Boomtown 2021 thread

[jplgc]

More details released on October 1st. Hoping they continue the current story rather then a reset and hoping to see state of emergency.

 

But most of all, hoping the festival is in a strong financial position to come back next year after COVID.

Stay safe everybody 

[mr flow]

I would expect the storyline to continue, but will probably have more of an angle of recovery and togetherness, as hopefully the world is coming out of the state of emergency. 

Will be interesting to see who took up the refund option, and how many rolled over tickets. Also, fingers crossed that they festival can go ahead next year, and we see a return to normality. 🤞

[vintagelaureate]

Just saw this post in the Glastonbury forum about Reading and Leeds, which got me thinking about Boomtown.

Apparently, there will be no indoor stages at Reading and Leeds. The implications for Boomtown could be dramatic! I would hope it relates to large capacity indoor venues, otherwise alot of what I love about Boomtown would be carved up (no microvenues etc.).

[jump]

^I hope not, a lot of my favourites bits of Boomtown are the stage/set designs and a lot of will have to be thrown away in favour of the gig in a field format.

[vintagelaureate]

7 hours ago, jump said:

^I hope not, a lot of my favourites bits of Boomtown are the stage/set designs and a lot of will have to be thrown away in favour of the gig in a field format.

Yeah I agree, my favourite part of Boomtown is the random little parts you find. 

[Old_Johno]

It will either be main stages only music festival or business as usual. There’s no option for a middle ground. 

Did an escape room at the weekend and they’re spending 45 minutes cleaning between sessions, used to be 15 mins set up.

Can’t see any of the micro venues having the ability to keep it clean enough if everyone’s still worried about covid.

 

[jump]

I got an email from  Boomtown today saying they are making an announcement on the 1st Oct.

[Sku]

New ticket pricing and instalment schemes announced: Tomorrow
Next years theme/details about Boomtown 2021: 1st October

Excited to see what might come out in the next couple of weeks.

With regards to micro-venues... I feel this is not an issue. If Covid-19 is still enough of a worry that they can't have microvenues, I fail to see how having big crowded outdoor stages would be considered the better option. It's either on, or it's not.

 

Edited September 23, 2020 by Sku

[JBarbour]

Ticket prices have reduced and anyone who has carried tickets over will get an automatic refund with the difference. 

Edited September 24, 2020 by JBarbour

[JBarbour]

6 minutes ago, JBarbour said:

 

 

Edited September 24, 2020 by JBarbour

[jplgc]

I wont get my hopes up that this will even go ahead before a vaccine but if it does then im not sure im happy about this 'reimagining' and I hope they don't mean the storyline... AMI was just starting to get interesting and nucleus was an outstanding stage.

Please dont try and fix what isnt broken boomtown 

[mr flow]

43 minutes ago, jplgc said:

I wont get my hopes up that this will even go ahead before a vaccine but if it does then im not sure im happy about this 'reimagining' and I hope they don't mean the storyline... AMI was just starting to get interesting and nucleus was an outstanding stage.

Please dont try and fix what isnt broken boomtown 

I would imagine the storyline will change to fit the narrative of the what the world will be like next year, so would expect something more around unity etc. I don't think they'll sack off the whole storyline so far for a completely new one.

I'll also do some digging around if the lower prices means less stages. As you say, Nucleus was a roaring success, so can't imagine they will scrap it.

[JBarbour]

43 minutes ago, mr flow said:

I would imagine the storyline will change to fit the narrative of the what the world will be like next year, so would expect something more around unity etc. I don't think they'll sack off the whole storyline so far for a completely new one.

I'll also do some digging around if the lower prices means less stages. As you say, Nucleus was a roaring success, so can't imagine they will scrap it.

They have told the local council committee they are reducing the numbers by quite a bit, add that too the reduced ticket prices it can only mean less stages, less acts and a smaller event. Especially considering they needed the increase capacity to continue the festival at its current level. 

Maybe they'll go in the direction of R&L keep the bigger outdoor stages and scrap some of the small indoor/tented stages.  

Edited September 24, 2020 by JBarbour

[mr flow]

2 hours ago, JBarbour said:

They have told the local council committee they are reducing the numbers by quite a bit, add that too the reduced ticket prices it can only mean less stages, less acts and a smaller event. Especially considering they needed the increase capacity to continue the festival at its current level. 

Maybe they'll go in the direction of R&L keep the bigger outdoor stages and scrap some of the small indoor/tented stages.  

Yeah, I've been told that it's going to be reduced capacity and that will mean less stages. Which stages get scrapped, i'm not sure. Logically if its a smaller capacity, they could just go back in the bowl again, but then you'd lose the Lions Den which i can't imagine they'll sacrifice. Be interesting to see what decisions they make.

[Sku]

7 hours ago, jplgc said:

I wont get my hopes up that this will even go ahead before a vaccine but if it does then im not sure im happy about this 'reimagining' and I hope they don't mean the storyline... AMI was just starting to get interesting and nucleus was an outstanding stage.

Please dont try and fix what isnt broken boomtown 

I guess the changes are more likely coming from the angle of needing to adapt post-covid. Not necessarily out of choice.

Boomtown have always changed it up over the years, it's what kept them ticking all this time. I'd give them a chance, because so far they have done a pretty good job every time they have taken a bit of a change in direction.

That said, I can't imagine AMI is going anywhere, iconic to the festival at this point. And they really went all in on the AMI concept at Area 404 (the nightclub) as well, to strengthen that character. I know pre-covid seems like a lifetime ago, but let's just see what happens I guess

5 hours ago, JBarbour said:

They have told the local council committee they are reducing the numbers by quite a bit, add that too the reduced ticket prices it can only mean less stages, less acts and a smaller event. Especially considering they needed the increase capacity to continue the festival at its current level. 

