Boomtown 2013 8th-11th August

[tbtommyb]

not all of it, all the people in green (ie Arcadia which is what we were talking about earlier) weren't.

oh, i didn't realise. though to be fair the Arcadia one I was talking about was in an Oxfam vest. Volunteering is fun anyway, you feel more part of it. And get back stage

 

[William of Walworth]

I absolutely love reading about festivals I don't get to! Blimey ...

ETA : Ace pictures wiskey ... and editor ...

Looking forward to Tort's soon ...

 

[JTG]

Yeah, the ones at Arcadia and Magic Carpet were Boomtown's own volunteers. Guess an Oxfam one at Arcadia may have been passing through or whatever

Can be a bit luck of the draw - very much depends on how experienced that steward is and the quality of info provided by the festival (for example, last year the maps provided by the festy weren't even grid referenced, which makes directions hard to do!). Oxfam's aint always top notch (lord knows I know that) but if I was looking for a decent response to a serious situation, my pref would be for Oxfam to help save my life.

 

[JTG]

I doubt you'd see that up north, tbf.

true story

 

[Boycey]

Fwiw (and before I get to a pooter to post properly) the arcardia stewards were there to prevent people fucking with the lamp post thingsvand nowt else

 

[JTG]

Fwiw (and before I get to a pooter to post properly) the arcardia stewards were there to prevent people fucking with the lamp post thingsvand nowt else

OK - in which case I'd question the overall numbers of safety personnel working in that field. If the Arcadia stewards couldn't move from their positions (as one of them told me) and there seemed to be about two mobile security staff in the area, what the fuck happens when something goes wrong (as happened for the poor woman I described earlier)?

 

[Boycey]

OK - in which case I'd question the overall numbers of safety personnel working in that field. If the Arcadia stewards couldn't move from their positions (as one of them told me) and there seemed to be about two mobile security staff in the area, what the fuck happens when something goes wrong (as happened for the poor woman I described earlier)?

I would level that criticism at the festival in general

 

[JTG]

Absolutely. It really concerns me tbh

 

[sim667]

I didn't even realise there were stewards in Arcadia

 

[wiskey]

Fwiw (and before I get to a pooter to post properly) the arcardia stewards were there to prevent people fucking with the lamp post thingsvand nowt else

And Oxfam were manning some of the gates around the edge but not the actual crowd.

which does appear to leave a big gap

 

[editor]

Yep. Definitely not enough stewards on site.

 

[Boycey]

right, somewhat recovered, meant to be working, still not quite with it... what a festival, amazing production on the many set pieces. the "splitting of the towns" IMO worked brilliantly, there was always space yet it never felt empty. i can see how this would have been an irritation if you didn't want to be walking huge distances. the crowds always seemed up for it in the downtown dance areas, lots of places the first few hours of dance music features people mooching around waiting for the drugs to kick in or for there to be enough people not to be self conscious- last weekend they just fucking went for it from start to finish i have not danced that much surrounded by seas of grinning faces for a looong time. the quality of the yellow triangle someone shoved down my gob and the tunes of billy bunter and slipmatt might have helped

as has been mentioned, security/stewarding was lacking, as were toilets and water. there are enough people involved in the organisation of boomtown to know what is needed for a safe and secure site, someone must have known corners were cut. on the upside the lack of security meant it was pretty easy to get the fuck on it in the open if you were reasonably subtle, just don't be the person being physically hassled/attacked cos there's not enough man power to deal it... not an acceptable situation for people paying a not inconsiderable entry fee. oh, and sort the fucking sound in the town centre- the line arrays in the Lion's Den should have made it abundantly clear that there is more to sound than FK1 and that the 4 stacks pointing at the middle approach is piss fucking poor.

for all it lacked i'd do it all over again this weekend if i could

highlights:

DJ Format rocking Poco Loco on Friday

DJ Die's set on Arcadia going from funk and disco to D&B to dubstep to jungle, back again and back to D&B and round and round and just showing what a DJ can do if they don't stick to a single genre... fucking awesome. the Arcadia lot obviously agreed cos they got the fireballs out while the sun was up

seeing the Arcadia spectacular for the millionth time was made actually spectacular by dancing inside the structure itself with a couple of urbz... fucking awesome night. after Arcadia finished and we wandered into Poco Loco and finding Freefall Collective was the cherry on the cake

 

[RaverDrew]

the quality of the yellow triangle someone shoved down my gob and the tunes of billy bunter and slipmatt might have helped

They were like Dairylea... they helped put cheesy grins on people's faces

Personally I didn't have any problems with the amount of security or stewards, I thought they got it just right. Although the stewards really didn't have any idea where to find venues etc when you asked them. I thought the water and toilets situation was FAR better than last year too. You were rarely ever out of sight of them, and seemed to be in a lot better state than previously.

