Boomtown 2019: Chapter 11

[Sasperella]

8 hours ago, manateemike said:

Relic opened at 5pm. Winds dropped now so doubt any more problems. I think it was only Relic that was closed Friday  

The perimeter fence at the top of the hill behind Relic took a battering last night. It looked like 20-30 panels had come down. 

We wondered if they'd taken some of them down for health and safety reasons....man it with security instead? Presumably they didn't want those flying down on the site

Edited August 11, 2019 by Sasperella

[manateemike]

2 hours ago, Sasperella said:

We wondered if they'd taken some of them down for health and safety reasons....man it with security instead? Presumably they didn't want those flying down on the site

Those were my thoughts to start with., but there was a group of panels in the middle still standing. 

We went off site at midday and they appeared to be trying to put them back up. When we returned at 9pm they we’re still working up there with police and dog units in attendance. 

Maybe on reflection they weren’t putting it up that morning, instead they were using the jcb to hold what was left up. 

[Traher666]

There was a video floating round yesterday of a panel falling off one of the stages (not sure if it was relic) and hitting someone on the head.

 

I'll see if i can find it.

[Traher666]

It's the second video on here. Apols, couldn't seem to share the link for the video.

https://www.facebook.com/SpottedFestivals/

[Sasperella]

Well, that was pretty bloody amazing, wasn't it, folks? Sunday in particular felt about as perfect as a festival day can be. Perfect weather, wall-to-wall banging sets (particularly BCUC and that crazy good My Nu Lueng finale!) and even some really amazing food choices thrown in for good measure. And the best bit, I'm not even feeling that much like shit today! Win.  

Lost my phone at some point when it bounced out of my pocket during an enthusiastic Prophets mosh. Some friendly souls nearby got their torches out to help me look for it, but it was nowhere to be seen. Minutes later, Prophets smashed out "Jump Around", and I accepted it's fate,  At the end we stayed behind to find it and we found a phone which wasn't mine, and another guy holding up a set of car keys and a second phone (also not mine) whilst looking for his own lost phone, as well as someone who had lost a shoe. Amazingly, all phones were eventually reunited with owners (including mine, without a scratch on it!!) leading to a few group hugs with randomers. Big Boomtown love all round ?

I hope you guys all had a good one!

Edited August 12, 2019 by Sasperella

[payneruk]

Is this Four Tet next to me in 1st class on the train home or am I just really tired?

He's listening to "New LP 2019" and has Ableton on his laptop. 

[mashedonmud]

10 minutes ago, payneruk said:

Is this Four Tet next to me in 1st class on the train home or am I just really tired?

He's listening to "New LP 2019" and has Ableton on his laptop. 

Theres Laws about stalking. ?

Edited August 12, 2019 by mashedonmud

[manateemike]

Well had dream journey out.

I found two phones over the festival, handed into info and then a wallet I found near lions den late Sunday night on way to cv field that we delivered to the guys house on way home. 

Hopefully some good karma points stockpiled for the future. 

Edited August 12, 2019 by manateemike

[mr flow]

Well that was pretty special. Arrived on Friday lunchtime with my two kids in tow, so spent the afternoon trying to fight the wind and rain whilst making my way to Kidztown. Kids left site at about 4pm so managed to catch the Keith Flint tribute on Nucleus. Rest of the night involved djing in the Fallout disco, which wasn’t great due to sound issues, and then from 01:30-04:00 in the Hidden woods which was incredible.

Saturday started with a bit to General Levy, then mooched around site for a while, then caught Alborosie, Groove Armada and The Streets on the Lions Den. Then went and caught a bit of Chase and Status and on to Nucleus for Eats Everything and Carl Cox.

Sunday I had my 9 week old baby back with me and some friends who hadn’t been to Boomtown, so spent the day doing the maze and catching a few acts. We left yesterday at about 6pm.

All in all, I think it was an excellent festival, in the worst weather I’ve experienced at a festival, and I’ve done Glastonbury in 1998 and 2007. Props to the organisers for keeping everything open as much as they could. Looking forward to next year already.

[manateemike]

May I ask what happened to Lauryn Hill ?

We got there about 9.30 with people on the way to the stage saying she hadn’t turned up. Stayed till 9.45 listening to a female dj on stage. Was that her ?

Just as we got back to family cv I then thought I heard a guitar strumming. Did the band start then ? Must of been about 10pm by then. 

