday and it did look lovely. It was quite pricey at £30 for her hair in space buns with accessories, but it was one of the best festival hair dos I’ve seen! If you do want to book a massage or hair/make up I’d suggest popping in on the Wednesday or Thursday to book it as they booked up super fast this year.
The Springs bar was one of the best features of the place. They did really REALLY good cocktails for £8.50 – I lost count of the number of espresso martinis and strawberry basil martinis I drank! The bar was open til 4am every night which was great especially on the Thursday when everywhere else closed at midnight. The DJs were also awesome – classic party tunes all the time. My only negative here is that in 2018 I heard the Wednesday night opening party at Springs was legendary – this year I think because more of the site was open on Wednesday, the party was spread over the main site. A huge opening party was definitely one of the things that attracted me to Springs, but I arrived quite late and still had fun anyway.
Bearded Kitten were in charge of entertainment in Springs, and they always bring the fun. I loved when they used to run the Collosillyum at Secret Garden Party, so I knew we were in for a treat. There were always BK actors around; mingling in the bar and dancing on the dancefloor. During the day time they had competitions in the swimming pool (yes, Boomtown Springs has an actual swimming pool!) including sock wrestling and volleyball, and they even had mermaids come out for a splash!
Every morning at 11am we were treated to Drag Aerobics which was just perfect for when we were getting ready. You could go and join in their aerobics class to such classics as Shania’s “Man, I Feel Like A Woman” and Ru Paul’s “Glamazon”. The thing is that of course once Friday kicks in, you most definitely want to be out and about on the main site rather than still at your campsite in the afternoon. I think Springs should really make the most of Wednesday and Thursday with their best entertainment before the main festival acts kick off. Host pool parties, maybe Drag Olympics, Catwalk Fashion Shows, space hopper races… just some ideas! 😛 I didn’t actually get in the pool this year as my friends didn’t arrive til Thursday evening and I think the weather put us off but it’s one of my regrets!
Immersive Theatre – the Storyline / the maze
Boomtown is different from any other festival I’ve been to because it incorporates an incredibly detailed ‘maze’ of immersive theatre that attendees are invited to get involved with. Hundreds of actors are hired for the festival. By interacting with them you’ll become your own character and be given tasks/missions to complete to follow the story arc. It’s hugely complex but so much fun, and you can dip in and out between bands if you like. New for 2019 was the accompanying app: a companion to the maze which gives players access to clues and logs their progress.
Chapter 11 of the Boomtown Story was called “A Radical City” and centered around the revolutionary Advanced Machine Intelligence or “A.M.I” being present and in control of all the city’s digital systems. Before the festival we were drip fed a few snippets of information via the app, called Access A.M.I, and some new Instagram & Twitter accounts were created for characters and places, that followed and interacted with each other. These included Mr Bliss, OneCor, Villa Avarice, Gordon Romance and the Last Tree. A lot of Boomtown attendees take the storyline very seriously and go to the festival primarily for this, so being able to start your detective work early and get some clues before you even get on site was a great way to build up the excitement.
My friends and I were determined to do some more storyline stuff this year, however we still had so many must-see bands on our list! So we squeezed in as much interactive fun as we could, but I must admit we didn’t exactly follow the arc, just jumped on the chance to speak to characters when we had time. One of our favourite places to visit is the Job Centre, and this year unlike 2018, we went in groups of 4 rather than one huge group. My team of four were given forms to fill in (questions such as: Which Pokemon do you most relate to: Pikachu, Squirtle, Rattata, or Ryan Reynolds? 😂), then we were taken to our interview.
We were given a job! Hooray! Our job was to find the wasteman outside the University, and persuade him that recycling is good and he should care about the environment. So off we went. It took us a little while to find him, and even more time to work up the courage to actually ask “‘Scuse me, are you the wasteman?”, but we got there in the end. We clearly know our stuff about sustainability and also have the gift of the gab, because we managed to persuade him quite quickly! On our triumphant return to the job centre, we were given an exit interview, and a breadwinner’s pack consisting of a medal, a lighter, a pen and a lollypop. Job done!
Our second foray into the storyline started in Downtown, where we paid a visit to OneCor. Except we found a second entrance that had a bouncer. We bribed him with Boomtown Dollars, and he still made us wait 10 minutes, but finally let us in. We were smuggled behind a set of doors, down some steps, then blindfolded for the final 10m or so, before being bundled into a dark room. We had found the hackers. They asked us for blueprints, which we didn’t have. So they gave us instructions on where to find them and steal them. They were part of the resistance looking to overthrow AMI and restore the city. It was awesome in there…
We never completed our mission, but we had so much fun in the process. As with every festival I go to, I just wish we had more time! There’s always so much fun stuff going on! And Boomtown is easily the best festival for coming home with incredible stories. The line up is always fantastic, but what you’ll remember forever are the crazy moments you’ll experience while exploring. I wanted to get some opinions of Boomtown citizens who dived further into the maze than me, so I asked on the Boomtown Storyline Facebook group if anyone could share their experience:
Boomtown for me is the ultimate adult play ground. This was my second year. On our first year we found parts of the maze but only due to randomly walking through doors and never really understanding what was going on. This year we approached the maze with laser focus and copious amounts of cider; we were not disappointed. We glided like swans and got into a high stake card game in Serpentines before being shamed by the Job Father himself at the Job Centre. The narrative is a little confusing whilst sober (each part of the festival is the same space but set in a different time) but thats where the cider helps. If you’re looking to get away from the drudgery of life there is no better place. All praise the great tree!
