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Boomtown 2014 - new plans

I wholeheartedly agree with all the comments about boomtown; it was great (despite the weather), the music and other entertainment was fantastic, and the place was just beautiful. Also having less ketamine zombies was nice, and maybe it was a more pleasant crowd to previous years.

But... better (and more) loos were definitely needed, we had to practically launch a dirty protest in trenchtown camping before they finally brought us some more portaloos on the Saturday. And paying £35 for the posh loos/showers (zooloos) wristband didn't seem to help, by all accounts they seemed to keep running out of soap, hand towels, hot water, and then were closed on Monday, with varying excuses depending on who you asked.

And when the water point lost pressure on Saturday and had a 30 deep queue, the traders nearby responded by raising their prices for bottled water... Wrong!!

The bar queues were annoying, especially at the bad apple... I missed the whole of the Skatalites waiting for drinks :-( If they want people to not smuggle in their own booze then they need to make it easier (and a bit cheaper) to buy it there.

So, festival = great
All the money grabbing bastards trying to make more money off of festivals = shit.
 
I had no issues with those posh showers and loos at all. I was working and never queued for either which made it fantastic. Its a real drag to have to queue for ages when your festival time is limited.
 
Sunray said:
I had no issues with those posh showers and loos at all. I was working and never queued for either which made it fantastic. Its a real drag to have to queue for ages when your festival time is limited.
Click to expand...
i think the point is that you shouldn't have to pay extra for a toilet that isn't literally overflowing with shit.
 
dirk-robot-tramp-boomtown-01.jpg


Anyone catch Dirk, the incredible robot?

http://www.urban75.org/blog/dirk-the-amazing-robot-tramp-in-action-at-boomtown-fair-england/
 
tbtommyb said:
i think the point is that you shouldn't have to pay extra for a toilet that isn't literally overflowing with shit.
Click to expand...

Complain to Boomtown. I have my own loo so rarely ever have to brave a festival portaloo but it was nice to have the option of somewhere decent when on shift.
 
Had a fantastic time. Loos were a vast improvement, but still work to be down, especially downtown I felt.

The riggers who sorted out the MainStage after boomtown deserve respect, that stage was fucked when I saw it in the morning.

Even I preferred less wonky, and I'm someone who has been known to partake too....... Lots of the usual "Security were dicks", and whinging about "dickheads" on Facebook..... but someone will literally look for anything to moan about because they lost their friends one night or something....

One of the best I've been to I feel.
 
I heard lots of tales from crew and security of tent thefts and a lots of tent slashing, which seems a particularly vindictive thing to do.

Sensible quote in that article:
Given the fact they’re paid to confiscate drugs, I ask, would the ultimate goal for security be that nothing illicit gets into the festival at all? Alan is surprisingly pragmatic: “Speaking from a company point of view, that would be the ideal,” he says. “Speaking from a personal point of view – and with a lot of experience dealing with people who are drunk versus people who are on other substances – I’d rather deal with someone who’s on MDMA or cannabis any day.”
Click to expand...
 
GES are pretty much as good as it gets in terms of festival security. There may be the odd bonehead but they're largely sound
 
last time i went, two boomtowns ago now, they had simlar problems with water. you'd have thought they;d have sorted that out by now.

that vice piece made me think that it might be fun being festival security. i might apply to GES.
 
I had a fucking brillaint time, as expected! the stages were breathtaking, especially that pirate ship and the mine- spent a long time just standing in front of them in awe at how they built them to that quality and managed to plonk it in a random field in Hampshire.

Uptown was better for me than downtown this year, and i prefer dance music so that kind of surprised me. It seems Boomtown were on their best behaviour with the sound licensing, unfortunately the late night venues lost a lot of oomph after around 11pm and was it just me or did everything close a lot earlier at night? it was hard to find anything going and for once i was asleep before daylight a couple of the nights. Arcadia particularly suffered on Friday night, very bad sound levels which made it look a shadow of its former self. to be fair though, it sounded and looked great on Sunday night. i recall the bassline circus being nice and loud for Eats Everything, so in general it was a bit hit and miss.

The crowd were as wicked as ever, met lots of fun and friendly people throughout the weekend. with the massive K drought people did seem a bit more 'with it', the UK Allstars on the Lions Den on Saturday night was absolutely fucking jumping! no issues with security either, they seemed very low key and didnt bother me at all, fair play to them.

The rain didnt bother me, a bit slippery but no need for wellies and it was never cold or too wet. When it was raining on Friday night i sought refuge in the excellent Charlie Browns Squeakeasy which was a great little addition. really enjoyed the Psy trance stage and the woods in general.

Another outstanding festival, hopefully next year they can crank it up a bit and the weather is a touch better. people were complaining about the usual- lack of and dirty portaloos (agreed, more needed please!), poorly signposted and lack of water taps (agreed), and high bar prices (normal complaint which is fair, but i smuggled tons of booze in without being searched at all, as did almost all my mates, so its luck of the draw really) but as a festival for me it is still the best going and head and shoulders above the rest.
 
el-ahrairah said:
oh yeah, were nofx any good?
Click to expand...

Caught the first half hour before heading off to see Tipper at Arcadia - waaaaaaay too quiet to begin with but the sound desk eventually got the message from the crowd all shouting "TURN IT UP!" - stage banter was as good as I expected it to be and I got to hear 'Leave It Alone' before I headed of so I was a happy chappy :D
 
fantastic weekend, missed the meet as I was at soom t and by the end of her set was in tripping my nuts off flapping around the forest. as usual with me n my crew there was plenty of drama- none of it the festivals fault, just what happens when you manage to get 30-40 people camped together.

personally I'd no complaints about the sound, although black sun empire was a tad low but still sweet. producer finishing in the bodyshop that night too with the back speakers off though dunno if that was a technical hitch. was well glad that the sound on arcadia was still sweet for audio's headlining/closing set on the sunday.

no hassle from security or whoever, in fact we couldnt find a steward or security when we needed one after finding a guy unconscious in the early hours of some morning not wearing very much and obviously vv cold and wet as well as unresponsive. when we did track one down it took him 45 mins to get paramedics to the guy. tbf, I think he just needed a bed for the night but if it'd been a medical matter those 45mins could have meant a lot... though the paramedics handled the whole thing v professionally and them and security were actually great craic with us after the incident (despite the fact we were all obviously trollied!)

what happened all the seating around arcadia? really missed that. and please, don't make it any bigger- some seriously rammed venues, which is cool, but I like my dancing space. Or if its getting bigger then theres a few downtown venues need to get bigger too.
 
oh, and hey poptyping ! cheers for saying hi, was tripping my nuts off, as were my mates I was with who were totally baffled by the whole exchange!

INGLEWOOD!
 
did you mean ponder here?
"I retreated to my tiny tent to pamper life’s complexities as the rain thundered down."
 
Had an interesting chat today which backed up my feelings about an imbalance between the creative side and basic site infrastructure. If you have any feedback about campsites/staff/amenities, use the feedback links in the emails they've sent out :)
 
Excellent pix and amazing looking site layout. Lots of really great acts too, by the look of it! :)

Have to say though that those mentions by Tort of severe crowds, overwhelmed/crap bars and shortage of toilets would offput me coming to Boomtown :hmm: -- at least for the time being.

Can tell its a great festival with a lot of stuff happening that would be right up my street (liked it a lot when we went in 2009), but perhaps (outsiders impression) its now become a bit of a victim of its own success in some ways? :confused:
 
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