I said last year that Boomtown Fair rated right up there among the very best I’ve been to in more than 30 years of festivalling. Surely they couldn’t possibly improve on such a fantastic event! But you know what? They bloody well have!

It’s certainly got an awful lot bigger. Whereas previously most of the attractions were based in the “Downtown” area at the bottom of the bowl, with only the craft and kids areas further up the hill, this year the whole town was sliced in two with the Town Centre, Oldtown and Mayfair areas moving to higher ground. Also up here you could find the totally redesigned and dub orientated Lion’s Den, which last year was just a large tent but this year was in the form of an incredibly realistic Aztec temple surrounded by woodland. Quite simply one of the most astonishing venues I’ve ever seen!

The steep hill between the Downtown and Uptown areas could be overcome in comfort by means of a 300 yard “Magic Carpet” travelator for those willing to splash out an extra tenner, while the steep slog up the steps through the woods, towards the “Hold It Down Town” craft area, “Kidztown”, and the campervan field, could be broken with visits to the spooky “Rave Yard” and the psytrance heavy Tribe of Frog.

A couple of new districts appeared in the Downtown area. Chinatown had a new outdoor “Courtyard” decorated with Chinese Dragon sculptures, and the Barrio Loco Latin Quarter included the Circo Baille, which was held in the tent more familiar to Glastonbury goers as the Astrolabe, as well as funk and basslines aplenty in Poco Loco. The Boombox Dance Off took the form of a huge ghetto blaster and once again the Arcadia Spider took centre stage, this time with tiered steps around 2 sides of the central soundfield. Despite the expansion, every one of the dozens of buildings was crammed with tiny microvenues and windows of hilarious or simply bizarre art installations. You could get married in a blow up church, wrestle naked in glitter or sport a freshly coiffured grass mullet or mohican. The list of stuff to get involved in was exhausting and endless. Or you could simply sit and people watch or take in the stunning views from the viewing area at the top of the hill.

The only downers really were the tragic news of the death of a teenage girl on the Thursday night & also the fact that there really weren’t enough loos. But these shouldn’t in any way detract from the fact that Boomtown Fair is the best festival in the UK at the moment by a country mile, simply because it pushes the boundaries to a whole new level of creativity which even Glastonbury cannot match. I haven’t even mentioned any of the acts we saw but I’ll shut up now and just let the pictures do the talking….