[jump]

17 minutes ago, manateemike said:

May I ask what happened to Lauryn Hill ?

We got there about 9.30 with people on the way to the stage saying she hadn’t turned up. Stayed till 9.45 listening to a female dj on stage. Was that her ?

Just as we got back to family cv I then thought I heard a guitar strumming. Did the band start then ? Must of been about 10pm by then. 

Yeah, she's known for being late. I didn't see her start but I watched her for about 40 mins, she finished 11.15ish which is an 1 hour & 15 mins later than she was meant to.

Edited August 12, 2019 by jump

[Sasperella]

2 hours ago, jump said:

Yeah, she's known for being late. I didn't see her start but I watched her for about 40 mins, she finished 11.15ish which is an 1 hour & 15 mins later than she was meant to.

...was she good?

[jump]

1 minute ago, Sasperella said:

...was she good?

She was ok, she seemed to struggle keeping to the rhythm of the songs. Tbh I'd wished I saw King Prawn instead.

[Sasperella]

Just now, jump said:

She was ok, she seemed to struggle keeping to the rhythm of the songs. Tbh I'd wished I saw King Prawn instead.

We were waiting for Prophets and met a nice girl in the queue for the bar who was in a hurry to get to Lauryn Hill and mega excited about seeing her. We told her that it would be ok that the queue was a bit long, as Lauryn Hill is always late, but didn't have the heart to tell her that she also isn't that good....

Prophets on the other hand were totally amazing ?

[jump]

58 minutes ago, Sasperella said:

We were waiting for Prophets and met a nice girl in the queue for the bar who was in a hurry to get to Lauryn Hill and mega excited about seeing her. We told her that it would be ok that the queue was a bit long, as Lauryn Hill is always late, but didn't have the heart to tell her that she also isn't that good....

Prophets on the other hand were totally amazing ?

Yeah Prophets was always first choice for me too. They weren't quite as good as when I saw them at Brixton but they fucking smashed it. In the back of our heads we always knew Lauryn was gonna be late so we could catch some of her later.

My highlight of the weekend was seeing Moscow Death Brigade, I went to the Town Centre to see Atari Teenage Riot and instead MDB were setting up and they blew us away with how much fun they were. They had a good pit to mosh in, we sang along and they were earnest. I did had to fight the urge to smack some prick who was 5ish feet away from me as he decided to throw cans at them, I fucking hate twats like them.

[FuzzyDunlop]

What a mad, but brilliant weekend.

Prophets, Salt n Pepa, Groove Armada, Carl Cox, A pair of DJs in the tribe of frog were top (jagerhertz).

San Salvador, they blew me away. Honestly, I'd never quite heard anything quite like them. Such a shame thry played to about 50 people. The Forge is in a poor spot. I felt sorry for the acts there.

Edited August 12, 2019 by FuzzyDunlop

[rock the clock]

absolutely stunning weekend. prophets of rage, Sama, Brockie ft Mc det, ben ufo + joy o, Shanti Celeste all highlights

didn't really know what to expect from it, but was surprised at the amount of stuff I sacked off just to wander and get involved in the madness. Though I still feel like I didn't see enough, defo calls for another trip.

happy raving folks 

[Sasperella]

1 hour ago, FuzzyDunlop said:

San Salvador, they blew me away. Honestly, I'd never quite heard anything quite like them. Such a shame thry played to about 50 people. The Forge is in a poor spot. I felt sorry for the acts there.

Yeh, I thought that for BCUC aswell, not an ideal location for people to discover as they're walking past....which sucks for bands like them who aren't well known. They still smashed it though and the crowd were going nuts, so I hope they didn't mind too much ?

Was it you who recommended Altern-8? What a great way to start things off on Thursday night! My mates and I all loved it, and the forest looked amazing

[frostypaw]

Fan-fucking-tastic. An absolute classic, if anything only helped by the weather making things dramatic and interesting

Helluva lot of good bands seen. Submotion Orchestra, Grouch in Dub, Xavier Rudd, Talisk, Infected Mushroom, King Kong Company, Bellatrix, Kosheen, Beans and Gogol Bordello all fantastic. Caught Kate Tempest again going with the group flow - had to swallow a lot of giggles at a bunch of younger citizens dragged by a mate and completely broadsided, busy apologising for needing to wait to stop crying before they could leave. Bunch of new proper fans made right there. Four Tet's set in the rain on Nucleus was everything I've hoped for from a Four Tet set that I'd felt denied, Alkan excellent after. The Saturday night at Relic from Chase & Status on was just gold, that whole day was pretty much two stages for me and glorious for it.