Adam – maze diver
&&&
Ever noticed the large number of characters wondering round the Boomtown districts? If you interact with them in the right way, each one of these actors is a potential rabbit hole into it the Storyline. You could soon be infiltrating corrupt corporations. Swapping secrets with Pirates. Running missions for the Postal Posse. You can do this at any level. From a Random mission from a crazy drunk cowboy, to joining the “Boomtown Storyline” page on facebook and hacking websites and gathering clues before the festival even starts. It’s basically Westworld, Pirate Town, Near (here) dystopia and Far (that far?) Dystopia, but instead of androids a la Westworld, it’s populated by funny, inspired actors staying in character. You can, and kind of have to, put in the hours (noon to early evening each day) to get right through the Story. Is it worth missing that handful of your must see bands? Probably not. Is it worth rinsing it all day, and working on clues in districts where your must sees- happen to be playing? Abso-f*cking-lutely.
Richard – veteran citizen
Food – some incredible veggie options
The food offering this year I feel was just as diverse as last year, with even more vegan/veggie options which was great! There were so many stalls and you were never far away from food when you needed it. The hardest part was making your choice! Here’s some highlights of what I ate over the weekend:
Uber Tuber – Jacket potato with cheese, coleslaw and salad – £8 – Jacket potatoes are great festival food; simple, filling, comforting, customisable… and these from Uber Tuber were perfection. The potatoes themselves were cooked perfectly, but what was great was the range of toppings, all vegetarian but also lots of vegan options (Luisa was over the moon they had vegan cheese and vegan mayo) and the yummy salads they had to put on the side too.
Uncle Billys Po’Boys (The Village Deli) – Southern fried chicken sub – £7.50 – I was craving a chicken burger of some kind when I came across Uncle Billy’s Po’Boys. I’m always up for trying new food stands so gave it a go. It was quite tasty, but the bread let it down (quite dry) and it felt like not great value – not much chicken for your money. What did impress me though were the optional toppings – homemade salsa and raita, jalapeños and pickles.
Say Cheese – vegan Mac N Cheese Balls – £6 – This stall was one I’d spotted at Glastonbury this year and made a point to show it to Luisa as she’s a cheese loving vegan so is always looking for great vegan cheese places! Say Cheese serve all vegan noms based around cheese – including fantastic burgers, vegan halloumi fries (!!!) and these gorgeous Mac n Cheese Balls that were huge, creamy and came with a great dipping sauce. Can’t wait to see them in a field again asap!
Diamond Dogs – Hoi Sin Duck Dog – £9 – serving the most delightful topped hotdogs, Diamond Dogs are a reoccurring favourite. I’ve had their Mexican dog before with guac, nachos and salsa, but this time went for the very boujee option of a Hoi Sin Duck dog – topped with crispy duck, spring onion, hoi sin sauce and cucumber. It was slightly odd but also really really good. The buns here are nice too which makes all the difference in a hotdog I think!
A Radical City – Opening & Closing Ceremonies, Boomtown’s green efforts, and “the Message”
Boomtown introduced the Respect campaign in time for 2018’s festival, and though it was widely celebrated, it didn’t feel enforced. For 2019’s A Radical City, everything had changed. The sustainability message was impossible to ignore, the Respect campaign had tripled in amplification, and the VIBE in general had changed for the better.
It all started with the Opening Ceremony on the Friday at midday. Held at the Lions Den, as always the place was packed. The ceremony started with collective chant to mother nature, which was actually beautiful, and continued the message about the environment and our radical city.
We were then introduced to Clare Dubois, CEO and founder of TreeSisters, who spoke about their partnership with Boomtown and the tropical forest they are growing on our behalf (Boomtown had pledged to plant a tree for every attendee, but we were also encouraged to leave our change in the collection pots at the bars). We were then treated to an incredible carnival performance featuring children from Winnall Primary School amongst seasoned performers. Straight after the ceremony were Gentleman’s Dub Club, another favourite of mine, and the whole Lions Den bowl went off!
During the festival I really noticed a difference around site. Attendees were better at putting their rubbish and recycling in bins, so therefore the ground was cleaner. There were roaming can collectors too and a Green Team patrolling the campsite giving out bin bags. I was really impressed at how much the Boomtown Fair team had managed to turn things around in just one year. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t 100% perfect, but it felt like there were much fewer d*ckheads hell-bent on being filthy for the sake of it. Almost every smoker I saw was using a portable ashtray, which were given out for free at the gates and at the tobacco stalls by BUTTrFLY.
For the closing ceremony – “Assimilation”, Luisa and I went to Relic (as we’d done Sector 6 / now Nucleus the year before). All the Boomtown citizens had been unknowingly giving our data to A.M.I by using the Access A.M.I app. Featuring a remix of the Brazilian tribal composition in the opening ceremony, it doubled in speed as our data was being loaded into A.M.I on the screens. Fireworks and lasers filled the sky in an awesome display. Once the loading bar was filled there was one final explosion and the following words were displayed on all the screens as silence fell on the site:
ACT NOW, LEAVE NO TRACE
Another MINDBLOWING Boomtown Fair!
This place really is the most impressive and unique independent festival in the UK, it just keeps getting better and better.
Tickets for 2020’s festival go on sale on the 6th November!
Get in quick for cheaper Tier 1 tickets and prepare for Chapter 12 – New Beginnings!
I’m going to end with a batch of photos of my friends and I having fun! Thank you Boomtown for another incredible year! Can’t wait to be back!
Photos all taken by me or provided by Boomtown Press Office
Absolutely loved this Jessi!! Definitely want to see what Boomtown Springs is about next year !! And your write up of the maze sounds awesome !!