Review: Boomtown 2024 – ‘Technicolour world-building at its finest’

Getting to Boomtown Fair kid-free has been on the bucket list for eight long years and finally this summer all my glittering, bass-heavy dreams came true.

Rolling up to the gates in a sunny corner of Hampshire, I fell through this exquisitely curated festival’s portal to a utopian world of fun.

The festival unfolds as a shimmering, booming playground sprawling across the valley bottom like a long lost city made up of eight distinct Districts, the scale and detail of which takes all weekend to wrap your head around.

My Friday dancing shoes dragged me through the heart of the site and out the other side to Area 404, curated as a refuge for radical revolutionaries, lost kids and punks with the feel of a free party that’s grown up and the aesthetics of a post-apocalyptic scrapyard.

I rolled around Spectrum 360, a circular arena entirely enclosed in shipping containers, to UK garage from Shosh and mash-up pop-soaked gabba from SpongeBob Squarewave and Gammer.

Across the way Femmegeddon, a Bristol collective, put on a riotous cabaret and the trippy funfair stage, Wrong side of the Tracks, hosted a night of d’n’b and jungle with DJ Q, Total Science and Sully.

Epic scale artwork guards the entrance to Wrong Side of the Tracks and Area 404 – photo: Jody Hartley

As I settled into my new life as a citizen of Boowtown on Saturday I took the opportunity to check out more of my new neighbourhood. The streets, allies and snickleways were packed with club kids, ravers and party people in their finest glad rags.

Huge stages sit by intimate venues, and unique sideshows, allowing a blended experience of your own making.

Letsby Avenue, Boomtown’s town centre complete with post office, laundrette, garden centre and infamous Hotel Paradiso each concealing micro-raves and hidden vignettes of debauchery, was in full swing. Hardcore blasted out of a wheely bin speaker while an imaginarium of traders hawked trinkets, gossip and glitter.

In the narrow, twisted streets of Old Town pirates caused havoc in the square, Tough and Tender threw a bare knuckle clown fight in a back street boxing club and Fools Leap, complete with caravans and wagons, brought an old time circus vibe with live brass.

Performers and circus folk can be found everywhere at Boomtown – scaling walls, flinging themselves from rooves, and lurking round street corners ready to pounce – photo: Boomtown

Spilling out into Area 404, a bassline was pumping out of PFP’s robotic soundsystem as the crowd cooled off with a water fight. As the evening drew in, mist settled over Boomtown, illuminated by a rainbow of lasers and flame cannons and the last fragments of the outside world drifted off.

I bounced around the festival marvelling at the breadth of music on offer from Meute, a live 11 piece techno marching band at Grand Central, to Gabber Kebabber, a horror kebab shop themed gabba hole in Metropolis and rave punk Tokky Horrors’ visceral farewell gig at Hanger 161.

The festival features huge live music stages and equally enormous electronic music areas to rave through the night – photo: Boomtown

The sun was up early and Sunday melted, the perfect day to explore Boomtown’s three woodland stages – a wholly unexpected counterpoint to the heat and intensity of the city.

First stop Tangled Roots, hosting laid back dub with cocktail bar; then on to Tribe of Frogs where bare feet came out for psytrance on the sandy dancefloor. Later, a venture into Botanica’s Hidden Woods, a magical forest glade with wooden walkways through the trees, bringing Samurai Breaks and Coco Bryce to an ecstatic crowd.

Fans of every genre are catered for, including punk which has its own home at Hangar 161, also the festival’s socialist, anti-racist haunt – photo: Ursula Billington

Boomtown is technicolour world-building at its finest: somewhere to get lost, and somewhere to get found. I found my tribe, and by the looks of the people and the energy that was everywhere, so did 60,000 others.

Tickets for Boomtown 2025 are now on sale at www.boomtownfair.co.uk

Main photo: Jody Hartley

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