Boomtown 2026

I’ve been addicted to Boomtown for five years, even though it always starts the exact same way: a punishing queue of several hours in blistering sunshine, having to constantly remind yourself it’s worth it when you get there.

After getting in and rushing to the One Direction party with an inflatable microphone in hand, then watching the partial solar eclipse from the top of Sunset Hill (not sure how they booked that on the lineup), the festival had started.

Every year Boomtown has a theme, and this year it was Radical Redesign. True to its name, that meant the site had changed a lot from the previous year, spreading way further across the fields and back to its original size before Covid caused it to downscale. The biggest change to note was the legendary Lion’s Den stage returning to the steep natural bowl up the top of the stairs of death (if you know, you know) and beyond. If it weren’t for the stellar lineup they put on and the unbelievable 80m-wide stage as a reward once you got the top, I would’ve been quite reluctant to make the trek.

Boomtown’s unique selling point is its utterly bewildering and extensive storyline, which continues every year. The site is split into six districts, each with their own plot, all somehow linking together. You’ll find yourself auditioning for a talent show in clothes provided to you that are way too small, becoming a ‘BLUP scout’ and collecting badges across the entire site while chanting ‘bish bash bosh’, and bargaining with a kebab shop owner called Sauce Daddy to give you some stickers. The world they build is bonkers, incredibly silly and absolutely brilliant, even if you can barely understand what’s actually going on.

Boomtown is also famous for its micro venues, all carrying their own themes: a pole-dancing club playing donk remixes of Christmas songs, a Berlin-style techno bunker, an incredibly convincing Irish pub, a jail playing heavy drum and bass while police throw you in cells. My favourite venue, however, has to be the Bad Apple Bar, where this year alone I watched someone craft a chair out of wood while Sabrina Carpenter hits played, sang along to pop bangers with a medieval twist, and watched a crowd member dressed in full costume deliver a flawless performance of ‘You’ll Be Back’ from Hamilton to a gathering of adoring theatre kids.

As for the main stages, the Lion’s Den was opened by Madness who kicked things off with ‘One Step Beyond’ — a perfect start for the party to come. However they clearly struggled with the heat with two members retreating for medical treatment in a set that lost traction in the middle and could’ve been cut by half an hour. Kneecap were the first headliner, and while the news cycle around them has moved on, they still pulled in a decent crowd and after a slow start the set ignited for ‘Your Sniffer Dogs Are Shite’ and the energy didn’t die down from there. One notable highlight from the set for me was the extremely impressive BSL interpreter at the side of the stage who signed both the English and the Irish parts of the lyrics. 

It was Scooter’s turn on Saturday, and they had the entire bowl chanting along to ‘We Love Hardcore’ and other gloriously ridiculous lyrics — the most fun headline set I’ve ever seen at this festival. Frontman HP Baxter executed some questionable dance routines alongside his backing dancers which sections of the crowd tried to replicate, some with more success than others. 

Sunday had Vengaboys to get us moving despite our aching legs, a four-day hangover and horrible sunburn, with a set full of school disco bangers and conga lines. Scissor Sisters were on for the sunset slot and were introduced onstage by Green Party leader Zack Polanski singing a rendition of ‘My Heart Will Go On’, naturally. Their set had everything you’d want; great costumes, fun stage banter, and an audience making the most of their last singalong before returning to the real world on Monday.

Over on Hydro XL, returning hard techno favourites from last year 9x9 had the fans losing their minds with an insane full AV show. Saturday night saw Brutalismus 3000 put on a relentless and chaotic set blending hardstyle, punk and techno fronted by vocalist Vicky Daldas screaming down the mic in English, German and Slovak leaving everyone I dragged with me to see them in awe. I immediately filed it under my top ten favourite gigs of all time. Skrillex was the closer, and was unfortunately met with far too many people turning up, resulting in 20 minutes of silence before he started up again. After the short interval he opened with Nero classic ‘Promises’ (I’ve put them in the survey for artists I’d like to see next year) and the place erupted when he played ‘Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites’ as it felt like most of us had been waiting 16 years for this moment. The light show for this was absolutely mind-blowing and really highlighted the level of production the festival is capable of.

Boomtown treated us to a drone show on Hydro XL for the closing ceremony, themed on the storyline. As someone who follows it fairly closely, even I am not entirely sure what happened, but it looked very impressive. The Lion’s Den unfortunately missed out on its closing ceremony, with fireworks being banned at the last minute because of the drought — not a fault of the festival’s.

In conclusion, no festival on earth immerses you in the way that Boomtown does. You will completely forget about whatever is going on at home for five days. It’s silly, fun, inspiring, and spectacular. You spend the day talking with wonderful actors and performing weird tasks for them, then the night watching the best stage production and bands and DJs while dancing until everything hurts. Even on the Sunday, after five days in blistering heat, with sore legs and lungs entirely full of dirt, I find myself grinning like the Cheshire Cat while running one last insane errand and dancing one last time. Quite simply, Boomtown is the best place on earth.