Boomtown Chapter 1: The Gathering

[Sawdusty surfer]

Not sure if mentioned already, but 48k tickets.

[TheFullShaboo]

31 minutes ago, Sawdusty Surfer said:

Not sure if mentioned already, but 48k tickets.

For this year?!? So what was it previously? 

No idea where i had got it from but i could have sworn id read / been told /  made up it was less than 50% capacity on the previous year.

[Sawdusty surfer]

15 minutes ago, TheFullShaboo said:

For this year?!? So what was it previously? 

No idea where i had got it from but i could have sworn id read / been told /  made up it was less than 50% capacity on the previous year.

Anna Wade said that on BBC R4 World At One today  in a brief interview. 

Guessing crew tickets will be on top of the 48k.  Not sure of previous capacity exactly.

[Sku]

20 minutes ago, Sawdusty Surfer said:

Anna Wade said that on BBC R4 World At One today  in a brief interview. 

Guessing crew tickets will be on top of the 48k.  Not sure of previous capacity exactly.

The current license permits max 48k ticket holders. So that would suggest it's as many tickets as ever if true.

I didn't hear the interview, but are you sure she wasn't referring to the size of the event more generally?

I know they must have had very good ticket sales last week, so is it possible they have pivoted back to running a larger festival again now?

[Sawdusty surfer]

36 minutes ago, Sku said:

The current license permits max 48k ticket holders. So that would suggest it's as many tickets as ever if true.

I didn't hear the interview, but are you sure she wasn't referring to the size of the event more generally?

I know they must have had very good ticket sales last week, so is it possible they have pivoted back to running a larger festival again now?

Here's the link. Interview starts at 31.48   Does say 48k tickets sold!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000sqrw

[mr flow]

15 hours ago, Sawdusty Surfer said:

Here's the link. Interview starts at 31.48   Does say 48k tickets sold!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000sqrw

I think Anna has got this wrong. As Sku has mentioned, it was 48K public tickets previously, so they are going to have the same amount of people, but half the size in terms of space. Purely a guess, but i would think it's 48K tickets including crew etc.

[mr flow]

Few snippets i've seen this morning indicate that there won't be a direct replacement area for Whistlers Green, although each of the campsite villages will be heavily involved by the people that ran Whistlers Green, so you should see similar things within each of the villages (i think @Sku also commented about something similar recently).
 

[Old_Johno]

48k seems high, would definitively need both sides of the festival open to handle that many people. As in the bowl and lions den etc

[bennyhana22]

On 3/3/2021 at 9:26 AM, mr flow said:

Few snippets i've seen this morning indicate that there won't be a direct replacement area for Whistlers Green, although each of the campsite villages will be heavily involved by the people that ran Whistlers Green, so you should see similar things within each of the villages (i think @Sku also commented about something similar recently).
 

That would do me. Just important to me to have contrast over the course of the festival. I'm one of those who cannot bear not to be doing something, on the go continuously from 10am to whenever I'm forced to go to bed (7-ish at Glastonbury, 5-ish at BT). So I need light and shade across each day and the Whistler's Green vibe was an occasional lovely change from Downtown chaos. It would be a shame to lose the healing fields aspects that it had too, so hopefully the camping village profiles will scratch that itch. 
 

I wonder if they'll 'theme' the villages accordingly so people can maybe choose the type of vibe they'd like to set up camp...?

Ben

[dumski]

Is there a list of years and capacities since they've been at Matterley? 

[mr flow]

4 hours ago, dumski said:

Is there a list of years and capacities since they've been at Matterley? 

I think the first licence they had approved for the Matterley estate was for a daily capacity of 30,000, and has been increased over the years to the 65,000 they currently have.

I'm not 100% sure of that though, so don't take that for gospel.

[jump]

8 hours ago, dumski said:

Is there a list of years and capacities since they've been at Matterley? 

If you look at the efests listings it will have the capacity mentioned in the summary box, you will have to find them one by one but you can save time by editing the url to 2020, 2019 etc rather than searching for it.

 

https://www.efestivals.co.uk/festivals/boomtown/2021/

[Leyrulion]

6 hours ago, mr flow said:

I think the first licence they had approved for the Matterley estate was for a daily capacity of 30,000, and has been increased over the years to the 65,000 they currently have.

I'm not 100% sure of that though, so don't take that for gospel.

2020 was supposed to be an increase to 79,000 I think, which is still the maximum capacity.

[mr flow]

14 hours ago, Leyrulion said:

2020 was supposed to be an increase to 79,000 I think, which is still the maximum capacity.

They still haven't had the capacity increase to 76,999 confirmed. They have a planning application in with the South Downs National Park which will be heard imminently. Until that has been agreed, they can't increase capacity.

[dumski]

17 hours ago, jump said:

If you look at the efests listings it will have the capacity mentioned in the summary box, you will have to find them one by one but you can save time by editing the url to 2020, 2019 etc rather than searching for it.

 

https://www.efestivals.co.uk/festivals/boomtown/2021/

thank you.   

11 5K, 12 13k, 13 30K, 14 38K, 15 45K, 16 60k, 17 60K, 18 65K, 19 66K, 20 66K, 21 30k

Interesting, so back to 2013 levels.  My first, didn't seem crowded at all.  I recall spending a lot of time exploring the doors in the uptown area.  Although, maybe that only happened because I was in campervans.  Lions den was uptown I believe so could they bring that back as a stage area?  Wasn't a huge fan of it there but did like the sand in the tree area.

were there any other stages uptown at that point? town centre?  -This thought has cheered me up no end

 

[Leyrulion]

1 hour ago, mr flow said:

They still haven't had the capacity increase to 76,999 confirmed. They have a planning application in with the South Downs National Park which will be heard imminently. Until that has been agreed, they can't increase capacity.