I didn't think they could top last year... but somehow they did

A real up-for-it fun crowd, so refreshing to have a festival with such a variety of good underground music (with out the bill being polluted with shite like Elton John or Coldplay etc like other festivals) I even got a bit into the psy-trance at one point...

Just soo much effort went in to absolutely EVERYTHING, the production was just out of this world, it really did feel like a crazy little town for 4 days, so many weird and wonderful venues and people to take your breath away and make you scream with laughter.

Too many highlights to mention, although obviously Arcadia Spectacular smacked it once again, and the Lions Den stage was simply immense when Serial Killaz played to such a MASSIVE crowd (although dissapointingly the sound wasn't very good for their set). Marcus Visionary absolutely destroyed Circo Baile on the Sunday, Autochthonous1 and I danced til we dropped, and then skanked away to Citizen Fish afterwards. Over the whole weekend there was more BASS than we knew what to do with !!!

There was so much more I wanted to get round to see and do, and so many peeps I didn't manage to stumble into at some point. So I think we're just going to have to do it all over again next year ???

 

[jakethesnake]

The only downside i had was the feeling that i missed more than i saw because there was so much to see/do and only so many hours in the day... fucking brilliant time! Devils Kicks was great for us punky types. More small bands playing proper outdoor stages (rather than tents like last year) was good too - got to see a lot of smaller name bands with a decent sized audience... last year a lot of them played to almost empty tents. I thought the water/bog situation was ok. The festival seemed safer to me this year than the last two, a bit less edgy, more mellow - but maybe i'm just getting used to it.

 

[editor]

It's my favourite festival by miles. And miles.
It's fucking BRILLIANT.

That is all.

 

[Crispy]

That is all.

Nah, I reckon you've got more

 

[stuff_it]

Yep. Definitely not enough stewards on site.

That's because of the £200 deposit. Otherwise I can think of a whole long list of people who ended up bunking in that would have done it and done it well.

 

[jakethesnake]

There was a guy there doing proper old-fashioned cut throat shaves - he'll be at beautiful days - a ringing endorsement from me - well worth the money... i arrived at Boomtown with a four week old ill-advised beard... having that expertly taken off while on mdma was great! and i felt & looked a lot better all weekend.

 

[pesh]

i saw him, and had a weeks worth of fuzz that needed to go, but it was decided i was a bit too shakey to go anywhere near sharp things at the time.

 

[jakethesnake]

i saw him, and had a weeks worth of fuzz that needed to go, but it was decided i was a bit too shakey to go anywhere near sharp things at the time.

did you go on the roller disco? i've still got the bruises!

 

[pesh]

no, but i'm still covered in bruises from our church... sort of the opposite to a roller disco, you just stick the wheels on the dancefloor and then try not to fall over as that goes round in circles.

 

[idumea]

Think that was my best ever festival experience.

Highlights = dancing away all of Friday and Saturday night under Arcadia with some urbs (Boycey and Paolo and a few others if I recall correctly)...jaw droppingly lovely crowd, sound, vibes.

Whole weekend was total bliss. I'm so sad it's all over.

 

[wiskey]

did you go on the roller disco? i've still got the bruises!

I was MOST disappointed to discover those big shiny gold balls weren't actually for swinging at the rollerskaters as dervish told me and were just decoration

 

[wiskey]

... however those wheat grass haircuts were fantastic fun

 

[Callie]

Im kind of gutted I didnt give the rollerdisco a go - they even had wheely zimmerframes for those that cant stand on 8 wheels like me

Did they offer generalised hair washing anywhere? other than with the lovely ladies in the carwash thingy? I would lurve to just have my hair washed clean hair is good

Boycey must have missed you at Slipmatt and Bunter - I was dancing away for the whole set. A tiny bit cheesy classics BUT it was lovely dancing in the sun with a bunch of smiley, singing people. That might have been my best bit?

Gutted I missed Marcus Visionary - missed him off of my itinerary but wanted to go that and the ASBO disco jungle special.

BRING ON NEXT YEAR!!

 

[editor]

I missed just about everyone. It was that kind of festival

 

[ruffneck23]

 

[ruffneck23]

I discovered ' Electro swing ' and very good it was too...

 

[wiskey]

Just came on to post this ... excellent roundup

 

[editor]

I discovered ' Electro swing ' and very good it was too...

It's an opinion divider alright.