Boomtown 2026: A Festival Built For Getting Lost
There’s something oddly liberating about not knowing where you’re going at Boomtown. The festival’s intricate districts are so finely crafted that every corner seems to contain another detail, character or doorway worth investigating. By day, method actors roam the site, pop-up performances spill out across its stages and The Inconvenience Store serves up cabaret, kooky sketches and plenty of audience participation. It’s almost impossible to be bored.
That attention to detail extends beyond the theatrics. Food vendors are plentiful, while wellness activities - from run clubs and yoga to crafting and tarot - offer a welcome counterbalance to the festival’s more chaotic energy. Thrutopia is particularly useful when the sensory overload starts to creep in, with hula hooping, games and quieter spaces providing a moment to reset.
Perhaps most refreshing, though, is how few people seemed interested in documenting every second. Phones were noticeably absent during sets, replaced by people actually dancing and being present.
And then there’s nighttime, when Boomtown becomes an entirely different beast. Small stages and secret rooms seem to appear everywhere, with the festival’s best moments often found behind an unassuming door. G33’s Friday afternoon set at Soaproanos Laundrette was a perfect example: after being spun around by costume-clad actors, we were funnelled through a washing-machine-shaped entrance into a hidden room where G33 was waiting on the decks. It was sweaty, ridiculous and completely unique - precisely what sets Boomtown apart from its peers.
Musically, the festival’s eclecticism can sometimes come at the expense of artists’ individual identities. Several DJs seemed to adapt their sets heavily to the Boomtown audience, favouring bootlegs and crowd-pleasers over their usual sounds. Groove Armada, for instance, delivered a speed-garage-heavy set. It made for big reactions, but occasionally felt more like catering to the festival than showcasing what makes an artist distinctive.
There were still plenty of standout moments. Osmosis Jones filled Hidden Woods on Thursday with slick, rolling garage; Dutty Moonshine Big Band brought much-needed feel-good energy to a scorching Friday afternoon; and Nubiyan Twist provided a welcome live-band switch-up at Nexus. Rose Gray’s polished Saturday performance at Grand Central was another highlight, though her relatively small crowd - squeezed between sets from Shy FX and Kings of the Rollers - felt more like a scheduling casualty than a reflection of her recent success.
Ultimately, Boomtown’s greatest trick is making the carefully orchestrated feel unpredictable. You might arrive looking for one set and end up somewhere entirely different, following a strange noise through a doorway you didn’t know existed. When festivals are increasingly becoming dominated by recording, scheduling and optimisation, there’s something magical about simply getting lost.
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