Boomtown Fair is without a doubt one of the UK’s most unique
and eccentric festivals. I attended my first Boomtown in 2014, returning every
year since, however – due to having two years off – this year’s edition was now
the first time it had been held since 2019. With three years away, like many
other revellers I was desperate to get back to the festival, and keen to return
to one of the greatest parties in the country.
In that time though, the festival had undergone some
significant changes. No longer making use of the uptown and downtown areas, the
entirety of the festival’s stages were squeezed into the downtown bowl, meaning
that travel between each of the venues was quite reduced. I was concerned that
this would result in huge queues and difficulty with audience flow, moving
around the site – but I didn’t actually find any problems in this regard at
all. With the festival’s storyline resetting this year as well, many new stages
and micro-venues were revealed – along with old favourites of courses; but some
highlights included the Fool’s Leap stage, and undoubtedly the Engine House as
well – which served up the perfect festival bands all weekend. Indeed, the majority of
the acts I will mention below performed at the Engine House across the weekend.
Boomtown had in fact faced a bit of criticism in the lead-up
to this year’s event. Only revealing the line-up with just a few days to go
before the event, there were effectively no headliners – no huge names playing
across the weekend. And whilst I personally wasn’t too fussed by this – it’s
not a festival experience built around headline acts after all – I can
understand the criticism, particularly when 2020’s edition was set to include
such acts as Underworld and the Wu-Tang Clan. But there were still absolutely
fantastic performances to be found across the whole festival, and for me
personally, it’s much less about the size of the act, and much more about the
quality.
For quality was certainly to be found. It would be
impossible for me to list every single act I saw, but I will go through some of
the highlights from each day of the event:
Thursday:
DJ Hiphoppapotamus provided the perfect sunny introduction
to the festival; the Beatles Dub Club certainly demonstrated a unique approach
to presenting such music; and Afro Cluster – one of my all-time favourite bands
– put on as good a performance as they always do.
Friday:
The Big Band of Boom (Tom Hyland from the Electric Swing
Circus’s new project) set the day off nicely; A Little Sound showcased some
lovely summery DnB; before Bob Vylan provided one of the best sets of the whole
weekends, with ridiculous energy, passion, and intensity; Kae Tempest’s set was
glorious, made even better by the onstage appearance of Murphy the dog; Slamboree
were excellent as ever; and Squarepusher played another highlight set, sounding
unlike anything else I heard across the entire weekend.
Saturday:
One of my favourite sets came with the Riot Jazz Brass Band,
who livened everyone up with a paint bomb fight; then Lazy Habits provided a
stellar performance as well; De La Soul – whilst only having one member turn up
– Posdnuos, as well as guest performer Talib Kweli – still provided a memorable
set; Smokey Joe and the Kid were phenomenal – particularly so as this is the
first time I’ve seen them perform with MC Yoshi Di Original; then Fabio and
Grooverider put on an excellent show alongside the Outlook Orchestra – another
real highlight; and the Electric Swing Circus once again showcased why they’re
amongst the best of those who do what they do.
Sunday:
Of the Sunday performances, Eva Lazarus provided some
quality entertainment; before Molotov Jukebox absolutely tore it up with one of
their most energetic sets I’ve seen them play yet; Kool and the Gang arguably
provided the most fun times of the whole weekend, with tune after tune of party
anthems; and at the very end of the programming, Sonic Boom Six didn’t relent as
they also performed a standout set.
I don’t think I could pick a single set as the best of the
weekend, but my top three would easily be Bob Vylan, the Riot Jazz Brass Band,
and Kool and the Gang: all acts that I hadn’t seen before, and all acts that
did not rest for one second, storming through their sets with admirable passion
and talent.
The music was fantastic then; the new approach to the
festival layout worked very well, and overall the festival was an amazing
experience. Although there is one elephant in the room that I have not yet
mentioned: the heat. Boomtown was absolutely scorching this year, and at times
difficult to properly enjoy oneself due to the ridiculous heatwave occurring.
And worst of all, this resulted in the ground being so dry and dusty that dirt
and dust was being continually kicked up everywhere; I don’t even want to think
about how much I breathed in over the weekend, or what damage it’s done to my
body. I was certainly not feeling my best come Monday morning, and it’s taken about
a week to finally feel fully recovered.
With that one exception though, Boomtown Fair was once again a phenomenal experience. This has been my seventh now, and whilst I’m not entirely sure yet if I will be making it back next year – if this has been my last, it’s definitely gone out with a bang. I’d encourage anyone who hasn’t been before to attend a future event, and with this year’s as a measure of its continued quality, the festival remains at a very high standing.
