Boomtown 2018

[Tommy101]

That's quite a jump from 60,000. I wonder how scalable it is? Do you think that the experience has suffered with past growth?

[eFestivals]

1 hour ago, Tommy101 said:

That's quite a jump from 60,000. I wonder how scalable it is? Do you think that the experience has suffered with past growth?

i think they've managed it pretty well, and adapted the site quite strongly when necessary to make it work (eg: moving the lions den a few years ago).

The biggest downside I can see is that with each growth of the site, getting about to everywhere on the site becomes more of a chore, because there's some killer hills.

[Tommy101]

36 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

i think they've managed it pretty well, and adapted the site quite strongly when necessary to make it work (eg: moving the lions den a few years ago).

The biggest downside I can see is that with each growth of the site, getting about to everywhere on the site becomes more of a chore, because there's some killer hills.

I think I read that they were remaking the Lion's Den for next year as well aren't they? It'd be interesting to see if it gets (even) bigger.

[eFestivals]

15 minutes ago, Tommy101 said:

I think I read that they were remaking the Lion's Den for next year as well aren't they? It'd be interesting to see if it gets (even) bigger.

yeah, something I've read somewhere suggested that they are.

[JBarbour]

1 hour ago, Tommy101 said:

I think I read that they were remaking the Lion's Den for next year as well aren't they? It'd be interesting to see if it gets (even) bigger.

 

1 hour ago, eFestivals said:

yeah, something I've read somewhere suggested that they are.

...in the awe inspiring surroundings of Boomtown’s remastered Lion’s Den amphitheatre.

‘Having the Gorillaz perform on our newly rebuilt Lion’s Den arena is beyond anything we could have imagined..."

[Sku]

Every previous increase in capacity was met with significant expansion in the footprint of the festival. This has always kept it balanced, so that despite numbers increasing, there were more stages, space and things to do. 

They are however pretty much at maximum size already, and I struggle to imagine in which direction they can possibly expand anymore. 

I'm not really sure for example how they can make the Lions Den "bigger". Sure they can make some ammendments to the stage itself, but that field is limited in size by the surrounding trees, so capacity can't really be meaningfully increased there. I don't think any stage is capable of handling more than about 30k punters at a time (maybe Lions Den 40k at a push), so if a very big act is playing they start to run the risk of severe overcrowding. At a 80k capacity they are officially a "large" festival for the UK, but unlike the others they don't currently have a clear "main stage" for the big acts which is capable of absorbing almost the entire festival crowd in one location if nessasary. My point is the lineup is going to have to be very carefully planned to ensure spreading people evenly around the big stages.

I really didn't think we were going to see much expansion past 60k. It was made clear at the time of the 60k expansion no further increases would be granted. So I'm suprised to see such a huge increase on the table. Maybe this just gets declined by the council? 

It certainly is a big power play by the festival. Tickets are up by £20, capacity up by 16-20k. They really are playing with the big boys now. 

Edited December 21, 2017 by Sku

[eFestivals]

11 hours ago, Sku said:

They really are playing with the big boys now. 

and banking it much better than the big boys, too.

[mr flow]

New area announced

 

 

 

Edited December 22, 2017 by mr flow

[ace56blaa]

What does this mean for chinatown? probably nothing really. 

Can't wait to see who they book, hoping it means bigger punk/hardcore.

Wonder if this will have big headliners attempting to pull foot traffic across the whole site. Would love to see bands like descendants, gallows, dead kennedys, Psych and Stoner Rock is very exciting too.   

[manateemike]

Hawkwind 

[Tommy101]

According to Facebook Boomtown are 'Officially ready to focus on line up announcements. Music office have locked in some beasts, February can't come quick enough...' 

So looks like we wont get anything immediately but something to look forward to during these wet and windy days.

[FuzzyDunlop]

With no Glastonbury, we looked abroad, but have decided on Boomtown for 2018 (booked today) - I know a few people that have been and all rave about it.

Looking forward to the line up announcements. Hoping for someone like Ice Cube to go along with the Gorillaz.

Love the eco band idea.

There are always loads on the glasto board who are "popping their Glastonbury cherry"... feels odd to be doing that at a different festival.

Roll on August!

Edited January 12, 2018 by FuzzyDunlop

[shuttlep]

On 1/12/2018 at 6:05 PM, FuzzyDunlop said:

With no Glastonbury, we looked abroad, but have decided on Boomtown for 2018 (booked today) - I know a few people that have been and all rave about it.

Looking forward to the line up announcements. Hoping for someone like Ice Cube to go along with the Gorillaz.

Love the eco band idea.

There are always loads on the glasto board who are "popping their Glastonbury cherry"... feels odd to be doing that at a different festival.

Roll on August!

I will be popping my cherry there this year also. Can;t wait to not know where I am going or anything

[FuzzyDunlop]

3 hours ago, shuttlep said:

I will be popping my cherry there this year also. Can;t wait to not know where I am going or anything

Me too. A festival is always better when you can get genuinely lost for a while.

