#booomtown

[hallucinatethis-hallucinatethat]

BOOOOOOOOMTOOOOOOWN

....................its like 1 month away :D

[hamburber]

ok the music guru madi spacetea tagged me in a music thingy where i make a playlist using the letters of my name ! 

H - hard believer - fink

O - only trying to tell you - jacob allen

L - leaf off/the cave - jose gonzalez

L - leaving it up to you - george ezra

I - impatience - john mueller

E - eugene - sufjan stevens

imma tag a few people, but u don’t have to do it! and u can also say i tagged u to do this if u wanna! saaxirad ilovesufjanstevens arcticdad booomtown literally anyone else! 

[thejaylist-blog]

August Arrives

I've been looking forward to this all year, traditionally my busiest month for festivals, parties and generally being outdoors, everything that summer is about for me. Two weeks from today I will be returning home from Boomtown Fair and with the Big Chill only three days from now I sense the next couple of weeks may well be a blur of colours, lights, music and friendly faces. As I'm unlikely to be doing any kind of review or write up of the festivals (although I haven't entirely ruled that out), I have decided a small preview may be more appropriate, so first up let's talk Big Chill.  

 This will be my 4th consecutive year at Eastnor Deer Park and whilst I have never had a bad time there, I already suspect that it will be my last. In 2009 the festival was losing money and was in serious jeopardy, so in came Festival Republic to take over the festival in its entirety. Festival Republic also operate many of the UK's largest festivals such as Reading/Leeds and Latitude and have had great financial success doing so, often through commercial sponsorship. Sadly, all indications last year suggested that the Chill was to follow suit with sponsorship creeping in and some more 'mass market appeal' acts appearing on the main stages to draw a larger crowd.

Let me make this clear from the start, I have no problem with this which puts me firmly into the minority of Big Chill faithful who want the Chill of old to return with its friendly and mature attitude and diverse selection of world music. Don't get me wrong, I love the Chill of years gone by but sadly the past is where it must remain. People seem to forget that this festival would not exist anymore had Festival Republic not stepped in and whilst I certainly won't be watching the likes of Kanye West, Jessie J and Chipmunk, I understand the necessity of introducing such acts to the festival and whilst the names on the main stage may not be what is expected of this weekend, the other stages are jam packed with up and coming original music from all over the world and for that I take my festival straw hat off to whoever picked the line up. The old Big Chill is still there, its just not in the main field anymore and you'll most likely find me spending my time around the Peoples Ear and Starburst stages watching the likes of Ghostpoet, Andrea Triana, Konono #1, Quantic's Combo Barbaro and Submotion Orchestra. 

It will be interesting to compare the atmosphere to last year's which I know that they received many complaints for due to over the top advertising, too many drunken teens and unnecessarily heavy handed security. I suspect they'll have taken these issues on board but even so 2011 is likely to be my final voyage to the beautiful hills of Eastnor, at least as a festival goer due to the ever increasing ticket prices which get harder to justify each year. This summer I have already been to Meadowlands and 2000 Trees festivals and the combined price of those is still around £40 short of the Big Chill ticket and £40 can buy a lot of cider or go a long way towards paying for a ticket to one of the many small festivals springing up all over the UK and Europe each year. A prime example of that is Boomtown Fair in a secret location in Southern England which after just 2 days at home after the Chill I shall be heading to for the first time to see how these relatively new festivals compete.

Boomtown has been running for around 5 years now and growing at a steady rate whilst not shouting about its successes. What started out as an almost exclusively ska festival has now evolved to encompass the worlds of dub, gypsy, drum n bass, reggae and everything in between. What's more is that Boomtown has one very unique attribute, they build us a town! That's right, it's called Boomtown for a reason, the set design for the entire festival is absolutely incredible giving the impression to the festival goer that they are the temporary residents some kind of slightly futuristic, slightly post-apocalyptic town complete with restaurants, shops, nightclubs, circus performers and surprises around every corner. 

The nature of the line-up ensures a young and energetic crowd, especially compared to the family friendly Big Chill and I already suspect I'll struggle to keep up with some of my younger friends, especially as I'll likely still be a little fragile from my previous weekend. In all honesty though, it wasn't the atmosphere or the music that attracted me to this festival, it's the friends who are going and to witness the Boomtown experience first hand. I'm expecting lots of reggae and dub in the sun, drunken explorations of the town centre, discovering new favourite bands in the most unexpected places and a great vibe throughout, seems like a winning combination to me. Sure, I'll have a hard time enjoying some of the DnB, dubstep and jungle but at the end of the day festivals like this are about people, not music.

They are a place for people to escape from their daily lives, drop any judgemental attitudes and relax amongst friends. They are a place where you can truly be yourself, whatever that may be and a place where smiling at a stranger is more likely to start a conversation than create an awkward moment as you pass each other on the path. Festivals are my home, and there's no place like home.