Oh I was taking it from press reports that said it had been approved for 2020? Still up in the air for this year then?

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/whats-on/music-nightlife/boomtown-festivals-capacity-increase-20000-3157350

[JBarbour]

1 hour ago, Leyrulion said:

Oh I was taking it from press reports that said it had been approved for 2020? Still up in the air for this year then?

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/whats-on/music-nightlife/boomtown-festivals-capacity-increase-20000-3157350

Boomtown licences are a little more complicated than other festivals/events, I think they have to get approval on two fronts - from the local council and the national park authority. The local council have already approved.     

[jump]

The resale is happening on the 1st June for those that missed out.

[mr flow]

5 hours ago, dumski said:

thank you.   

11 5K, 12 13k, 13 30K, 14 38K, 15 45K, 16 60k, 17 60K, 18 65K, 19 66K, 20 66K, 21 30k

Interesting, so back to 2013 levels.  My first, didn't seem crowded at all.  I recall spending a lot of time exploring the doors in the uptown area.  Although, maybe that only happened because I was in campervans.  Lions den was uptown I believe so could they bring that back as a stage area?  Wasn't a huge fan of it there but did like the sand in the tree area.

were there any other stages uptown at that point? town centre?  -This thought has cheered me up no end

 

I'd be surprised if 2011 was only 5K and 2012 was 13k. Seemed way more than that.

[manateemike]

Am I the only one worried about the same sized public crowd in half the area ? Forty eight thousand public punters Downtown is terrifying thought. 

I get you can stuff that many people in that area, uncomfortably, but how are they going to move freely amongst the stages ??

it was busy in the evenings Downtown when you had major headliners on Lions Den, Town Centre and a myriad of other minor stages, plus Nucleus all taking probably half the attendance away from Downtown. I just can’t picture a good selection of venues catering for all the different music Boomtown was greatly known for. 

It needs to be called The Cramming, not The Gathering. 

Edited March 11, 2021 by manateemike

[jump]

9 hours ago, manateemike said:

Am I the only one worried about the same sized public crowd in half the area ? Forty eight thousand public punters Downtown is terrifying thought. 

I get you can stuff that many people in that area, uncomfortably, but how are they going to move freely amongst the stages ??

it was busy in the evenings Downtown when you had major headliners on Lions Den, Town Centre and a myriad of other minor stages, plus Nucleus all taking probably half the attendance away from Downtown. I just can’t picture a good selection of venues catering for all the different music Boomtown was greatly known for. 

It needs to be called The Cramming, not The Gathering. 

The capacity this year is 30k though.

[bennyhana22]

15 hours ago, manateemike said:

Am I the only one worried about the same sized public crowd in half the area ? Forty eight thousand public punters Downtown is terrifying thought. 

I get you can stuff that many people in that area, uncomfortably, but how are they going to move freely amongst the stages ??

it was busy in the evenings Downtown when you had major headliners on Lions Den, Town Centre and a myriad of other minor stages, plus Nucleus all taking probably half the attendance away from Downtown. I just can’t picture a good selection of venues catering for all the different music Boomtown was greatly known for. 

It needs to be called The Cramming, not The Gathering. 

Also, I think all/almost all of the Downtown camping spaces adjacent to Districts are converting to part of an expanded Downtown. So with that, Forest Parties and a very significant reduction in punter numbers, we should be OK...*

Ben

 

 

 

 

 

*I think

[manateemike]

14 hours ago, jump said:

The capacity this year is 30k though.

It’s not though, Anne Wade on Radio 4 last week very clearly stated “it’s sold out, 48 thousand PUBLIC “

[manateemike]

8 hours ago, bennyhana22 said:

Also, I think all/almost all of the Downtown camping spaces adjacent to Districts are converting to part of an expanded Downtown. So with that, Forest Parties and a very significant reduction in punter numbers, we should be OK...*

Ben

 

 

 

 

 

*I think

Numbers are not reduced. Listen to the link posted by Sawdusty Surfer and she says 48 thousand public tickets sold. 
 

[TheFullShaboo]

On 3/11/2021 at 10:49 PM, manateemike said:

Am I the only one worried about the same sized public crowd in half the area ? Forty eight thousand public punters Downtown is terrifying thought. 

I get you can stuff that many people in that area, uncomfortably, but how are they going to move freely amongst the stages ??

it was busy in the evenings Downtown when you had major headliners on Lions Den, Town Centre and a myriad of other minor stages, plus Nucleus all taking probably half the attendance away from Downtown. I just can’t picture a good selection of venues catering for all the different music Boomtown was greatly known for. 

It needs to be called The Cramming, not The Gathering. 

Nah. If the rumours are true about the future of boomtown the last thing the organisers are going to do is take a sold out event and ruin it by over crowding.
As an independent festival they’ve managed to expand successfully year on year without losing the ethos of what festivals are about. There’s no way they’ll cut corners or anything else at the expense of the punters.*

*(this is all based on my personal experience of course, but I do genuinely believe that those in charge do care about the event they put on, and not just the money they make from it)