IMMERSIVE EVENTS
Boomtown
WORLD’ S APART
From brand activations to family exhibitions, theatrical presentations to festivals, AAA explores the fastevolving world of immersive events.
Since the outset, Boomtown Fair has intertwined storytelling, escapism, theatricality and community engagement with live entertainment. The event, which recently saw plans to increase its capacity from 66,000 to 77,000 approved, has once again sold out well in advance.
With 12 main stages, and more than 50‘ hidden venues’, along with thousands of performers, Boomtown will take place at its longtime home of Matterley Estate, Hampshire, from August 10-15. Among the diverse array of acts set to perform are Maribou State, Sex Pistols and Sean Paul.
Boomtown co-founder and creative director Luke Mitchell says it is nearly two decades since he first had the idea of creating a‘ parallel world’ in a field. Boomtown is divided into themed districts, each with a unique design, stages, characters and experiences that encourage attendees to explore different worlds and ways of living. Each edition of the festival involves a central narrative that unfolds throughout the event, culminating in the closing ceremony.
It has proven a hugely popular and complex concept, that involves one of the biggest and longest builds in the festival industry.
Mitchell says that the look, feel and delivery of the event are all based around storytelling:“ When we launched the event we very quickly started to recognise the power of the storytelling that sits underneath it, and so we brought the story creation forward so that it
Luke Mitchell
would be written before we looked at the production design, the shape of the festival, and then everything could then come off the top of that and be really cohesive and in tune with that story. Storytelling is the biggest factor in the creation of a really stand-out, truly immersive, event.”
36 accessaa. co. uk