Boomtown 2019: Chapter 11

[jump]

19 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

the efests photo gallery is online.

https://www.efestivals.co.uk/festivals/boomtown/2019/galleries.shtml

I like how the Skinny Lister photos hide how barren the crowd was for them.

Edited August 16, 2019 by jump

[frostypaw]

1 hour ago, Tommy101 said:

Did Boom sell out in the end then? 

If so the weather worked out really well for them in the end, shifting the last few tickets (which I believe is where more of the profit is)

Yeah even more capacity will be a lot more noticeable during the day when bimbling I think.

Yup exactly all of that. I think it can take it though, but will need some movement on the big stages to accommodate the inevitable extra crowds there. When you see the aerial shots they've got loads of room it's' quite amazing how much more efficient they've made their setup down there.

Vegan stuff tends to be pretty salty which definitely helps.

 

[seantizz]

And here's the efestivals review to go alongside the photo gallery.. Lovely to meet up with a few of you over the weekend...

https://www.efestivals.co.uk/festivals/boomtown/2019/review.shtml

Sean

[eFestivals]

2 hours ago, Tommy101 said:

Did Boom sell out in the end then? 

If so the weather worked out really well for them in the end, shifting the last few tickets (which I believe is where more of the profit is)

*ALL* of the profit is in the last tickets.

Think about it: the festival costs £x amount to put on. When the festival has sold tickets to the value of £x it's covered its costs, and then all of the money from the remaining tickets is profit.

[Sasperella]

2 hours ago, payneruk said:

I felt fine this year with hangovers and tiredness compared to the last 10 years of festivals I've been going to.

The only thing I can put it down to is going vegan. They say it makes you recover quicker. And the food there was amazing. Between 3 of us we had Poutine, African stew w/ fried plantain, Katsu curry burger, falafal & houmous in pita, Tibetan curry, giant sushi maki roll, mac n cheese, pie n mash, asian noodles, some super healthy tofu burger w/ mixed grains & watercress.

The African stew and the Tibeten curry were both in my top ten overall boomtown highlights. So so good. 

I think @Tommy101 is just feeling his age ? or the hills!!!

[Sasperella]

2 hours ago, jump said:

I like how the Skinny Lister photos hide how barren the crowd was for them.

Do you remember what time they were on? And which stage?

I remember I wanted to see them loads (after constantly missing them at Glastonbury over the years)....but I don't remember if I actually did or not!! Which says more about me than it does about them

Edited August 16, 2019 by Sasperella

[frostypaw]

57 minutes ago, seantizz said:

And here's the efestivals review to go alongside the photo gallery.. Lovely to meet up with a few of you over the weekend...

https://www.efestivals.co.uk/festivals/boomtown/2019/review.shtml

Sean

Great to see you again on such good form - I have found an answer to the bar thing - Freemans/Mint treated their staff appallingly taking their passports and penning them in outside of shift hours etc, will have been the least motivated bar staff in the world ever

[jump]

15 minutes ago, Sasperella said:

Do you remember what time they were on? And which stage?

I remember I wanted to see them loads (after constantly missing them at Glastonbury over the years)....but I don't remember if I actually did or not!! Which says more about me than it does about them

They were on at The Forge in Copper Country, Friday around 4ish.

They were good but you could tell they were really trying get the crowd going to make up for the small turn out. Even with the small crowd I didn't get a chance to drink from the jug of rum they always pass through the the crowd (normally it's too packed to get a sip) as my missus wouldn't let me kiss her if I did in fear of germs. 

Edited August 16, 2019 by jump

[kerplunk]

44 minutes ago, jump said:

 Even with the small crowd I didn't get a chance to drink from the jug of rum they always pass through the the crowd (normally it's too packed to get a sip) as my missus wouldn't let me kiss her if I did in fear of germs. 

I did and in a surprise twist (I've glugged on the jug of rum many times) it was Gin.

[FuzzyDunlop]

3 hours ago, jump said:

I like how the Skinny Lister photos hide how barren the crowd was for them.

The crowd for San Salvador was really small too on the Forge. Such a shame. I keep banging on about them, but they really were THAT good.

In fairness, I only started watching them as I passed the stage. Ended up staying for the next 45 / 50 mins til they ended.

Edited August 16, 2019 by FuzzyDunlop

[Sawdusty surfer]

1 hour ago, frostypaw said:

Great to see you again on such good form - I have found an answer to the bar thing - Freemans/Mint treated their staff appallingly taking their passports and penning them in outside of shift hours etc, will have been the least motivated bar staff in the world ever

Yep, just awful employers.

Heard that staff had to do 12 hour shifts with one 20 min break and as you said, were penned in when off shift and forbiden to venture out into the festival. My kids have done bar work at various festivals over the years. Had they been subjected to this we would have raised a posse and broken them out.

Boomtown directors are aware of this and so hopefully there will be some changes next year.

[seantizz]

12 minutes ago, Sawdusty Surfer said:

Yep, just awful employers.

