NEWS
EVENTS
Event Review: Boomtown Fair 2014
Drum and Bass | Friday 22nd August 2014 | Matt
As is to be expected, Boomtown Fair was awesome. The music, the atmosphere, the unique stages... it all combined to create something absolutely insane. Obviously, someone at Guestlist had to be there, so here is one man and his buddies Boomtown experience.
THURSDAY
It was a beautiful day. The sun was out, and even the three hour plus queue we waited in did little to dampen our spirits. Actually getting in was very simple, the gate staff were all pleasant and helpful. The worst part was probably having to navigate the brutal hill on the way in from the gate. The hill was tricky enough carrying nothing but a stomach full of Thatchers Gold on the last night, but on the first day with a huge bag and a tent, it was absolute murder. It was soon over though, and we settled into camping in the Downtown district, in the shadow of the mighty Arcadia Spectacular. For the Boomtown/Glastonbury virgins among you, Arcadia is basically a giant metal spider covered in strobes and fireworks that shoots fire and has a DJ booth in the head. Probably the biggest, most popular, and most terrifying stage, it featured some of the biggest names in Bass music. It was, however, only Thursday night, and as such it wasn't fully up and running, so it just sat there, quietly scaring the shit out of the whole festival.
Once everyone had settled in and made themselves at home, we began exploring. At first we were a little disappointed with the lack of music on Thursday, but all this was redeemed by the sheer craziness that surrounded us. Everywhere we went we found something new (Chinatown? CHINATOWN? IN A FIELD?). Our concerns about the music were completely addressed once the sun started to set though. Our first point of call was the Hidden Woods at 9pm for Ed Solo, the excellent Jungle/DnB DJ from Brighton, probably best known for his frequent collaborations with DJ Deekline. He appeared alone tonight though, and absolutely smashed it. The Hidden Woods stage, designed to resemble a beach bar in the middle of the woods, was more known for Reggae for the rest of the festival, but this association didn't stop the bass from getting seriously filthy later on in the set. Leaving the Woods stage, we wandered Uptown to check out some Psytrance at Tribe of Frog. Tribe of Frog is primarily a club night in Bristol, but has graduated to the state of having its very own stage that was in many ways similar to the Hidden Woods, but with a much more psychedelic feel. The music was fantastic and the vibes even better, and leaving was much harder than anticipated. Eventually though it dawned on us that this night was supposed to be the quiet one, and we packed it in around 2am to head back to our tents.
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FRIDAY
It was a surprisingly early start for us on the Friday morning, considering the shenanigans of the night before, but there was no way we were missing what was happening today; at 12 midday, The Wailers would be playing at the largest reggae stage in the country, the Lions Den. The stage, like last night at Ed Solo, was absolutely rammed. Surely there would be bands/DJs on much less crowded stages that would be even better? I retrospect, I'm glad we stayed. The Wailers were everything that they could have possibly been, without actually resurrecting Bob Marley. In fairness, this is basically the closest anyone will ever get to seeing the man himself live now, and they were a fitting tribute. I Shot the Sheriff, Three Little Birds, Stir it Up, Jammin', One Love, Buffalo Soldier... They were all fantastic, and you could feel the positivity radiating from everyone watching. A true magic moment. After getting some food and going for another wander, sitting on four-poster beds on top of a hill overlooking the festival, and a lengthy stay in the Shisha bar, we headed back to the Lions Den for London Reggae band The Skints. They opened with an epic version of 'Rise Up', with bass so loud that it caused the sky to crack open and start raining on us very, very hard indeed. In fact we endured a full on tropical storm for most of the set and got soaked through to the bone. This is where we made probably our most sensible decision of the festival – go back to our tents, shelter from the rain for a bit, and then get changed ready for the night we had ahead of us. Our first stop was Tribe of Frog, obviously, but we also went to Arcadia for the first time to watch Vandal. Frankly though, these were all there to kill time a bit before the main event of the night; Black Sun Empire at Arcadia, from 3am till 4am. They would be the final set at the spider on the first 'real' night, making them absolutely unmissable. This was the first time we really saw Arcadia in action, although compared to what it had in store for us on the Saturday, it all seemed a bit tame. The one thing that was anything but tame, though, was the music. Deep, dark, fast and heavy basslines characterised Black Sun Empire's set, and they were killing it. The amount of times We heard the chant “ONE MORE TUNE” that night...
SATURDAY
With Saturday came a change of pace, at least at first. We spent more time exploring the Uptown districts, chatting with the hippies of Whistlers Green and having a laugh with the pirates of Oldtown. We also finally made it to the 'main' stage, the Town Centre, complete with a town crier introducing acts. It was here that we saw Electro Swing Circus, a great band that mixes 30s/40s Swing, Jazz, and Big Band with modern Electro beats. The positive vibes were truly infectious and, as soon as they started playing, people stopped using the big open space of the Town Centre to sunbathe and instead got up on their feet for a good old skank. Good times were had by all, but the best was yet to come. We spent most of the rest of the day chilling in the sun at the hidden woods, then returned to camp to prepare for a VERY big night at Arcadia. Friends who had already been to Boomtown had been telling us since we arrived that “Arcadia on Saturday night is craaaazy man, you definitely have to go maaaan!”. They weren't lying.
