Boomtown 2012

This weekend a large field in Winchester became my Bass Mecca where I was lucky enough to cram far too much fun into a couple of days. It’s the first time I've been to boomtown and it’s a top festival, possibly the best I've ever been to.  I was drawn to it by the fantastic DJ line up of breaks and beats I love and spat out wowed by both the music and the dedication to creating a proper festival vibe like you dream of how festivals should be. It’s small enough to be non-corporate and seems run just for fun. There’s no big name bands headlining, the organisers know what they like & put the best of that on for everyone to enjoy – plus making sure there so many odd performances happening all over the place you have genuine laugh out loud moments and never forget your somewhere very special indeed. The town feel with actual streets containing bars / theaters / bank takeovers and secret entrances make it so much more than a few marquees in a field. 

Here’s a brief rundown of the fun I had me when I was there:

Once I’d arrived I was straight off to see DJ Parker who lived up to my expectations of seamlessly mashing genres to get my groove on from groovy funk to tasty breaks and ending on bouncy drum & bass (I didn’t learn to pace myself this wkend).  Then I was off to the town centre stage to see the dub pistols live – I did catch them last weekend at standon calling where they blew the sound desk! No technical hitches this time so the set flowed perfectly, the sun blazed down and I skank leapt solar charged and massively excited.

Then for old time sakes I went off to checkout Zion Train who I recall from megadog days in Nottingham. They’ve still got it and I was eased into dub techno from 15 years ago that still sounds fresh and the positive lyrics go so well with the sunshine. After that I was on my way to catch the plump djs but got distracted by the sounds of Stevie with a phat b-line and got introduced to the boombox stage – a massive ghetto blaster (double decker bus size) pumping out dope bass funk – skalliwaggles was on the controls then and kept me captive for too long ;)

Back to the bassline circus for the disturbing spectacle that is High Rankin’s live show. His tash and leotard made me think I was watching the reincarnation of Freddy Mercury possessed by the spirit of filthy dubstep. This is brostep stadium style with spinal tap guitars and bass to 11 at least – the kids love it! Defiantly a spectacle to behold and a sonic assault that brings on a cheeky grin.

Darkness had descended outside too and I had to get some warmer clothes but made it back at midnight in time for the Arcadia spectacular show which is what it says on the tin. This stage is fantastic and sums up for me why festival are so gr8. This is not a normal gig with DJ at a club, it’s a whole experience. And with a massive mechanical spider from outta space bearing down on you with a pyrotechnics show to make you think you are in some CGI movie scene you know it’s gonna be taken to another level. Seriously, this is a full on sensory experience to make dancing outside even more fun.

The fireworks were followed by the Stanton Warriors who were mightily impressive. I’ve not brought any of their tunes in a while as don’t fit my current sets but the masterclass in electro funk they played here was perfect for the moment and kept me on the floor the entire time. I stuck around for some shy fx – old jungle as you’d expect but I had to make a move to see Pyramid who were a massive highlight. The tent wasn't too packed and they worked the crowd hard much to everyone’s satisfaction. This is a MC DJ combo who work well together to keep the energy up. Couple of highlight from their set for me were mashing up the acapella of ‘we are your friends’ with chase & status Eastern Jam which worked so well and then towards the finale they dropped freestylers ‘over you’ which is my current favourite running tune and as I felt I’d run a marathon was very fitting. My leaping about scored plenty of high fives and I went back to tent ecstatic that at last I’ve heard the tunes I love to DJ played as they should be – loud to an up for it audience with room to dance.

Saturday:

Woke to blazing sunshine – a good sign for the day ahead. Things start slow at boomtown as they go on late so I had time to grab breakfast and explore the site some more. This lead to me finding the perfect morning starting spot; the hidden woods stage which is a great shady oasis (literally with sand n cocktails) playing roots from black star dub; set the day off well.

After that I went to the main site for lunch and was blessed to hear DJ Skitz scratching up a hip hop medley of classics warning up the crowd for Rodney P. Refuelled once more I was up for catching the dirty dubsters but they were a bit too mellow for my musical appetite. As fate would have it that led me to stumbling across and ghetto funk impromptu takeover. B-Side was pumping out his phat funky sounds at a smoothies bar (apparently run by friends of theirs so they popped down with a rig!) That kept me entertained nicely.

