First acts for Boomtown 2025 revealed
- Text by Ben Smoke
- Photography by Bekky Calver
For the first time in five years, Boomtown festival have delighted fans and festival goers by releasing the first wave of acts for the 16th iteration of the event early. Known for selling out in advance with details of the line up only being released weeks before the event, this morning’s video announcement took many by surprise. You can watch it for yourself below.
Those due to perform at the award winning and trailblazing site next year include The Sex Pistols featuring Frank Carter, Maribou State, Sean Paul, Nia Archives, and Azealia Banks. Also scheduled to appear is The Blessed Madonna, Rudim3ntal, Honey Djion, Boney M and west country legends The Wurzels.
The acts will join over 600 artists still to be announced in what the festival is calling a “vibrant tapestry of sound”, featuring everything from hip-hop and post-punk to reggae, world music, folk, and beyond. With genres spanning drum and bass, techno, house, rock, jungle, disco, and psytrance the event promises to be another transcendental weekend.
Organisers also announced today that Boomtown 2025 will see the introduction of a breathtaking new stage named ‘Hydro’ which will showcase the full spectrum of 4×4 music: house, techno, and disco. Elsewhere the monumental Origin stage regenerated as an ancient temple, newly named ‘The Lions Gate’. Next summer will see Boomtown grow back outside the Downtown bowl area once again, expanding into the surrounding hills, valleys and woodland, creating more space, more nature to walk through, more intrigue and more discovery.
‘Chapter 4: Power Of Now’ will take place in Winchester’s Matterley Bowl between 6th-10th August 2025 featuring a sweeping blend of genres and eras. The full list of acts released so far can be found below.
You might like
In photos: Boomtown 2024 after dark
Traffic cones on the sesh. A Donald Trump drag king. Gurning Teletubbies. It’s a mild night at Boomtown Fair, and photographer Bekky Calver was there to capture the action.
Written by: Ben Smoke
The Blessed Madonna: “Dance music flourishes in times of difficulty”
The DJ talks about her debut album ‘Godspeed’, connection and resistance on the dance floor, the US election and more alongside exclusive pictures from her album release party.
Written by: Ben Smoke
Grainy, yearning memories of Europe’s ’90s free rave heyday
Never Alone — A new photobook from Cheyenne Clementi and Valentina Morandi presents pictures they made over seven years while touring the continent as part of the Tekno Mobil Squad soundsystem crew. It archives parties, people and a lifestyle largely consigned to the past.
Written by: Isaac Muk
As Hanoi’s nightlife faces raids & repression, its underground scene modulates
Spaces Between the Beats — Tensions between nightlife and authorities have grown in recent times, as police target venues and their patrons with increasingly frequent drug testing and searches. With clubs becoming hostile spaces as a result, Hanoi’s electronic music community is finding new spaces and forms of expression, reports Martin Guttridge-Hewitt.
Written by: Martin Guttridge-Hewitt
American Football: The One With The Feelings
Many moons — The Midwest emo architects transformed a college experiment into a coming-of-age soundtrack. 25 years on, their latest iteration sees them bottle the same magic for the ups and downs of middle life.
Written by: Tracy Kawalik
Joe James: “I will never be absent in my children’s lives because I know it doesn’t feel nice”
Hard Feelings — As the silky MC prepares to release his debut album ‘The Ends Never Ends’, he joins our column on fatherhood and masculinity to discuss leaving his childhood home at 16, the manosphere and his risk-embracing approach to life.
Written by: Robert Kazandjian