It wasn't just the fire and strobes though. The line-up for Saturday night at Arcadia featured KOAN Sound, Glitch-hop DJ/producer Tipper, Balkan-Gyspy-Bass act Slamboree Soundsystem and 90s DnB legend Aphrodite – all back to back, one after the other. This kept us going for nearly 4 hours, and it was well into the morning by the time we'd had our fill at the spider. Then it was straight to... yep, Tribe of Frog! Absolutely no regrets about how much time we spent at the Tribe, we could always rely on it for a good time if we weren't sure where to go next. This was the one night that Tribe of Frog was overshadowed completely by Arcadia though, with the highlight being Slamboree Soundsystem. Although the full incarnation of Slamboree, complete with live brass and circus performers, sadly wasn't making an appearance this year, the Soundsystem worked a treat at getting things jumping, especially with Mike Freaar behind the decks and live vocals from Kathika Rabbit from within the booth. The music was varied enough to keep you interested and always wanting to be right were the action was, but filthy enough to match the vibes of Arcadia, which was working double time all night. After the craziness of Slamboree, the constant drum and bass beats of Aphrodite at first sounded a little flat. But Aphrodite rose to the challenge and dropped some serious tunes, including a DnB mix of Black Sabbath's legendary Heavy Metal anthem 'War Pigs', his 90s Jungle classic 'Stalker' (famously heard in Koop's record shop in Human Traffic), and even The Exorcist theme 'Tubular Bells', and managed to match Mike Freaar's energy with ease, ending our big night under the spider in serious style.
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It didn't stop there though. After a short stint at Tribe of Frog and The Rave Yard, we headed to Oldtown to see the Russian Ska-Metal band Russkaja. They were slated to be one of the best live acts of the whole weekend, so obviously we had to see them. It also helped that they were playing on a giant pirate ship. Understandably, we weren't that happy when it was announced that their 2am set was cancelled, but the disappointment was short-lived. The Destroyers, a bizarre fusion of Ska, Gypsy Music, and Bass replaced them instead, and we were blown away by their fusion of electro beats and traditional instruments in a live setting. They kept us skanking till 3am, when we decided that things should probably start calming down, so we headed back to tribe of frog for an hour or so before we called it a night.
SUNDAY
Sunday was designated as our 'chilled' day, especially after our adventures the night before. There were some very sore heads after Arcadia, so a spot of comedy-folk sounded like the perfect cure. Beans on Toast was one of my favourite acts of the entire festival, not least because a member of the crowd was bought out on stage to beatbox. He was funny, witty, and even played well. The infectious positivity of his set stayed with us for the rest of the day, and was reignited when we watched the excellent reggae band One Roots in the Hidden Woods. The vibes were among the best of the whole weekend, and you could feel that the last night was going to be a special one.
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The only complaint we had about Sunday night was that Opiou, the New Zealand glitch-hop God, was playing at Arcadia... While it was still light. This seemed slightly pointless, but his set was still completely unreal. Still, I can't help but wonder what might have been if the flames were on. There was no time to reflect on this though, because we needed to get to the Town Centre for one of the craziest experiences we were going to have all weekend. The Cat Empire are widely regarded as one of the best live bands in the world, and their UK exclusive set on Sunday night is evidence of this. They were unreal, effortlessly combining Jazz, Rock, Latin, Reggae and Ska into one genre that is all their own. The results were stunning, so much so that during set closer Brighter than Gold, I actually saw a grown man cry tears of joy. One final trip to Tribe of Frog later and we were back Downtown for the Arcadia Spectacular Finale, complete with fireworks from the spiders legs and dancers hanging on bungee cords. Even after this we managed to get in one final adventure, this time to Chinatown, where we stumbled across a tiny stage in a back alley. It was there that we saw the fantastic Ska-Punk band Poor Old Dogs. They were fantastically wasted, wearing pirate costumes, and were the perfect end to (as close as is possible) a perfect festival.
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Due to licence agreements at the location, unfortunately the music had to stop at midnight. This did not sit too well with the mass of ravers attending Boomtown, so the antics continued long into the night. The shenanigans most local to our camp site was an impromptu drum circle... on bins. In probably the most Boomtown thing I saw all weekend, someone dismantled the gazebo they brought, stole four metal bins from around the festival, and used the poles as drum sticks. Seriously. This continued until about 6am, with about 150 people turning up to continue the party. Favourite Boomtown memory: two security guards attempting to break up the drum circle. When asked why they said that people were trying to sleep, to which a guy with dreads down to his waist replied “Mate its only 1 O'clock, I don't think anyone at this festival is even trying to sleep!”.
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So... Same time next year?
Matt Abson