Heard that staff had to do 12 hour shifts with one 20 min break and as you said, were penned in when off shift and forbiden to venture out into the festival. My kids have done bar work at various festivals over the years. Had they been subjected to this we would have raised a posse and broken them out.

Boomtown directors are aware of this and so hopefully there will be some changes next year.

I'm very glad that I put the criticism in then... Part of me didn't want to be negative about the weekend at all but a right clanger was dropped in the bars - and you could tell it was pretty much down to mismanagement from above... 

[payneruk]

Anyone see the 'glitter lasers' on the Nucleus stage?

They looked like white lasers but with glitter shimmering in the beams. Maybe there was lots of shiny stuff floating around and it was picking up on that. But it looked cool!

[jimbarkanoodle]

 

37 minutes ago, Sawdusty Surfer said:

Yep, just awful employers.

Heard that staff had to do 12 hour shifts with one 20 min break and as you said, were penned in when off shift and forbiden to venture out into the festival. My kids have done bar work at various festivals over the years. Had they been subjected to this we would have raised a posse and broken them out.

Boomtown directors are aware of this and so hopefully there will be some changes next year.

This really stinks, even more than the fact they were charging £5.50 for a pint of Red Stripe!

[mr flow]

2 hours ago, frostypaw said:

Great to see you again on such good form - I have found an answer to the bar thing - Freemans/Mint treated their staff appallingly taking their passports and penning them in outside of shift hours etc, will have been the least motivated bar staff in the world ever

Yep, I was chatting to a Freeman employee who had just sacked off working after 2 shifts. Said they get bussed on to site, and straight off after each 12 hour shift. Sounded horrific. 

[incident]

2 hours ago, frostypaw said:

Great to see you again on such good form - I have found an answer to the bar thing - Freemans/Mint treated their staff appallingly taking their passports and penning them in outside of shift hours etc, will have been the least motivated bar staff in the world ever

That's not a new thing though, they were pulling that shit last year as well.

[mr flow]

6 hours ago, Tommy101 said:

Did Boom sell out in the end then? 

If so the weather worked out really well for them in the end, shifting the last few tickets (which I believe is where more of the profit is)

Yeah even more capacity will be a lot more noticeable during the day when bimbling I think.

Unofficially, I heard through the grapevine that they had around 56k onsite 

[Tommy101]

54 minutes ago, payneruk said:

Anyone see the 'glitter lasers' on the Nucleus stage?

They looked like white lasers but with glitter shimmering in the beams. Maybe there was lots of shiny stuff floating around and it was picking up on that. But it looked cool!

Sure it wasn't light rain? It can make lasers look awesome.

[frostypaw]

2 hours ago, Tommy101 said:

Sure it wasn't light rain? It can make lasers look awesome.

Yup it's rain. We called the rain on Friday "added value" to the FourTet set, pretty as heck.

I'm used to the bar staff getting a relatively poor deal but seizing passports and confinement are proper offences which has crossed the line. Their people management system failed too and didn't register some people's shifts so they got thrown out and are stuck with no pay and no passport, or gave them no shifts on arrival leaving them penned if all the stories are true.

[Harry3]

Speaking of bars,

The Bad Apple bar was a big dissappointment compared to 2013/14. Where did all the ciders go

[Tommy101]

On 8/16/2019 at 2:56 PM, payneruk said:

Anyone see the 'glitter lasers' on the Nucleus stage?

They looked like white lasers but with glitter shimmering in the beams. Maybe there was lots of shiny stuff floating around and it was picking up on that. But it looked cool!

Like this? 

[jimbarkanoodle]

12 hours ago, Harry3 said:

Speaking of bars,

The Bad Apple bar was a big dissappointment compared to 2013/14. Where did all the ciders go

No decent beers either. A few years ago you could get pints of Leffe and Hoegarden, this year the only added advantage of the Bad Apple was pints of 7.3% Old Rosie, but I didn't fancy paying £6 a pint for this too often!

[aidenlangan95]

1 hour ago, Tommy101 said:

Like this? 

I wouldn't have even known it was raining during Four Tet if it wasn't for the light show. Probably my favourite DJ set of the entire weekend because everything just seemed to click into place.

Seen Four Tet a few times and it can be an absolute disaster (Brixton All Nighter 2015 was particularly bad from my memory) but that show on that stage on that night just worked. Plus I found some mates, who would listen to more than just dnb, after Gogol Bordello so the original plan of seeing him solo didn't end up happening.

Met my camp mates (who it would turn out to only listen to dnb for the whole weekend) afterwards and they said they said they were walking about for 5 hours after Relic got shut down trying to find dnb, whilst I had my favourite night at the festival!

Edited August 19, 2019 by aidenlangan95

[payneruk]

Ah that makes sense if it was rain. Looked awesome.

[FuzzyDunlop]

17 hours ago, Harry3 said:

Speaking of bars,

The Bad Apple bar was a big dissappointment compared to 2013/14. Where did all the ciders go

There was a good rhubarb one. The first time I went in they told me they only had Somersby (I think) or Thatchers. One of those anyway.

Next time they had about 5 or 6 "proper" ciders on.