[bennyhana22]

New The Go! Team album is pretty fab on first listen.

What chance of them playing somewhere like Boomtown this summer. Have seen them before and they're really excellent and loads of fun live. Just seem to fit the vibe of BT...

Ben 

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

13 hours ago, shuttlep said:

I will be popping my cherry there this year also. Can;t wait to not know where I am going or anything

Same here. The not knowing anything about the place and in which direction to travel will add to the fun. 

[bennyhana22]

5 hours ago, Yoghurt on a Stick said:

Same here. The not knowing anything about the place and in which direction to travel will add to the fun. 

Yeah, yeah, yeah - if you get there, Yog

Ben
x

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

1 hour ago, bennyhana22 said:

Yeah, yeah, yeah - if you get there, Yog

Ben
x

Hello Ben,

Point taken. If her indoors says that she doesn't want to go, I still intend to go on my own. It's the only festival that we have booked for this year, so I am really looking forward to it. However, we have failed to get to Bearded Theory (despite having tickets - including campervan ticket) before, as well as my shoddy non show at Glastonbury last year. Oh, and another time at Something Else in the Dean! There's been other, non festival, events that we've bought tickets for and not gone. It really raises my blood pressure when we squander money like that. So, this time I am more determined for this not to happen. 

On top of that it looks like there's a fair few efesters going, and it would be good to hook up with them.

However, it aint over until the fat lady sings. 

I am now going to say a prayer to the little baby Jesus, asking him to help with my blood pressure situation on this one.  

[mr flow]

Sounds like even the seasoned Boomtown pro's aren't going to know where they are going this year, as looks like a major overhaul of the districts are being planned. Apparently Mayfair is no more, which is on the back of the rumoured end of the Old Town.

Be interesting to see what is going to take their place...

[Sku]

 

3 hours ago, mr flow said:

Sounds like even the seasoned Boomtown pro's aren't going to know where they are going this year, as looks like a major overhaul of the districts are being planned. Apparently Mayfair is no more, which is on the back of the rumoured end of the Old Town.

Be interesting to see what is going to take their place...

Hope so. They totally rearranged the whole festival for the 5th anniversary and refused to release a map of the new layout in advance. For the exact reason that exploring and getting lost is half the fun. Since then the site has grown a lot, but existing things tend to stay in the same place

It would be great if they did it again for the 10th and totally upended it all.

 

[bennyhana22]

10 hours ago, Yoghurt on a Stick said:

Hello Ben,

Point taken. If her indoors says that she doesn't want to go, I still intend to go on my own. It's the only festival that we have booked for this year, so I am really looking forward to it. However, we have failed to get to Bearded Theory (despite having tickets - including campervan ticket) before, as well as my shoddy non show at Glastonbury last year. Oh, and another time at Something Else in the Dean! There's been other, non festival, events that we've bought tickets for and not gone. It really raises my blood pressure when we squander money like that. So, this time I am more determined for this not to happen. 

On top of that it looks like there's a fair few efesters going, and it would be good to hook up with them.

However, it aint over until the fat lady sings. 

I am now going to say a prayer to the little baby Jesus, asking him to help with my blood pressure situation on this one.  

I have a good feeling, Cinders.

You will go to the ball...!

Ben

[mr flow]

17 hours ago, Sku said:

 

Hope so. They totally rearranged the whole festival for the 5th anniversary and refused to release a map of the new layout in advance. For the exact reason that exploring and getting lost is half the fun. Since then the site has grown a lot, but existing things tend to stay in the same place

It would be great if they did it again for the 10th and totally upended it all.

 

Agreed, although they can't move the Lions Den or Sector 6, and i would imagine Banghai Tower will have to remain downtown too. Be interesting to see what they do though, and looking forward to new areas to explore/get lost in

[eFestivals]

2 minutes ago, mr flow said:

they can't move the Lions Den

They've moved it once before from what seemed to be a perfect location, and I think they've said something is changing again with it ... tho maybe it's just going to be pushed further back? (I don't know how much room there is to do that).

But, i think, everything with licencing makes moving stuff around a bit of a chore, so while they might have plenty of ideas for changes they'd like to make, I'm not sure it's practical to change too much at any time.

[mr flow]

22 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

They've moved it once before from what seemed to be a perfect location, and I think they've said something is changing again with it ... tho maybe it's just going to be pushed further back? (I don't know how much room there is to do that).

But, i think, everything with licencing makes moving stuff around a bit of a chore, so while they might have plenty of ideas for changes they'd like to make, I'm not sure it's practical to change too much at any time.

Good point re the Lions Den. But I can't imagine they have a better location than the current one? I also think they'll just move it back a bit to allow more people down at the front.

[eFestivals]

9 minutes ago, mr flow said:

But I can't imagine they have a better location than the current one?

i thought that last time.

But yeah, you're probably right, and that's probably the best opinion where it is - tho I don't know the land beyond what they're using already to know if there's anywhere else.