‘A world of unity, creativity and freedom’ is what we aspire to achieve from our make-believe city for four (or five days if you choose to come on Wednesday) at the beautiful Matterley Estate, in the South Downs National Park, Hampshire, UK. This year, our annual 66,000 capacity music, arts and theatrical festival, Chapter 11: A Radical City, will be held over 7th - 11th August 2019.

Starting in 2009, our mission has always been to celebrate a diverse line-up of underground and global music including reggae, world music, folk, jazz, ska, hip hop, drum and bass, techno, house, disco, jungle, psytrance (the list goes on…) along with a focus on boundary-pushing immersive art, theatre and performance. All of which comes together as a living, breathing, fictitious city.

The festival is split up into four main areas: Downtown, Hilltop, Temple Valley and Whistlers Green. Within these areas are our distinct districts: Kidztown, Whistlers Green, Oldtown, Copper County, Paradise Heights, Metropolis, DSTRKT 5 and Barrio Loco. Each district has at least one main stage and a selection of smaller street or theatrical venues as well as small and medium-sized music venues. The large stages of Lion’s Den, Town Centre, Sector 6 and Bang Hai Towers differ from standard districts as they are designed to accommodate crowds several thousand strong, with vast stage sets at the centre with food and drink concessions in their arenas. On top of the district venues and main arenas, scattered throughout the festival are our four forest parties: Hidden Woods, Psy Forest, Tangled Roots and Tribe of Frog.

In addition to the hundreds of musical artists on the bill, our ongoing storyline evolves each year along with the layout and set design of the festival to create an intricate and detailed world within a world. A theatrically-led experience like no other, curated by our supremely experienced in-house theatrical team and the theatrical production crews, they shape and encourage the hundreds of actors to bring the film-like street sets to life, and inspire our attendees (citizens) to become their inner character and be part of the story themselves!

All festival entry tickets allow access to all the main parts of the festival and the regular campsites. There is no additional cost for standard camping and all festival ticket holders can camp anywhere they like. We also offer reserved campsites and pre-pitched camping options, so you can choose exactly where you’d like to stay, book pitches with groups of friends, or save yourself the hassle of bringing a tent.

Boomtown remains a proudly independent festival that has managed to keep a sense of community and unity despite being one of the fastest growing festivals on the circuit. Citizens travel from across the globe to experience one of the most diverse line-ups and most groundbreaking theatrical concepts on offer, collectively celebrating underground music in a totally immersive world.