great music, and awe inspiring stage sets combine for a wicked weekend at BoomTown Fair

BoomTown Fair 2016

Thursday 11th to Sunday 14th August 2016
Matterley Estate, near Winchester, Hampshire, SO21 1HW, England MAP
from £170 for the weekend

Daily capacity: 60,000

The revolution is coming. Chapter 8 of the Boomtown story is set to be a sunny affair and one side will take over to win power of the annual pop up city. Which side will you choose? Every crook and cranny of this land has been turned into a city once again for 4 days. We head for Wild West camping, maybe just a little too close to the Rave Yard for myself but Lawrence is in his element. Who spends time here sitting at their tent anyway?! So much to see, hear and partake in.

We tempt fate and leave the wellies in the car and it pays off! No rain apart from a tiny sprinkling on the Saturday, or that could even have been a water pistol, it was so brief. Unfortunately all this lovely heat leads to one of the worse fires I have seen at a festival, and that’s saying something as we have been to many Leeds festivals. That and the carelessness of a festival goer… Friday afternoon in the Boomtown bubble we saw the sky darken with thick black smoke from over near the Glamping campsite, and heard tales of light aircraft hitting cars, a car crash on the nearby road, and sunlight bouncing off a car window and burning the dry straw floor of the car park.

around the festival site (the car park fire): BoomTown Fair 2016

The latter was closest to the mark, as a discarded cigarette is said to be the cause of the inferno that wrote off approximately 42 cars and damaged another 40. The fire crews managed to get it under control within 2 hours after arriving 14 minutes after it started, but there was to be some upset campers. I know I would be gutted, but the festival worked with these poor souls to ensure they could get home and contact the insurers whilst at the festival to reduce worries. With all the wooden sets that make up this wonderful festival, please be careful with cig butts as a fire that size inside the gates would have been horrifying. Thankfully no one was hurt.

These stages and set designs are a sight to behold, each with their own charm. The Town Hall with its stance and light mapping. The Lion’s Den in a bowl of it’s own like a jungle temple. The Wandering Word with it’s flying books and woodland walls. The Banghai Palace with its light shows and fire. The beached ship that is the Jolly Dodger complete with green moss and fireworks. The sand oasis that is the Psy Forest. The Old Mill with it’s corrugated metal and working mill. These are but a few of the main stages, but with over 100 stages hidden everywhere you are not short on things to do.

around the festival site: BoomTown Fair 2016

Each of the smaller stages have their own unique charm too. Grandma’s Living Room offers disco, funk and custard creams. The Sky Bar allows those adhering to the Dress Code onto the Mayfair balcony. Crazy Calamities house the Lamite Family of hillbillies and beats. The Lawless Hall of Justice will help you win your case and provide the techno and Wonky Electro. The Job Centre has basslines and benefits. My favourite is Rimski’s backyard, adhorned with (s)crap like squirrels riding bicycles on turntables and lobster phones. Thomas Crook will try and flog you a cruise on a pirate ship, Madam Wrong’s Chinese Take Away offers mis-fortunes and wenchs with trickery. Join in the games (8-bit) at the Micro-Rave.

The theatrics are also wandering around the festival, with Twisted Theatre’s Boomtown Bankers and their bags of money, Streetfighter characters throwing themselves about in Chinatown (“Hadouken!”), gun slingers are shot out of high windows in Wild West’s daily gunfights and ladies of the night look at you through their box rooms in DSTRKT 5 next to gyrating robots.

There’s plenty of food choice here with festival staples of Ghandhi’s Flip Flop, pie, katsu curry and woodfired pizzas to feast on. Prices are high but expected, although there is a pudding stall selling desserts for £3. Drinks are usual festival prices, £4.50 a pint on average. The alcohol limit on the strict gates lead to a steady flow of folks all weekend, helping the festival to fund next year. The toilets are all the compostable ones, in plentiful supply and even with loo roll. The ecobond (take a full bag of rubbish back to regain your deposit) results in a cleaner field overall, the wind on the Monday morning blowing a few tents away but people are picking up litter to top up their bags. I wouldn’t envy those who had to pick up the feathers from the pillow fight on the top of the hill, they went everywhere!

around the festival site: BoomTown Fair 2016

Thursday saw the music start at 4pm with Kaotik Kartel in the Hidden Woods. We are queued outside on the road at this point and don’t get to see anyone until N.O.H.A. (Noise Of Human Art) on the Jolly Dodger at 11pm. They completely storm the boat with a mix of drum and bass and world music. The music stops at midnight so it’s a nice chilled out arrival day. Friday I woke after very little sleep on a very hard bump. In an effort to get energized we make the long trip up to Whistlers Green at the very edge of the site to see Mr. Motivator on the now outdoor Windmill stage. We are so glad we did. The jazziest and happiest man in aerobics and PMA really does get the crowd going. There’s a lot of sweaty but smiling faces afterwards.

