The second weekend in August usually sees us enjoying a weekend of punk rock & cider in Sixpenny Handley, Dorset but with Endorse-It following Glastonbury’s lead in taking a year’s sabbatical I was able to explore something new and exciting and Boomtown fitted the bill perfectly. In fact, so perfectly that it will be very much first choice next year because I haven’t danced so much or slept so little for many years. It was epic! Held at the Matterly Bowl near Winchester, Boomtown is created as a squalid & derelict town full of little back alleys where there is a surprise around every corner. Most of the buildings conceal stages, sound systems and smaller environments where all sorts of weird and wonderful folk dance the night away. In fact the best way I could describe it is as all the best bits of the “naughty corner” at Glastonbury congealed and condensed into a fantastically organised but gloriously scuzzy 4 days of chaos.

The main “Town Centre” stage hosted a predominance of bands from the ska and Balkan genres. It had an excellently crisp funktion one sound system, as indeed did most of the other stages and rigs around the site. The Lion’s Den was heavily dub and reggae themed whereas the Devil Kicks Dancehall was more punk-orientated. Further stages at the Invisible Circus and the wonderful Hidden Woods had more eclectic line ups. The familiar Bassline Circus from Glastonbury cranked out drum & bass while the Bearded Kittens and Dance Off venues we recently saw at Secret Garden Party were also in attendance, renamed The Bank and Boombox, respectively.

But the star of the show was the Arcadia Spider which was making its only festival appearance of the summer. It was a slightly stripped down version of the monster we have seen at Glastonbury in recent years but a great improvement saw the audience able to actually dance directly underneath the beast as it pumped its gas fuelled apocalypse into the night sky. The nightly Arcadia show was excellent with the demonic acrobats dropping into the crowd and apparently kidnapping unsuspecting members of the audience before taking them back to their lairs at the top of the rig. And the explosive show was supplemented by huge fiery mushroom shaped clouds elsewhere around the site.

Most of the camping was in the area immediately surrounding the central town but there was also “Quite” camping further away from the madness. The campervan fields were a steep uphill hike through the woods but gave us a great view of the surrounding countryside. Toilets were very plentiful, the selection of food was as good as any festival of an equivalent size and the bars sold a fairly good range of beers and ciders, albeit at a slightly pricey £4 a pint. And to top everything else off the weather remained predominantly dry throughout, a rare event indeed in this long wet summer of 2012. In fact the only few spots of rain we saw on the Saturday night only succeeded in enhancing the Arcadia show as they sparkled in the lasers. Festival perfection!