Maybe they'll go in the direction of R&L keep the bigger outdoor stages and scrap some of the small indoor/tented stages.  

Yeah, it seems the numbers will be down, and the festival perhaps a little smaller. I hope they go the other way though and scale back on the main stages, which first started getting particularly enormous around 2016.

I'd much rather see them keeping all the vibrant micro-venues, and themed city streets. That's what makes Boomtown what it is, anyone can put on a outdoor stage festival. If they just had outdoor stages it would rip the soul out of the festival, and likely kill it.

If they need to make cost savings, the easiest way to do so is probably on the big stage "exclusive" acts etc. You might be surprised how much money you can save by just scaling back on 1 or 2 of the biggest headliners. I imagine they can still book a strong line-up, they may just may need to pass up on a couple of the bigger names they started booking in recent years. They never used to book big acts like this, and we're doing just fine back in 2011-2015 times, and in fact saw the biggest growth in those years.

It might be fun for Boomtown to be a bit smaller again and get back to its roots. If a "smaller" Boomtown looks anything like it did in 2011-2015, I'm sold, and I'm sure some people who stopped coming due to the changes might even return.

Edited September 24, 2020 by Sku

[eFestivals]

13 hours ago, mr flow said:

they could just go back in the bowl again, but then you'd lose the Lions Den which i can't imagine they'll sacrifice.

they could move it back to it's old place between the trees

[mr flow]

4 hours ago, eFestivals said:

they could move it back to it's old place between the trees

This is true. Suppose a lot will depend on the calibre of the acts they are booking. If they are still getting a few big names, they'll need a bigger space than that to host them.

[eFestivals]

6 minutes ago, mr flow said:

This is true. Suppose a lot will depend on the calibre of the acts they are booking. If they are still getting a few big names, they'll need a bigger space than that to host them.

I'm not sure the acts are anything bigger really, just that there's been many more people recently so needing a bigger space.

I guess it depends how much they're downsizing for whether between the trees will be big enough.

[dumski]

On 9/25/2020 at 6:51 AM, eFestivals said:

they could move it back to it's old place between the trees

Oh I hope not. Preferred the stage visuals but the location just didn’t fit right with me.
It’s great where it is and fits perfectly with area 404 down the hill & hopefully their planned 2020 changes of kids area.  The acts I want to see nowadays are mostly lions den and it’s perfect when it’s sunny. So fingers crossed. 

Outside & spacious seems to be the way forward with the Covid rules 🤞🏽

[dumski]

Any rumours on the downsizing numbers? 
humour me, do they have to pay landowner for each additional field/ area or per head? 

I can’t get my head around not having the smaller venues. The production is so good. And the woods are enclosed. Nightmare.
Maybe bring back Arcadia for a year. On seconds thoughts, forward ever, backwards never!

[jplgc]

I cant see any festivals going ahead until there's a vaccine and it all comes down to social distancing.

How do you socially distance a festival crowd, especially in the campsites when they are pissed/on drugs.

This is the reality no matter which way you look at it

[vintagelaureate]

I hope they're clear with any planned changes before the tickets go on sale on Thursday. 

Losing the smaller venues would be a game changer for me - they're my favourite things about Boomtown.

I could see them reducing / removing some areas, or maybe even combining a couple.

[Sku]

On 9/26/2020 at 10:22 PM, dumski said:

Outside & spacious seems to be the way forward with the Covid rules 🤞🏽

I don't think a festival like Boomtown could go ahead with Covid restrictions. Or for that matter, pretty much any large festival. It either is going ahead or it isn't.

On 9/26/2020 at 10:33 PM, dumski said:

Any rumours on the downsizing numbers? 
humour me, do they have to pay landowner for each additional field/ area or per head? 

I can’t get my head around not having the smaller venues. The production is so good. And the woods are enclosed. Nightmare.
Maybe bring back Arcadia for a year. On seconds thoughts, forward ever, backwards never!

I think they are going to see how the ticket sales go with regards to size/numbers. There is definitely a smaller cap than usual if ticket sales did go berserk for some reason. But actually they are likely going to flex the size of the festival depending on how successfully they sell tickets.

I don't think they will ever remove all smaller venues, or the woods parties, they are the heart and soul of the festival. It either goes ahead with them, or it's probably cancelled.

10 hours ago, vintagelaureate said:

I hope they're clear with any planned changes before the tickets go on sale on Thursday. 

Losing the smaller venues would be a game changer for me - they're my favourite things about Boomtown.

I could see them reducing / removing some areas, or maybe even combining a couple.

From what I heard, the 1pm announcement on ticket sale day should be fairly comprehensive in detail with regards to any changes. They told me they are afraid of giving too much away and spoiling some of the surprise, but obviously they need to be upfront about what may be different. Of course, about half of the tickets are already sold, so those who already bought one last year will also have to be convinced of any change in direction.

[mr flow]

I can't believe they will even consider removing the microvenues and interactive nature of things. If they just have the big stages, it loses the USP they have, and it becomes like every other festival. 

[JBarbour]

28 minutes ago, Sku said:

Of course, about half of the tickets are already sold, so those who already bought one last year will also have to be convinced of any change in direction.

Half of the tickets sold won't be right. There was a retention of half the tickets sold for this years event and it was nowhere near selling out. So it will be way less than half the "normal" capacity. Suppose it will depend on the capacity agreed with the local council and how flexible it is for next year.