boom town fair

[frostypaw]

Great find! That's good news all round I think - the violence figure is particularly interesting it did stand out to me that I didn't see any aggro at all and the worst the two groups I hung with heard of was the one of us accused of racism due to some misunderstood facepaint by a stressy guy. Very peachy and very promising for the festival continuing uninterrupted

[Swine_Glasto2014]

It's in danger of become to popular.

[russycarps]

It's in danger of become to popular.

Yep it'll be interesting to observe the death of a festival (I've never been)

[eFestivals]

It's in danger of become to popular.

I'm not sure that it is just yet.

It took longer to sell out this year than last year. Yes, there were some extra tickets to sell this year, but it was more than just that IMO.

One of the factors seems to be that the hordes of kids that populated it last year (and perhaps before, I'm not sure) have moved on elsewhere in the way that 'fashion groupings' do. That's probably a good thing for the fest long-term, but it does create a void.

Luckily that void was filled with more-normal festival goers, and while I'd be surprised if most of those weren't hugely impressed by the whole thing, because of Boomtown's lack of anything much musical-mainstream I suspect that plenty of those actually found themselves at a bit of a loose end for too much of the time - and so plenty might not come back again after having experienced it.

Other factors will impact into that too, because the chaos of Boomtown compared to other fests of a similar size will also work against it. For example, the toilets are (in general) of around the same poor standards as most fests have 10+ years ago but which are now considered unacceptable.

(as an example, on Saturday afternoon the urinals nearest the Lion's den [the 'main stage'] were over-flowing with piss and were in that state for many hours [4+], and causing rivers of piss. The turdis's were as a rule always dreadful too).

For me, the chaos is a part of the charm (it's been a big part of my festival going over the 30+ years I've been going), but i'm not sure it will be appreciated as much by those younger than me. And it certainly didn't go down well with some of the bands, as some of the rants I've seen by bands gets to prove.

[Pinhead]

Funny how the expectations of the punters and even the bands has changed over the years.

My mate who went to Boomtown for the first time this year (and has essentially taken a year off to go to festivals and has therefore been to about 8 I think this year including Glasto which he's been to nearly as many times as myself), reviewed it by saying that it just lacked a bit of that Glasto 'magic' (which he went on to say that Secret Garden Party was able to successfully create for him). He went on to say that the effort in creating the 'townships' was impressive but that the many different venues began to feel somewhat the same after a while. Mentioned the stage closures and relative disorganisation of performances over the Friday for bands which when he was backstage was echoed by some of the performers (Chas n Dave for example expressed utter confusion about what was happening RE the town centre stage during the bad weather disruption). He also saw an arrest for rape whilst backstage, the punter being dragged off the streets by the old bill who taped him up.

[hoils]

And it certainly didn't go down well with some of the bands, as some of the rants I've seen by bands gets to prove.

Yup, been reading tweets from various members of Bellowhead who sound like they weren't best impressed. But I guess they're used to doing the rounds of all the folk festivals where it's all Guardian politeness backstage and off to bed by 11pm.

[eFestivals]

Yup, been reading tweets from various members of Bellowhead who sound like they weren't best impressed. But I guess they're used to doing the rounds of all the folk festivals where it's all Guardian politeness backstage and off to bed by 11pm.

there's been more than just Bellowhead.

And I think you're being a bit unfair to them, presumably because you've not read what happened with them, &/or the difficulties with the stage they played on.

Boomtown is supposedly a professional event, booking professional bands. It's not unreasonable for a band such as Bellowhead to expect to be playing at a professionally-run event.

Having said that, from what i've read some of what they experienced was more a result of the weather than anything else - but other festies manage to keep things going during non-unusual (as it was on the Friday) rain.

Edited August 14, 2014 by eFestivals

[kerplunk]

Yup, been reading tweets from various members of Bellowhead who sound like they weren't best impressed. But I guess they're used to doing the rounds of all the folk festivals where it's all Guardian politeness backstage and off to bed by 11pm.

I think they (and Afro Celt Sound System) were just unfortunate to arrive in a downpour and had a rotten few hours on-site due to one thing and another and have judged the whole festival on that experience. Fair enough I guess but I think some of Simon Emersson's (of afro celts) ranting is just peevish sounding off. He's been to '1,000s' of festivals but has apparently never encountered pay-to-use toilets before and from this find he extrapolates wildly about the festival ripping people off as though ALL the toilets were pay-to-use. He's climbed down a bit since saying he was still angry about one of their band members getting refused entry to the UK.

[eFestivals]

I think they (and Afro Celt Sound System) were just unfortunate to arrive in a downpour and had a rotten few hours on-site due to one thing and another and have judged the whole festival on that experience. Fair enough I guess but I think some of Simon Emersson's (of afro celts) ranting is just peevish sounding off. He's been to '1,000s' of festivals but has apparently never encountered pay-to-use toilets before and from this find he extrapolates wildly about the festival ripping people off as though ALL the toilets were pay-to-use. He's climbed down a bit since saying he was still angry about one of their band members getting refused entry to the UK.

The complaints were for more than just what was caused by the downpour, but yeah, some of what was said was well off the mark.

The toilet thing, for example, sounds like they were driven past pootopia and ended up thinking that all toilets on site were pay-to-use.

[russycarps]

pay to use toilets??

