The untameable beast of BoomTown Fair once again took over the Matterly Estate in Winchester last weekend (9th – 12th August).
Unleashing madness and mayhem within the streets of a mock-up, make-believe, fantasy town for 28,000 lucky residents to embark on a voyage to infinity and beyond!
BoomTown Fair does things its own way, steering clear from the usual festival formula BoomTown transports the festival goer into a fully working town. Behind the gilded walls of the town are all sorts of treasures just waiting to be found, from semi-clad jelly wrestling at the Bearded Kitten’s Bank, accidently stumbling across the secret entrance to the Prohibition Den via a pensioners caravan, or 20ft fiery tornadoes twirling outside the Lion’s Den, there is entertainment behind every nook and cranny and at BoomTown imagination is boundless!
With the town Mayor taking in all the feedback from the 2011 residents, this year’s annual fair was a rip roaring success. With the noticeable expansion of camping facilities, a new, friendlier security team, a crack down on graffiti and a general feeling of mutual respect and love in the air, 2012 saw the festival take it to the next level and all its residents take one small step for BoomTown and one almighty aerial summersault for the future of UK festivals by raising the bar higher than it’s ever been set before!
The secret to BoomTown’s success is the collaborative nature of the project; with over 8,000 crew working on the event throughout the year; the creativity, artistic skill, bonkers ideas and sheer hard graft that goes into building a whole new town for nearly 30,000 people is unfathomable! And then add in to the mix the BoomTown residents and the streets come alive with body paint, fancy dress, glitter and big, happy smiling faces filled with fun!
Highlights of the weekend included a secret appearance by the legendary Jimmy Cliff, who set the Town Centre alight with sunshine vibes and nostalgic tunes for a perfect way to kick start the Sunday evening. Nightly 40ft mushroom cloud pyrotechnics; the new Hidden Woods stage, set up like a beach bar under the sun dappled canopy of the surrounding trees that provided the perfect spot to sit and soak up some live reggae. Then there was the awe inspiring Arcadia! This mega spider structure of lasers, fire, pounding bass, moveable limbs and swirling acrobats, created a mind expanding experience that all who experienced will never forget!
Arcadia crash landed at BoomTown for the first time this year and took over a whole section of the site for the Arcadia Spectacular show, normally reserved for the fields of Worthy Farm at Glastonbury but this year the settled in to their true hometown of BoomTown! Due to the gargantuan success of the combined brains of BoomTown and Arcadia, the BoomTown officials are ecstatic to announce that Arcadia will certainly be back next year with more colossal flaming, moveable metal sculptures to undoubtedly shock, awe and blow the minds of 2013 Boomtown residents!
Published on 17 August 2012 by Ben Robinson
