Boomtown?

[tjamest]

25 minutes ago, zahidf said:

. Is it normally a queing nightmare to get in?

Have not been for the last couple of years, but in '14 i queued for about 3 hours from about 3.00 pm, but in '15 arrived at about 5.30 and strolled in with no waiting.

[zahidf]

cool thanks, ill have a think about it. i like that they dont do the whole 'stop you taking your own booze' thing

[tjamest]

8 minutes ago, Tommy101 said:

This is true. I've been to a few messy readings though. There was a Reading around 08/09 where the Thames flooded and a week before the festival began 1/3rd of the campsite was underwater. It receded significantly but there were areas of bog everywhere. I appreciate that is an extreme case but it was what came to mind when thinking of a muddy Reading.

Definitely not '08 Tommy (Rage year). I was camped over the river in white and that was the year that someones barbeque embers set fire to the grass and burnt out about 20 cars in White parking.

[eFestivals]

16 minutes ago, zahidf said:

cool thanks, ill have a think about it. i like that they dont do the whole 'stop you taking your own booze' thing

They do. There's very small restrictions on what you can take in.

There's just no restrictions between your tent and the arena, because it's like Glastonbury with no arena.

[philipsteak]

37 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

I'd say if you're not a big fan of Glasto's SE corner, then boomtown probably isn't for you overall.

That doesn't mean you couldn't get plenty out of it all the same. There's aspects that are more like that Glasto parts you mention, and there's lots to see by wandering around, so I reckon almost anyone (except those addicted to big-name indie landfill) could find enough there for one visit - but that wouldn't necessarily mean they'd want to go back again.  

 

I can very much take or leave the SE corner but I've really enjoyed my two Boomtowns (at age 37 & 39). It's not a must do each year for me, I tend to do Glastonbury plus one other festival and on any given year Boomtown could well be the plus one . I agree with you when you say anyone could get enough out of it to justify a visit, even if it is only the once.

[Tommy101]

34 minutes ago, tjamest said:

Definitely not '08 Tommy (Rage year). I was camped over the river in white and that was the year that someones barbeque embers set fire to the grass and burnt out about 20 cars in White parking.

Think it must have been 09 as it wasn't my last one or either of the first couple I don't think. They've mainly all blended into one by now. 

I do remember that fire, big black column of smoke from over the river looked a bit like something from Lost.

[faymondo]

On 16/08/2017 at 1:08 PM, stuartbert two hats said:

Over 35 is an old duffer, surely?

43 Ahh well. Didn't feel like an old duffer in Amnesia in Ibiza at 8am last saturday/sunday but hey ho.

I did feel 43 on the Monday though !!

Edited August 19, 2017 by faymondo

[Paul ™]

Had a great time again (3rd Boomtown), we got to Orange Gate, the CV entrance at 10am with no traffic at all, got put into the queuing lines, around 10 vehicles from the front.
Gates opened about 12pm as advertised, initially was slow moving as searching was quite strict on some. We got to the front about 1.30pm and didnt get searched at all, just a few questions from a friendly security guy.
We were pitched and set up for 2pm, loads of room and was right by the CV campsite hub just at the entrance to Lions Den stage.

Weather was good all weekend, ground dried up nicely most places, didn't see much bands etc, prefer to wander and take it all in. 

Stayed in CV till about 4pm on the Monday and drove straight off, no queues etc.

No complaints from us, had friends who had queued for 10 hours on the Thursday, that was soon forgotten about by Friday morning and everyone seemed to have a great time.

Did see a couple of people with eFest t-shirts at the Bad Apple bar, but we arrived there well past 8pm on the Thursday and time got to the bar, said hello to friends etc, they had all gone! Sorry! 

Won't be there next year as got other big plans, but will deffo be back at some point in the future, it's my fav large festival by far in the UK 

[Pinhead]

On 8/17/2017 at 9:35 PM, Miesh said:

Glad you had a good festival. I stewarded for Oxfam there two years ago.  I did my 3 shifts in the same spot. Was this your experience or did you get to move around?

Two shifts were for the same role, though the spot for that role changed over the course of each shift. These were for the Downtown Ring Road Ped and internal / external Vehicle Gates. I swapped for the second shift and did the Woodlands area which was fine until a lot of the other venues shut after which it became seriously rammed almost to the point of crush! There were about 4 substance casualties as well over about 90 mins after that point, which made getting the Med Team in a challenge...

[eFestivals]

there's a new dedicated Boomtown forum, here

http://www.efestivals.co.uk/forums/forum/41-boomtown-fair/