[kerplunk]

I guess everyone thinks the festival should revolve around them at some point - I've even read grumbles about boomtown not knowing how to treat phoptographers well! Personally I had no problems and had a great time shooting at BF. All of which is a pre-amble to posting a link to my pics:

http://www.efestivals.co.uk/festivals/boomtown/2014/galleries.shtml

Edited August 14, 2014 by kerplunk

[eFestivals]

pay to use toilets??

posh bogs, for those who want to have something cleaner than the standard offerings. Lots of fests have them.

Personally I think any festival allowing these should be shot, because they only exist because of the poor job a fest is doing with its own loos.

[kerplunk]

The complaints were for more than just what was caused by the downpour, but yeah, some of what was said was well off the mark.

The toilet thing, for example, sounds like they were driven past pootopia and ended up thinking that all toilets on site were pay-to-use.

I wouldn't be surprised if the downpour had a lot to do with their two-hour wait for a buggy to take them in which seems to have been a major cause of their pissed-offness. When it suddenly starts sheeting down after a long warm day like that it catches people out - people go awol scuttling for shelter/wet-weather gear. I got marooned in the ballroom for ages cos I was just wearing shorts and a vest and had no cover for my camera - bad planning on my part of course but you can see how it can go pear-shaped suddenly. In fact I missed Afro Celts and Bellowhead because of that downpour

[**claire**]

pay to use toilets??

I went to Sonisphere the week after Glasto, and got very excited when I saw the compost loos from next to the Pyramid there - I was really pissed off when I hiked all the way to the furthest reaches of the field to use them later that day, only to be told I had to pay to use them!

Made me appreciate Glastonbury all over again.

[kerplunk]

posh bogs, for those who want to have something cleaner than the standard offerings. Lots of fests have them.

Personally I think any festival allowing these should be shot, because they only exist because of the poor job a fest is doing with its own loos.

Also - no queues. I wonder if Simon Emmerson would have launched a tirade at Womad for having them.

Edited August 14, 2014 by kerplunk

[russycarps]

wow how much did they cost to use?

[**claire**]

I think it was a couple of quid a go!

[UEF]

Paid £12 for a pass to use the posh loos at Lovebox last year (spacious room with a sink, wood veneered surfaces etc)

10/10 would shit there again.

[russycarps]

I think it was a couple of quid a go!

bloody hell! and to think I kicked off over having to pay 30p the other week at charing cross!!

[kerplunk]

Never bothered with a weekend pass before but once or twice I've been EXTREMELY glad to pay for a no-queue-loo. This should not need explaining

[eFestivals]

I wouldn't be surprised if the downpour had a lot to do with their two-hour wait for a buggy to take them in which seems to have been a major cause of their pissed-offness. When it suddenly starts sheeting down after a long warm day like that it catches people out - people go awol scuttling for shelter/wet-weather gear. I got marooned in the ballroom for ages cos I was just wearing shorts and a vest and had no cover for my camera - bad planning on my part of course but you can see how it can go pear-shaped suddenly. In fact I missed Afro Celts and Bellowhead because of that downpour

While it can be understandable that people want to hide from the rain, that's not really any excuse in this instance. The festival was continuing uninterrupted by the rain on Friday, and so all of the support services should have continued too. It's not like Friday's rain made it impossible to get about.

How might Boomtown feel if all of the bands they'd booked rang in and said "sorry, we're not coming now cos it's raining"?

The bands kept to their professionalism, and a professionally run event should do too.

Having to shut stuff down in the sort of severe weather there was on Sunday is fine. Friday's weather was not extreme to any extent, it was just a bit of normal summer rain.

If it's a mickey-mouse event, then Boomtown should be honest about that upfront to both bands and potential ticket buyers.

[kerplunk]

They were on stage on time weren't they - that's the important bit. They were just 'inconvenienced'.

[LondonTom]

bloody hell! and to think I kicked off over having to pay 30p the other week at charing cross!!

At London train stations its to stop the homeless and druggy scum from using them and inconveniencing the proper upstanding gentlemen of the city.

I imagine the idea is similar at festivals, as you don't want to place your bottom where other riff raff have been.

(Isn't pootopia at Glastonbury? Or was the year before last I think! Maybe I am thinking of Reading actually!)

Edited August 14, 2014 by LondonTom

[eFestivals]

They were on stage on time weren't they - that's the important bit. They were just 'inconvenienced'.

Oh, I'm not trying to say that any rant was fully justified, I'm pointing out that "rain stopped play" is about as weak an excuse as anyone could give when that rain is nothing exceptional.

It's an English summer; it rains. If rain was a big festival issue, the growth of festies to get to likes of Boomtown wouldn't have ever happened.

[mr flow]

I think Boomtown is getting a bit of unfair slack here if I'm honest with you.

Bellowhead and Afro Celt were both playing on the stage furthest away from the production/artist gate. It was raining for 6 hours none stop and that rain hadn't been forecast. There was always bound to be a few issues getting artists around during that period and they were the unlucky ones. Chas n Dave were playing on a stage on the Sunday which was closed by health and safety and the council due to the strong winds... Hardly Boomtown's fault.

Yes, the toilet situation wasn't ideal and I would imagine this will be acknowledged by the festival themselves. Last time they had an increase in capacity they had the same issues but sorted it for the following festival so I would imagine they'll have this on track for next year.

Boomtown is probably one of the only festivals that listens to it's punters. I would expect most of the 'problems' raised this year to be addressed in one way or another for next festival.

It's also worth remembering that Boomtown isn't a slick, well organised event and it's 'organised chaos' is one of the charms that make it such a good one. If you want something that runs like clockwork, it's not the festival for you unfortunately.