In photos: Boomtown 2024 after dark
- Text by Ben Smoke
- Photography by Bekky Calver
The sun has barely set on Boomtown Fair as we dance at the Bad Apple Bar in the centre of the festival site. A 212 x Bonkers mashup is blasting out of the speakers at the ‘Celebrity Beef’ event, run by ‘DJ Gaylord’. On stage, a drag dressed as Donald Trump, complete with ear bandage, is slowly stripping. Next to them, another performer dressed as Azealia Banks in her ‘digging up and cooking her dead cat’ era, complete with machete, dances along with the music, using the weapon to gesture as they lip sync ‘I guess that cunt getting eaten’. Very few, if any, of these words are in the bible I think to myself as I watch on.
Outside of the venue, a mobile DJ booth, (transported by bike) has pulled up. 5 people gather round it and dance to filthy Drum and Bass. Crowds amble past them with groups of people dressed like traffic cones weaving through, eager to get across the site to catch DJ EZ’s set at the Origin stage. The stage, towards the centre of the site’s iconic bowl, is a cross between an Aztec temple and laser show, complete with mycelium and mushrooms growing up the side of it, and is shrouded in fog.
This is Saturday night of the 14th iteration of Boomtown and it is every bit as mad as you would hope. The festival, built around the idea of an alternate reality, features different districts, each with their own individual flavour and look. There is a storyline and theme that runs through each festival, shaping the direction of the ‘town’ for the next event. Actors roam each district, interacting with festival goers who themselves often come in varying shades of fancy dress. Alongside intricate and expansive sets, it comes together to create a molten pool of imagination and silliness, soundtracked by relentless duff duff of bass echoing around the Hampshire countryside. No more is this clear than after dark. We sent photographer Bekky Calver to capture the action.
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