Boomtown 2019

[jimbarkanoodle]

Was fucking wicked! First day back at work today and im close to tears.

It was finally loud, after all these years. As in, 2am at the big stages pounding bass you could feel. How they managed it or what they changed i dont know but it definitely worked.

Saw so much good shit, mostly day time dub and reggae, then techno at night time which was another welcome addition on Nucleus (formerly Sector 6). The Streets were surprisingly good.

Loads of bad reports on Facebook though of dickhead security robbing the younger crowd, random searches and tent raids etc, which is a shame.

Pint of Red Stripe was excessive at £5.50 a pop. Lucky the safe Welsh security guy at the gate didn't mind me bringing in 50 cans of 6% Polish lager!

 

[The_Reverend_M]

I had a great time but not sure I'll be going back again. Think the crowd/site is just too big now - and set to increase next year! Some proper dodgy youths roaming the place being dicks too. A real shame as it was my fav festie for most of this decade.

In happier news Prophets of Rage rocked my socks off! Haven't seen "RATM" be that energised live since the early noughties!

 

[Crispy]

the crowd/site is just too big now - and set to increase next year

Traditional festival business model innit.
Cover last year's overspend with this year's expansion. Repeat until event explodes.

 

[The_Reverend_M]

Traditional festival business model innit.
Cover last year's overspend with this year's expansion. Repeat until event explodes.

They don't all do it but yeah fairly standard. 60,000ish this year, going up to 80,000 next year! Bestival killed itself this way, Boomtown next...

 

[jimbarkanoodle]

Some proper dodgy youths roaming the place being dicks too.

All the young bucket hat lot i met were actually quite sweet, me and my GF are hardly 'old' but they seemed really happy and intrigued to be raving alongside 30 somethings, or so i thought. Saying that, i didnt venture downtown much, where it is always traditionally a bit more lairy.

The most worrying thing that has been circulating on social media is the stories of shocking brutality and illegal actions of security. There are endless stories floating around of security outright robbing people by doing unprovoked stop and searches and tent raids. Concentrating on the young and naive, apparently those who resisted were dealt with violently and threatened with eviction. It must have been a massive downer for those these cunts picked on.

Didnt see anything myself other than professional and polite security uptown, it sounds like "Gainsborough Security" downtown were the ones to blame.

 

[sim667]

It was finally loud, after all these years. As in, 2am at the big stages pounding bass you could feel. How they managed it or what they changed i dont know but it definitely worked.

I saw Lak's facebook post saying it was shitloads more speakers (i.e. more coverage) to give it the feels of being loud and more penetration through the crowd.

 

[sim667]

They don't all do it but yeah fairly standard. 60,000ish this year, going up to 80,000 next year! Bestival killed itself this way, Boomtown next...

I've also seen posts from an organiser basically saying they have to to make it profitable. Its currently not profitable.

 

[William of Walworth]

A few (very belated ) positives and not-positives from me about Boomtown 2019.
Random order in both lists ...

Positives
1. Having not been since 2009, when Boomtown was far smaller and on a different site, I was overwhelmed by the site design of all the areas -- so much work and creativity and artwork and Kraftwerk went in to all the site-building!
2. Like at Glastonbury, I didn't meet a single annoying fellow-festivalgoer all weekend. Saw very few spannered ketheads too -- people mainly had the decency to get trashed on alcohol and other things, from what I could see.
3. Altern8 on Thursday in the woods -- TRULY amazing sound, lively crowd, generous crowd (one or two offering spliff ). Great party
4. Loved all the ska bands (broadly defined! ) in the Bunker!
5. Never expected there to be a Hippy Crafts area or anything like such a thing -- but creativity-wise, Whistlers Green was well more impressive to wander around than even the Green Crafts field at Pilton!
6. Marcia Griffiths, Nevile Staple, Goldie Looking Chain, Boothill AllStars ....could name many many (x 10) more acts that grabbed me, and well
7. Unexpectedly (if briefly) meeting wiskey and gang!

