Boomtown Chapter Three : Revolution of the Imagination

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 I adore Boomtown. It's the one festival I just can't miss and I have just returned from an exhausting but blissful few days in a field in Hampshire.

poster image of the festival with the dates for 2024
 

I never manager to actually get involved in the story no matter how much I have good intentions to do this and this year was no exception.

Despite that I have a wonderful time. I wander the fields, I talk to strangers, I dance, I chill, I walk up and down hills. I climb the steps ( lordy those steps!)

view of the festival site from high up on the stairs up the hill
 

This year it rained on the first full day of the festival, making it a deadly mudslide in many areas leading to some people falling and even breaking bones! I remained intact.

extremely muddy ground

I also decided to do the festival sober this year. I don't  take any drugs anyway, but this year I also didn't have any alcohol either, maybe that helped me stay upright! 

Walking boots were the show of choice in the mud, but that soon dried on Friday allowing me to move into my crocs and continue my relaxed lounging lifestyle.

tie dye style crocs with shoe charms that spell out boomtowm, you can see grand central stage behind

Food was great, lots of choice, starting the first day with paella, and on subsequent days trying pulled pork, chicken noodles, chips, bacon rolls smoothies, and crepes.

a huge german sausage in a bun with onions

takeaway food, paella, olives and a home made lemonade

 We also took Peperami pizza buns - the perfect camping food, no refrigeration needed and no cooking. Also flapjacks, crisps and biscuits. And not forgetting tiny bottles of concentrated squash to make that festival tap water taste good. 

The music, sets, scenery and acts were amazing as always. I favoured the music at the engine house, and at Grand Central, but loved the look of the new Nexus stage in Botanica. The fluttery giant mushrooms were beautiful. 

 

nexus stage atbotanica with large wooden mushroom structures

Of course I popped in to Jager Bloc to listen to Jaguar Skills and make use of the free photo booth.

 

my daughter and I being silly in a strip of three images from a photobooth

 I also spent a happy few early morning hours at Zenith, listening to Kettama and watching a disco dinosaur.

inflatable t rex dancing at a stage with laser lights

inflatable t rex dancing

But there is so much art, music and theatre that photos and even video just cannot do it justice, grab tickets for 2025 and experience the beautiful chaos for yourself. 

cross stich that reads "this is not a whore house, it's a whore home"

art. a weird green goblin missing some limbs, testicles on show beneath his kilt!

poster with linked coloured rings creating a mandala. text reads the future is more than the options they are showing you

me, old white lady with a parasol, standing by a plane wreck

som posed dummies on a building

dystopian entrance to area 404

an enourmous sculture of a head and a hand, like a fallen, broken robot

laser lights over the festival

the inside of a cosy little acoustic venue that serves "pay what you like" tea 24 hours a day. The Magic Teapot

stage act with red smoke

3d poster of a face. fake ivy makes it look as if it has been there a long time

Actors showing off above a stage set


find out more about the festival on their website here

 

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