Review: Boomtown Fair 2018

Returning to its usual spot in the rolling chalk hills of the South Downs National Park in Hampshire, this year’s instalment of Boomtown Fair (August 8-12) was not just it’s usual celebration of debauchery but also marked a decade since the first chapter of the festival emerged out of the ashes of its predecessor Recydrate the West.

This year’s shindig didn’t get off to the most auspicious start, however: as we arrived the skies opened and torrential rain bounced off the ground that had been baked hard by three months of a blissfully hot summer that no-one expected. Our camp, thankfully already set up by the time we arrived, was on the opposite side of the festival so we were reminded of the scale of the event with a 40-minute trudge from the Sector 6 car park to our camping spot behind the delightful haven of the Hidden Woods in Downtown.

The Hidden Woods are just one of the magical hidden spots of the sprawling festival. Photo by Lucas Sinclair

In just ten years Boomtown, has grown into one of the biggest festivals in the UK, and, particularly with Glastonbury in a fallow year, this was the undoubted highlight of the festival calendar for tens of thousands of revelers from across the country.

It’s not the scale of the festival that sets Boomtown apart, although the way they have skilfully grown to a 65,000 capacity festival without compromising on the unique atmosphere and unparalleled  production values is an undoubted accomplishment. Rather, the spectacular creativity, diversity and staggering attention to detail make it unique.

The team have also made sure to look after their rapidly growing following and the local environment with a commendable focus on harm reduction (including the continued use of The Loop’s drug testing services) and investing in infrastructure to improve their recycling and sustainability.

Most importantly, the organisers of Boomtown, since their tentative first steps with Recydrate the West, have been dedicated to creating a spectacular and immersive experience and quite regularly the best party of the year.

The Lion’s Den stage is set in a natural amphitheatre and hosts some of the festival’s biggest acts. Photo by Scott Salt

Much to the constant and unashamed delight of this antediluvian reviewer there remains a very high proportion of jungle at Boomtown. Whilst some of the drum’n’bass does stray across the line into the over-simplistic jump-up that perhaps caters to the younger and less cynical festivalgoers (for this is a genre which truly does now straddle the generations), there’s a much higher percentage that is true to the more organic sound: one that is enduring and quintessentially British.

Much of the festival is therefore spent enjoying a wide selection of high tempo breaks across an unrivalled selection of characterful and diverse venues. Kasparov got us going with some new bassy rollers in the industrial dystopia of Robotka soon after we emerged from our camp, while a stomp up to the new-look oriental Lion’s Den was rewarded by some delicious ragga jungle from the Chopstick Dubplate collective (Aries was surely the busiest man on the site, appearing on the programme at least six or seven times this year).

Hopes that Cutty Ranks would follow were dashed – he’d apparently missed his plane – continuing the unfortunate curse of Boomtown’s dancehall no-shows from over the years, so we returned downtown ending up in the Scrapyard for Methlab’s takeover: hard, techy and just on the right side of that line.

Whilst sound restrictions remain a problem for Boomtown (and almost every other UK festival) The Scrapyard seems to manage some pretty impressive levels – although stray there too late at night and the snare drums dissolve into relentless four-four rhythms of gabba and hardcore.

Boomtown’s best sound must surely be in Tangled Roots though, where the blissful setting of dappled woodland oscillates perpetually to the bass of assorted dub, reggae and ubiquitous jungle. Once in it’s hard to leave, especially with eyeball-rattling sets across the weekend from the likes of Dubkasm, Skitz, YT, Aries and an Electrikal Soundsystem DJ set drenched with sapid specials.

Tangled Roots is set in a dappled woodland

Boomtown is predominantly a bass music festival and this year there seemed to be even fewer live acts than previous years, though the ones that were on the bill were enjoyed across the various sectors of the festival. Sleaford Mods on the Town Centre stage were typically stark and energetic, with Jason Williamson twitching around the stage, punching out his angry, acerbic and often witty lyrics over Andrew Fearn’s gruelling, stark loops. They’re a perfect act for Boomtown’s Town Centre stage: current, radical and subversive (although Williamson hopes we like the new stuff because he “still needs to pay the fucking mortgage”).

Later in the festival (and against my better judgement) I end up being dragged to same stage for part of Limp Bizkit’s set, an altogether more formulaic performance and less engaging experience for some but one that certainly resonated with teenage nostalgia for many others, judging by the crowd of 30-somethings singing along to every word.

Limp Bizkit were a crowd-dividing choice for the Town Centre stage. Photo by Charlie Raven

The biggest act of the festival was undoubtedly Gorillaz on Saturday night. The UK festival exclusive from Damon Albarn’s second coming is another testament to how far Boomtown has come since its inception a decade ago. The crowd is the biggest I’ve ever seen at Boomtown, with every inch of the Lion’s Den bowl filled. Well over half of the 65,000 revellers must have made the tramp up the hill for this one.

We arrived to someone shrieking that Snoop was on stage but by the time we had pushed our way through the crowds it appeared he’d Facetimed in his contribution (hopefully not a sign of things to come). Whilst not a headliner that inspired the levels of excitement in this reviewer that some of Lion’s Den’s previous guests had managed, I was glad that the lure of Snoop Dogg’s cameo had encouraged us to get deep into the crowd as Gorillaz provided a worthy headline slot. The 13-piece ensemble with their dreamy melodies and anodyne rhythms inspired arms around shoulders, lighters in the air and mass gurny singalongs.

The following night Die Antwood brought their weird and eclectic blend of rave, electro, pop and hip-hop to the Lion’s Den with an eager croud needing little encouragement to get a chant of “Fuck your rules” bouncing around the hillside.

The awe-inspiring Sector 6 stage was the mainstay of the festival’s biggest DJs. Photo by ShotAway

Some big name DJs pulled huge crowds at the awe inspiring Sector 6 stage. Marky, Ed Rush and Optical finished things off on Saturday night whilst Andy C (despite some optimistic rumours of Prodigy) filled the secret headliner slot on Sunday.

Boomtown is not about the headliners though. At least one evening should be dedicated to a tour the small venues, particularly the plethora of gems in Uptown and the Wild West. As well as an absorbing and often bizarre range of music from grime to folk in the most characterful and skillfully constructed settings, you may also happen to bumble into an insane asylum, find a crowd of people throwing vegetables at a topless wench or stumble upon a huddle of girls snorting bright green lines off a drag queen’s bottom.

Unusual activity in the micro venues- Photo by ShotAway

House and techno producer Paul Woolford played in the Metropolis area of Downtown but it was clearly Special Request, his jungle offering which burst onto the scene with Soul Music in 2013, that was the act more suited to the festival. The success of that album, which somehow outgrew its position as a nostalgic homage to late 90s jungle and pirate radio culture and became a seminal piece of work for its time, highlights the enduring nature of a music and attitude which defines Boomtown’s music policy.

Special Request, alongside Zinc and Eats Everything (perhaps a nod to how that music policy has had to adapt) played a three-way back-to-back set on the towering Bang Hai Palace to end things in some style on Sunday night.

At the end of the set the music was interrupted and visions of a capitalist bigwig, alluring-yet-sinister female cyborg and a cowboy, replete with unconvincing fake moustache, striding through the cornfields, was splashed across the giant screens. The organisers laudably used much of this display to convey an important message about the impact the festival has on our environment, raising stark ultimatums about sustainability, wastefulness and the uncertain future of the festival.

Whilst the story may have felt a little thin and self-indulgent, for many revelers it’s clearly just another aspect to dip in and out of at this wonderfully creative behemoth of a festival, which is still drawing the crowds ten years in.