Not-so-positives
1. Ridiculous expense of drink -- and those idiots in The Bad Apple ran out of Old Rosie before midday Friday! If you're going to charge £6= or £6:50 a pint, fucking make damned sure you've ordered enough boxes to keep going all weekend long! Twats ...
2. Sleeping in a tent for the first time in over three years!! -- I was just under 57 at Boomtown, and lacking the usual van, in festivaldeb's absence , ruined me ...
3. Appalling gales Friday night into Saturday -- mate's tent and my tent didn't blow away, but we were well lucky about that! (tbf rain amounts were well under what had been forecast, thank fuckly!)
4. Lacking virtually any weed after Thursday night (see 3. in positives above ) ..
<until late on Sunday tbf -- from a generous random <--- sneaked-in positive! >
5. After the totally exhausting arrival with all our big and heavy bags, tents, etc., it was a major PITA to be subjected to insane levels of Security on actual entrance..... plus they found nothing, AND didn't search a place I could have brought weed in .... but "sensibly" didn't ... not like I don't know the concealment tricks after all these years, but I'd been warned not to take risks ...
6. Not sure how really negative this is, but there was so much going on, that there were too many act-clashes and I missed stuff I wanted to see because of stuff I wanted to see a bit more!
7. Won't be coming back unless (possibly!?) they sort the choice of beer/cider out and have much better quality/range -- I can live with the prices just about, but for cider and real-ale lovers like us, what you had to pay for shite, was grump-inducing ...

Can probably think of many more things to go into both of the above lists, but that'll do for now!

 

[jimbarkanoodle]

With you on Altern8 on Thursday night, was a cracking party! Great way to kick off the festivities.

This must be my 6th or 7th Boomtown, but every year the stages and creativity blows my little socks off clean off . Its absolutely jaw dropping how much effort they put into this now very big festival. Not one single area is just a bland big top, tent, or a stage, the hundreds (?) of stages they now have are all intricately designed and look amazing. My GF who was a first timer was almost in tears at the joy of that initial wander around uptown. Bar Block 9 and Shangri-la at Glastonbury, it makes every other U.K festival look rather pathetic. It almost makes me worry about how they manage to afford to pull it off each year. They really dont cut corners to save money in any way.

I must have got lucky with the searches. What gate did you go through? On South Gate i only got a friendly chat, my bag patted a bit, and sent on through the gauntlet (sniffer dog area). I made a dash for it while the dog was distracted with someone else and was home dry . I get that gates will vary wildly in terms of searches and the person searching you, but i was pretty relieved. If i had to offer some advice, i would say go through the gates by the fancy expensive campsites where people have hired teepees etc, maybe they go a bit easier here considering some people have hired a tent for a fucking grand for the weekend.

 

[ruffneck23]

 

[wiskey]

Boomtown staff's 'traumatic' weekend reveals the darkest side of the gig economy | The Canary

An interesting read - I've always thought that they looked after their core staff quite well and the agencies I've seen/worked with have run tight ships (my cause/Oxfam/welfare etc) .... But boomtown must've sanctioned the 'being outside the fence and getting sent in' arrangement.

 

[editor]

Boomtown staff's 'traumatic' weekend reveals the darkest side of the gig economy | The Canary

An interesting read - I've always thought that they looked after their core staff quite well and the agencies I've seen/worked with have run tight ships (my cause/Oxfam/welfare etc) .... But boomtown must've sanctioned the 'being outside the fence and getting sent in' arrangement.

That makes for a bloody awful read. Boomtown need to switch contractors and think long and hard about how their their staff - outsourced or not - are treated.

 

[nyxx]

If it’s still not profitable with that kind of foul employment tactics what the fuck are they doing?

What’s the money going on?

& how can anyone with a conscience buy into it...
this did actually shock me as it’s new depths they’re plumbing here, but knowing people who work at festivals it’s just the logical next step. Festival workers are often treated like shite already.

 

[jimbarkanoodle]

When i volunteered once directly with Boomtown they tried to keep my deposit, as apparently i hadnt signed out of a shift one night, when i definitely had. What they hadnt noticed was me going AWOL during my shifts to enjoy the music, but that wasnt the point . I wrote a comprehensive email to them and they did return it after all.

I have worked on bars at festivals before, and never been treated this badly. To not even be allowed into the festival is appalling.

I remember the bar staff being pretty glum at Boomtown, almost as glum as i was being charged £5.50 for a pint a of Red Stripe. Whoever Boomtown have got running their bars clearly needs looking at.