Back to Lion’s den, usually dub roots reggae but I was intrigued by DJ Krinjah from the US – 1^st time in UK. Loving his ragga jungle amens – not so keen on the MC in tow but that’s the way they do it there. Will be checking out some soundcloud mixes to see if any sets without that shouty man as krinjah kept the breaks rolling in an old junglist style I’ve not heard for some time!

All of that had just been a warm up really and I was off to the leisure centre with high hopes for Itchy & Skratchy (there’s 3 of them) and they delivered. Almost two hours of glitched funk (some tipper – always a winner) to drum and bass gave me a workout like I didn’t think I was capable of after Fridays shenanigans. Just too excited by music as I’ve not been able to find this in London clubs and they certainly hit the spot bang on for me. It was truly fantastic to have all the music I love in one place on a sun drenched weekend too, and there was more to come.

To chill afterwards I went to see the nextmen who I’d prefer if they lost the MC they’ve had last couple of times I’ve seen them. They still play a great selection of party tunes but whereas they used to blend effortlessly and surprisingly till u thought where’d this come from, now it all lost to the MC shouting encouragement over it all. Guess it works for some people. Anyway, turns out to be a blessing as that gave me the chance to catch David Rodigan who is, I think, the John Peel of reggae. In his sixties he’s been behind reggae in the UK for decades and it was so inspiring to see someone with a genuine passionate for music burning bright. This was not they kind of DJ set I’m used to – he was more radio DJ in that he talked and introduced songs but not in that crass radio 1 ‘here’s some funny banter’ but just doing service to the tunes he was playing, be they classic Jamaican dubplates , 90’s oldskool or new dubstep greats like breakage. To still be so passionate about music that you can hold captive a peek time crowd on Saturday in the main tent of a festival was to me an inspiring tribute to the power of music. No wonder so many producers are dropping sample of him into tunes –living legend.

And boomtown kept delivering, next up the subslayers takeover of the arcadia stage which I’ve been so looking forward to – and Jay Cunning and King Yoof delivered big time. All the new 140 jungle tunes I love and another finale to finish me off – 601 rage mixed with pyramid remix of Emeli Sande’s Heaven wow - is all I can say.

To wind down from this I’m glad I spotted Ewan Hoozami was playing in one of the many smaller rooms. It’s amazing how much was packed into the programme and being the breaks addict I am I’d packed every hour with something fantastic from the programme. This meant I never really got time to explore these smaller musical happenings and there must have some real gems I missed but can’t be everywhere at once. This has totally whetted my appetite for future years at boomtown. Back to funkington manor, Ewan was true to form with a scratchy & groovy blend which was all that I needed right then.

After all that I had to have some tent chill time as night had fallen and my legs were about to drop off. But with so much going down I had to head back in, this time to meet Tony et al – just in time to catch the arcadia show again (the repeat was not dull at all – that’s how amazing it was – see here.

Saturday night always the busiest at a festival and ratpack weren’t really doing it for us (as they had previously at the secret shindig) so took the by now the well beaten path back to the bassline circus for some brakeage. His dj set seems to have gotton abit 4x4 – perhaps the big time beckons? Seemed to go down well with the huge crowd; much more packed in this tent too. Searching for a tent with space in lead us to bodyworks where panacea was playing. His brutal drum n bass set actually made sense in my exhausted mind. Sure the percussion seemed to be going at 200bpm but the subtle sub bass changes at half speed really did it for me and it’s an intricate web to get caught in. Mind willing but body aching I had to admit all good thing come to an end so I headed off to bed thoroughly satisfied I’d maxed out on great music and vibes.

Indeed I left Sunday morning knowing I’m put my all into the two days when all my favourite artist were playing and there’s only so much punishment my legs can take before they run no more. But overall boomtown proved itself to be an amazing festival. Sure there were lots of top acts I wanted to see but more than that the odd performances, stumbled across bands and dedication to putting on something unique for the exclusive reason of making people have fun charmed me completely. And did I mention enough different ciders that once I found the proper bar I didn’t have the same twice? Put simply a full on party put on by what must be party people with one purpose – to party.