The layout and set upgrades were extensive - barely knew my way around Downtown and Metropolis's towers were as impressive in their simplicity as the massive murals in Barrio Loco. The New Town Centre was impressive but I sorely miss all the projection mapping. It made for a particularly unique and interesting centrepiece. The rear of the set was mostly dressed too so very little scaffold on sight which really added to the feeling it was all solid. Relic's collapsed and precarious looking state was just glorious with the design and lighting planned tightly together. You'll see a lot of videos, it's far better when it's quite so gobsmackingly large with an endless sea of raving people in front of it.

The sound was far far better and handled really professionally throughout, when it used to wander and get worse over the weekend seeming more like it was thrown together than properly planned. This was almost all tight straight away across the whole of the big arenas - and O M G the level it got to during the closing show at Relic - I can only assume everything else on that side of the festival had shut to make that OK. Genuinely one of the loudest outdoors things I've seen.

For years after it shuts down at midnight the end of the festival has been full of roaming hoards desperate for more, it seemed much happier this time. Even the campsites were relatively calm - while I still heard a few grumblers almost everyone I asked thought they nailed it.

Seemed like fewer food options? Urinals still not signposted in any way whatsoever and fenced off in the same style as everything else - they were essentially private facilities for the first two days. By Sunday it was hard to leave a busy one without a conversation and finding people sitting down in them - fecking boomtown.

The theatrics didn't really intrude into normal citizen's lives other than the shows and changes in AMI - felt a bit more distant but still there as something changing.

Despite that I think this one finally beat Behind the Mask. Really hope they'll put more into making the story intrusive for everyone as it was back then but otherwise sign me up now.

What's that Glastonbury? You've got Iicon now? Hold my beer....

[rock the clock]

oh yes... Relic was an tru spectacle. I'm not such a dnb head so was reluctant to go but it blew my head off on Saturday night when I accidently walked into the arena. both that + nucleus were endlessly awe inducing no matter how long I spent there. 

just remembered also: strolling down the hippie highway at about 2am Monday morning. heard a huge racket coming from the hidden woods, sounded like some mix of dnb and hard tech to my intoxicated ears. It was just lots of folk drumming on the bins. No particular rhythm or tempo of course, but completely enchanting... Spent a good couple of hours there. A few were still going at it at the bottom of the hill when I walked past on my way to my tent around 7am. Respect to the citizens of boomtown 

[guypjfreak]

Can't remember who apart from dreadzone.. Kieth tribute could have been better lots of other things that I trying to remember... Last boom for me as I'm going to be looking after granddaughter next year so kids can go.. 

Lovely people no hassle just shame about the wind.... Thank you for boomtown you've broken me lol 

[FuzzyDunlop]

13 hours ago, Sasperella said:

Yeh, I thought that for BCUC aswell, not an ideal location for people to discover as they're walking past....which sucks for bands like them who aren't well known. They still smashed it though and the crowd were going nuts, so I hope they didn't mind too much ?

Was it you who recommended Altern-8? What a great way to start things off on Thursday night! My mates and I all loved it, and the forest looked amazing

Yes I did. It was a great set. Glad you enjoyed it!

[aidenlangan95]

Absolutely brilliant festival; loved it even more than last year.

I was a bit worried it was all going to be cancelled when Boardmasters and Houghton cancelled, but thank goodness that it still went on! Thought the Four Tet set was absolutely sensational. The Streets and Groove Armada were perfect for me on Saturday. Was feeling a bit tired on Sunday evening; went to see Prophets of Rage which gave me the energy to keep on going until about 2am in the woods hitting those bins (though wrecked my hand in the process).

Can't wait to go again next year.

Edited August 13, 2019 by aidenlangan95

[Sawdusty surfer]

17 hours ago, FuzzyDunlop said:

 

San Salvador, they blew me away. Honestly, I'd never quite heard anything quite like them. Such a shame thry played to about 50 people. The Forge is in a poor spot. I felt sorry for the acts there.

Hadn't heard of them but was told to take a look. Absolutely fantastic! 

 

[EamerRed]

Anybody else get randomly searched in the campsites by security and had gear taken off of them? Never seen that before at a festival...