Boomtown Fair - Chapter Eight
This was my first ever experience at Boomtown and I was super excited. The moment I got my ticket I was all over the website researching the festival’s districts, fancy dress themes and incredibly in-depth story.
The idea alone is fabulous - a pop-up city in the beautiful hilly countryside of Hampshire with a story going back to the first ever Boomtown which started as a small quiet place for people to gather and have fun, and has turned into a booming nation of like-minded people. Separate districts come with separate themes and genres, which all together create the perfect package; there is something at Boomtown for everyone.
I have heard from friends who have been before that every year it keeps growing and expanding, and the first thing I noticed when arriving on site was the sheer overwhelming size of it. And the bloody hills!!
I camped in Trenchtown, home to the Lion’s Den stage, a huge stone-looking stage which was set to be blasting out the finest in reggae, dub, dancehall and jungle. This stage saw the likes of Tarrus Ryley, Tanya Stephens, Soom T and of course Damien ‘Jr Gong’ Marley. Damien Marley was monumental - on a lush warm Sunday evening an enormous crowd of people all gathered to watch, I felt about 15 again (Welcome to Jamrock was literally my life). It was beautiful - he played everything I wanted him to play and gave as much energy as he received back from the adoring audience. It truly was wonderful and one of the highlights of my weekend.
Other districts included the Wild West, which was host to Norwich’s own Piratones, who as always delivered a fabulous show. Every district was filled with hidden/secret stages and wacky walkabouts. There was Oldtown, a pirate themed home to the Jolly Dodger Pirate Ship stage and filled with taverns and winding backstreets hosting an array of gypsy, Balkan and folk music.
Then we had Mayfair, which was the best place to find yourself stumbling through as the walkabouts were all brilliant! Mayfair is the home of the higher classes and richer citizens of the Boomtown story, and home to all things swing. With lavish décor, a tube station, towering beautiful buildings, bars and money being thrown around from the Bank of Mayfair it was utterly wonderful! The shops along Butlers Avenue were home to all sorts of wonders and curiosities, and cake.
The Town Centre, home to venues like the Town Hall and The Job Centre was where all the genres came together to showcase the pure diversity of Bomtown. Hosting the likes of Fun Lovin’ Criminals, Levellers, Bad Manners, Neville Staple Band and many many more.
Sector 6, new for Chapter Eight, truly was phenomenal. It towered above everything with crazy animations on televisions on the front of the stage and fire coming from it at all angles. It really was a spectacle, meant to be a run down nuclear plant, the start of a revolution in the city. It saw acts such as Ms Dynamite, So Solid Crew, Newham Generals, Sticky b2b Liam Garcia & Lady Chann, Dub Phizix & Strategy and a finale show of DJ Hype vs DJ Hazard! A truly epic line-up in my opinion! So Solid Crew rocked it, it was an proper UKG party! And of course Newham Generals got the crowd going and delivered some new tunes as well as all the great classics. At one point I read on the line-up that UK Hip Hop’s Jman was meant to be playing so I took myself down to Sector 6 only to find he hadn’t turned up and had been replaced with General Levy! Which was great until his set turned into his set at Symmetry, a few of his original great tunes going into covers of chart hits. Not my cup of tea.
Down the ridiculously uneven and treacherous stairs into Downtown you find Barrio Loco, This was possibly my favorite district brining you the best in hip-hop, grime and bass music! Also in the heart of Barrio Loco was The Dance Off, a wrestling ring in which you can hear the shouts of a referee monitoring dance competitions! What a sight, and boy, some of the people I watched who were brave enough to challenge someone were amazing. It was also home to the 24h Garage Girls, where I spent lot of time being shot down with a water pistol and bouncing along to some brilliant bassline. In Barrio Loco we saw the likes of Pharohe Monch, Foreign Beggars, Dead Players, Reeps One, Levelz and Devvo. Foreign Beggars were great, the closing show on the Poco Loco stage. It popped off (with plenty of dubstep!) despite being minus one member they bought Illaman on who absolutrely smashed it.
Once through the crazy streets of Barrio Loco you come to ChinaTown, where you will stumble across all the punk and ska you could wish for. Then eventually you find yourself coming across the deep dark underworld of District 5 and industrial run-down part of the city run by criminal overlord Muuti, half man half robot some say…
I loved stages like The Scrapyard, where I saw Vandal create a literal duststorm from the stomping crowd and the amazing Banghai Palace where I saw A.skillz deliver some crazy GFfunk as well as Stanton Warriors and Strategy. It was also home to Robotika, Koan Sound and Slipmatt and the ever-more curious Sewage Works as well as Amen-tal and Jungle Syndicate for the maddest and darkest in breakcore and jungle.
Over all it was a mad weekend, I definitely didn’t see everything I wanted to see and I definitely didn’t see everything Boomtown had to offer, but there’s always next year! If you get the chance, cop yourself an earlybird ticket for Chapter 9 and prepare yourself to be absolutely stunned.
Boomtown Fair, I will see you next year for more shenanigans! X
(Also big love to all the people who knew their cars were probably burnt to a crisp in the car pack but partied on through the weekend anyway. Hope you all got home safe!)
