Boomtown Festival opened its doors for ‘Chapter Five: Radical Redesign’ on Wednesday 12th August 2026. The festival welcomed an overwhelming 77,000 attendees to the Matterley Estate in Winchester, the largest number it has ever received. An immersive experience, rather than just a simple festival, Boomtown is truly one for the ages.
Equipped with theatrical performances, live actors, a gripping storyline, and stage designs that can only be described as a raver’s heaven – it’s no wonder that so many people were eager to attend. This year’s theme of ‘Radical Redesign’ encouraged people to explore the concept of utopia. What could the planet look like if we radically utilised the power of community to redesign the systems that we currently hold in place? Boomtown wants you to engage with fun and happiness in the most unique ways possible.
As many people know, each year Boomtown implements a storyline that attendees are able to immerse themselves in alongside the music. This year the storyline began to feel all too close to home when the corporate, ultra-capitalist characters of Aurora and Mr Biga created a mega-corporation called BBXL. The message of BBXL is that Earth should be treated as a disposable, single-use planet because of their space programme that will allow us to colonise and drain the resources of other planets once there is nothing left of Earth.
Boomtown ‘citizens’ (attendees) are put in a position where they must question if they should put their trust in these rich corporations who reassure them that everything will be okay, or if they need to come together to redistribute power back to the people.
The story is integrated into the festival using immersive theatre and elaborate stage design. Throughout, people will encounter and dance in a variety of districts which include: Copperwood which is set in the 1920s, Area 404 where Mr Biga’s rocket plant pollutes Boomtown’s land, and Metropolis where BBXL PR and Brand Ambassadors use propaganda to convince citizens that the space programme is a fabulous idea.
At the festival, I was working in the Thrutopia district which is an area for activism and social connection, where citizens come to envision a utopia. It asks the question: what does this utopia look like and how do we implement it? Climate Live is a youth-led charity that aims to harness people’s love for music and channel it into effective activism through community led workshops and conversations. We were stationed opposite the Anara stage, in our usual bright pink, double-deckered, solar-powered bus. At the bus we had volunteers talking to Boomtown citizens, asking how they felt about the state of the planet (in collaboration with Quirky Academy CIC) and giving away free temporary tattoos, stickers, and other goodies.
Our message felt particularly important considering the intense heatwave that was taking place at the time, people commonly describing it as ‘unbearable’. We also had a variety of fun workshops running throughout the week, including: doof stick making, radical rosettes, flag-making with Jungyals & Gays, herb repotting with Grounds for Growth, and many more.
I ran a Music x Climate Zine-making workshop which encouraged people to analyse the connection between music and activism. Within the workshop we used simple art to ask questions such as: how does music speak on problems in society? What does music mean to me? What is ‘art’? What does my dream world look like?
While I got to the field on Tuesday afternoon as I was on working duty, most of the Boomtown citizens arrived on Wednesday and Thursday. Opening ceremonies hadn’t yet happened and most of the stages were closed until Thursday. It was over 33 degrees and eager ravers heaved through the fields with their backpacks, trolleys, tents, and kitchen sinks stuck to their backs. Watching the buckets of sweat drip to the ground as people dragged their belongings up hill after hill was definitely a concerning site. I walked around on Wednesday afternoon and saw several people slumped on the grass, drained from all the walking in the heat. People flew to the water refill stations like moths to a light. Later on in the week all hell nearly broke loose when one of the water stations near Old Town stopped working!
As for the music, Wednesday saw small sound systems and excited citizens with speakers since the formal stages were not yet open. Around the site I heard a mix of jungle, drum and bass, house, and a little bit of techno—- a tease of what was to come during the rest of the week. Thursday is when the festival really got started, the Sub Lab stage being a sure standout. Akira ft Cola B absolutely shelling it was the best start to the festival for all the dubstep fans, they brought the vibes to the sweatbox of a stage and got everybody moving.
Then hiking up the intensity on dubstep and grime was the extraordinarily talented Betsy Mae behind the decks and her special guest MC Jolie P. Jolie P has never given a performance anything but her absolute all, and those who have been lucky enough to see her MC would certainly agree. Sub Lab sends a message that 2026 is the moment for girls in grime, and hopefully this moment is here to stay.
As the week went on, the antics ramped up, Boomtown truly knows how to make someone say “Wtf did I just see?” From the sexually charged boxing match performances in Old Town to the always distinctive Inconvenience Store, there is no shortage of obscure sidequests to stumble upon at the festival. Once again, the stage design skills were a true standout point, without which the festival would be nowhere near as good. Stages that come with a mission were the most exciting to experience, at Soprano’s Laundrette you can crawl through a washing machine to get to the music, or the tiny hidden Sweatbox stage that can only fit around 5 people before the heat begins to become unbearable.
One thing stayed consistent throughout the whole week, the quality of music felt insanely top notch. It would be near impossible to pick a favourite set but some highlights included: G33 b2b Plastician, [IVY] vs [SAFRYE], Four Tet, Brutalismus 3000, Kneecap, 999999999, Peppa b2b Shirley Temper, and Fish56Octagon. Although the music was ridiculously high tier this year, for me Boomtown has never been about the music. Boomtown is about community, it’s about PLUR, and it’s about imagination—- because of this, my favourite thing about the week was, not a musical act, it was making new friends, sharing trinkets, and truly embracing the spirit of community care with my fellow ravers.
During the high intensity closing ceremony, the BBXL spaceship was intercepted by a group called Bill Tops who promised to reclaim hoarded wealth and redistribute it across all of Boomtown’s districts. So if Radical Redesign is equal wealth distribution, how will Boomtown’s storyline develop next year? How will each district use this newly prescribed power and wealth? And how can we apply Boomtown’s teachings to our real world lives? Are we going to let the BBXL corporations of reality deplete the planet of its resources or are we going to organise, redistribute, and radically redesign the world around us?