Bad Manners open the Town Hall at midday to a full crowd. Shooglenifty are going down a (dust) storm at the Old Mines, while the Ozric Tentacles provide the chilled respite in the shade of the Psy Forest. DJ Vibes is quite the opposite in the different wooded area of the Rave Yard, playing old school rave in the old church. The Wessex Pistols are playing cowpunkabilly covers on the porch in the Wild West. The Gin Bowlers, improvise old time party music on the Mayfair Bandstand while Captain Cactus & The Screaming Harlots entertain in the Rusty Spurs with swampy folk blues Americana. The Slackers are by no means slacking at the Town Hall. A quick roll back down the hill leads us to the Wandering Wood to take a rest and listen to the comedy folk of another Captain; Captain Hotknives, as he sings of anti gravity cats and skanking his nanna.

The Town Hall is where its at tonight and we head back to dance to Asian Dub Foundation and one time festival staples the Fun Lovin' Criminals. Back in the Rusty Spurs The Showhawk Duo are wowing a crowd with the speed at which they play 90’s dance classics on acoustic guitars. We finally make it Downtown for the first time today, as the thought of that hill too many times in one day on little sleep was too much. The Banghai Palace is where we settle to see the trio of Plump DJs, Stanton Warriors, and Hybrid Theory provide breakbeat and more to the night revellers.

The timetabling at Boomtown works differently to many other festivals, the folks you imagine are headliners can play at any time of day. 10pm may be headlining the Town Hall, but midnight is headlining the Banghai Palace. 3pm is a prime time for the Bandstands.

After a better night's kip Saturday opens for us at the Mayfair Bandstand with the Renegade Brass BandDutty Moonshine Big Bandare on at the Town Hall while Skinny Lister play the Old Mines. Ferocious Dog have sadly broken down on route and cannot make it, we are gutted as this was another thing to finally cross off our list.

The Turbans missed their set before Skinny Lister on the Old Mines, so this is good news for them as they get to play their Eastern styles. Madam X has just opened up the new Sector 6 for the second day. Wandering back through the Wild West there is soggy sponge and pie throwing at the unlucky few in the stocks, accompanied by Key Lime Pi playing the dusty streets.

You don’t simply walk past when the Gypsies of Bohemia are playing, its impossible. Downtown in the Devils Kicks The Filaments have a packed out tent. The Roughneck Riot are on the new bandstand outside the Devils Kicks. Slipmatt is shaking the shipping containers that surround Robotika while dancing humanoids dance below. Nahko and Medicine for the People are creating yet more dust from dancing people at the Old Mines as we walk by hastily trying to get to the Town Hall for the Levellers, who have a huge crowd. Radical Dance Faction (RDF) are playing dub punk in the Devils Kicks Dancehall as the special guests in the program. Block Dodger are in the Scrapyard while DJ Format & MC Abdominal are with the cool kids in Poco Loco. Inside The Dickies are without a lead singer as he has been taken very ill. Its obviously not the same without Leonard Graves Phillips high vocals, but the stand-ins range from the merch guy to fans to Leftover Crack’s Scott Sturgeon. Big up to them for carrying on, it was a great gig. Man About A Dog, are playing awesome hip hop and funk samples including the theme of Bottom in the Wandering Word. We finish the night with Disney Rascal in the Chinatown Courtyard, playing some Disney covers in a ska/punk vibe.

Sunday is a lazier day, more for roaming then searching out bands. The only ones we wanted to really see were Little Roy at the Lions Den, as he plays originals and reggae versions of Nirvana tracks. There’s time for a quick game of zorb football (resulting in bruised knees and lost pocket change). Seth Lakeman is great on the sunny Sunday afternoon at the Old Mines. The Mad Caddies are always a great live band to witness, skanking at the Town Hall. We follow the crowd down to the Lions Den to catch Damian Marley but don’t stay for the whole set as it is rammed, instead heading to watch a bit of DJ Craze at Poco Loco. The music ends at midnight on this final night, so we slowly head home again just looking at the awe inspiring stage sets and contemplating the entire great weekend. It’s another sunny day on the Monday, our only complaint being the crazy non queuing system to leave the sites very few gates which took hours. Bar that though this was a great weekend, bring on Chapter 9!