BOOMTOWN
BEHIND
BOOMTOWN ' S
RADICAL REDESIGN
Boomtown has undergone a remarkable post-pandemic evolution, with the‘ radical redesign’ for this year’ s event resulting in the biggest and most successful edition to date. Boomtown MD Toby Gwazdacz-Wollaston discusses the decisions, operational challenges and partnerships that helped transform the business.
Stood on the crest of the hillside framing the 1,250 acres of Hampshire farmland that has been transformed by the Boomtown team into six themed districts offering attendees multifaceted fun, Toby Gwazdacz-Wollaston is understandably proud of the work that has gone into creating such a vast and complex event ecosystem.
The 77,000-capacity event held on 12-16 August at Matterley Estate, near Winchester, sold out again this year. Billed as Chapter Five, it involved a new layout spread across an event footprint that had been expanded by around a third. Meanwhile, a focus on providing a broader music offering and enhanced onsite facilities for attendees successfully achieved the aim of attracting a more diverse audience demographic.
Among the most obvious changes to Boomtown this year was the expansion of the hydrogen-powered Hydro stage into the Hydro XL. Located where the former Origin stage was positioned, the Hydro XL stage had an audience capacity of around 30,000 at this year’ s event.
Among the acts to headline Hydro XL over the weekend were Skrillex, Floating Points and Four Tet, with power supplied by GeoPura’ s green hydrogen units.
“ After 24 months of planning, we’ re delighted with the results of the redesign,” enthuses Gwazdacz-Wollaston.“ We knew Glastonbury would be having a fallow year and thought we had a real opportunity to take some bigger risks. We wanted to undergo the radical redesign and grow back to our original size, which meant increasing the footprint by a third. So, rather than
18 accessaa. co. uk