“ We really worked with the topography of the site and focused on the sound sources . I don ’ t think there were many people outside our core team who weren ’ t nervous about Boomtown putting everything back into the bowl because we ’ ve been so spread out in the past . We had relentless crowd management
Lak Mitchell
meetings and planned out everything . Over the event weekend it was perfect in terms of crowd density , flow and the sound levels .”
Despite the challenges , Boomtown ’ s team increased its work to make the event more environmentally sustainable . Working with Emily Ford at Hope Solutions , Boomtown switched its fuel source to hydrotreated vegetable oil ( HVO ) and reduced emissions from fuel consumption by 90 %. The 10-14 August event also saw the unveiling of a new stage , Origin , constructed with live plants and recycled components from an old stage .
Among the acts to play the event
“ We never set out to be a big headliner festival , we fell into the trap of booking bigger and bigger acts .” were Four Tet , De La Soul , Kojey Radical and Kae Tempest , but Mitchell says there was a concerted effort to move away from focusing on headline acts in favour of spreading the investment more evenly across the whole line-up .
“ We never set out to be a big headliner festival , we set out to be a creative living theatre but we fell into the trap of booking bigger and bigger acts ,” says Mitchell . “ We want to focus on a broad , eclectic line-up covering and promoting all styles of music rather than a few artists costing hundreds of thousands of pounds . We want to distribute that money in a fairer way , and the audience at this year ’ s event were genuinely really happy with that . A few people wanted refunds , but it was great to be able to be really clear about our focus going forward .
Despite a 45 % stake in Boomtown having been acquired in August by Live Nation ( 18 %), SJM ( 9 %), and Gaiety ( 18 %), Mitchell says the festival ’ s original team will remain firmly in charge of the decision-making process . He says the funding will not only help make Boomtown more financially robust but enable it to become more environmentally sustainable : “ We ’ re still autonomous , in the same way Glastonbury is , but if we do have a bad year , then we have the support to still pay people at the end , which is something we ’ ve never had , so now that stress and worry has been lifted .
“ We ’ ve been the biggest independent festival in the country , by double , for the last eight years , with no support financially , so it ’ s great to have Live Nation , Gaiety and SJM ’ s support .
“ Ultimately , there ’ s no way they want to jeopardise the enthusiasm or excitement of the festival organisers , because then it all falls apart and the investment is worthless . We still run the company and make all the decisions .”
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