Upon arrival at BoomTown Fair, one may be forgiven for feeling a bit overwhelmed.
After all, there is quite a lot going on. Team One on One has barely been here for an hour, and we’ve already made firm friends with an army of spacemen, witnessed some gypsy folk-punks tear a new one out of a stage that we can only describe as a fire-breathing mansion house, and been ushered into a makeshift dive bar by a small army of pogo-dancing cowboys.
We have, however, been assured that this is fairly normal for BoomTown Fair. It’s chaos, but in the best possible way; it’s fun, and rampant, and bizarre, and seemingly never-ending. It is, truly, not what you’d usually expect to find in a National Park on the outskirts of Winchester.
In fact, having spent the weekend there, we can see that this element of surprise is actually the best thing about BoomTown.
‘Why’s that?’, we hear you ask? Well, do allow us to elaborate. Now, in order to understand where we’re coming from, you’ll need to know that BoomTown Fair boasts a capacity of 66,000; thus making it one of the UK’s largest festivals. This means that, as a first-time attendee, you’d be forgiven to expect that you’ll see much of the same as you would at other large festivals.
And, for one part, you do. You get, for instance, an A-list lineup; the likes of Kate Tempest, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Carl Cox, and Four Tet, amongst others. You also get some nice food stands, a handful of bars, and the obligatory fairground rides.
That, however, is where the similarities stop.
Dear reader, we cannot stress enough how the entire ethos of BoomTown Fair is centralised around the fact that it embraces – nay, encourages – the unexpected.
There was something slightly odd around every corner. There were immersive actors, wandering around dressed as toothless rebels and wide-eyed townspeople, and who were routinely excellent; so much so, in fact, that by the time we reached the Sunday afternoon we were having trouble differentiating them from the people who just hadn’t made it to bed yet.
There were beggars who appeared to be in constant competition with each other over who could scavenge the most cider from unsuspecting passers-by; puppeteers with rag dolls lurking around pop-up spoken word sets; and, much to the delight of certain members of Team One on One, spontaneous dance-offs between legions of actors and festival-goers alike.
That’s not to say that there weren’t some amazing musical performances, though.
The Streets – whose set melded their later, more laid-back tracks with some of their original irate material, and who marked their arrival with the sight of a slightly inebriated Mike Skinner clambering into the waterfalls surrounding the Lion’s Den stage – were an obvious highlight, as were the all-out hit bonanzas of Salt ‘n’ Pepa and the visceral rap-rock of Prophets Of Rage.
Yet, equal highlights were served in the form of the countless spontaneous raves, spoken-word sets, and slightly odd hybrid shows that were scattered throughout the site across the weekend. In truth, we never thought that we’d come away from a festival singing the praises of a beatboxer’s midday collaboration with a Hungarian folk violinist; but, here we are.
That, in a nutshell, is what makes BoomTown Fair so undeniably brilliant.
It’s unashamedly unique, maximalist to a fault, and overwhelming to the point where we’re still not sure that we’ve adequately articulated it; trust us when we say that you won’t want to miss out on next year.