Boomtown will cut its fuel emissions by 90% this year by switching to hydrotreated vegetable oil or HVO. Produced from a variety of plant oils including rapeseed, sunflower and soybean, the ‘drop-in diesel alternative’ can be used in conventional engines and generators without modification.
The announcement was made earlier this week as Boomtown organisers unveiled their sustainability campaign for this summer’s event. Building on the festival’s industry-leading initiatives introduced before the pandemic, Boomtown has pledged to become net-zero by 2025 as one of the first events to sign the green deal circular festival pledge.
Their brand new main stage, Origin, is being built with natural plants and sustainable materials, many of which have been ‘upcycled’ from the former Lion’s Den stage. And having previously spoken of an ambition to make the festival meat-free, this year Boomtown’s food vendors will be a 50-50 split of vegetarian and meat-serving.
Every afternoon at the festival, Boomtown citizens can listen out for the mobile pop-up sound systems and Eco-Warriors to get involved in the big Boomtown tidy. The Eco-Warriors will be handing out free 2023 festival tickets and merchandise to the cleanest camps and those doing their best to keep the South Downs National Park clean and free from litter.
And it goes without saying that Boomtown will retain its ban on the sale and supply of single-use plastics across the site, meaning all plates, cutlery and other serveware will be completely compostable. This will prevent the use of over 225,000 plastic bottles which would previously have been sold across the weekend, with only canned drinks and reusable bottles available.
Boomtown have already planted over 100,000 trees worldwide as part of their partnership with TreeSisters, which will continue this year, contributing to one of the most powerful solutions against climate change. In February 2020, weeks before the pandemic interrupted their plans, Boomtown announced a target of planting 1 million trees.
RELATED: These are the forests Boomtown have planted around the world
Earlier this week, Boomtown organisers revealed the first official map for 2022, ahead of the festival’s long-awaited return next month, giving us our first look at the new layout. Illustrated by @clraws, the map shows how a mix of spectacular new districts and old favourites will be arranged in the area formerly known as the ‘Downtown Bowl’.
For the first time ever, Boomtown will use “every last inch” of the bowl to build their theatrical city, complete with immersive venues and huge stages. In previous years, the bowl has always contained some camping along with unused space hidden behind the main stages and between the city streets. This means while the main area of the festival will be much more compact, there’s still absolutely loads to see and you won’t have any massive uphill treks between the different main stages.
The aerial image below shows the former ‘Downtown Bowl’ and gives a good idea of how much space has been left unused, or dedicated to camping, in Boomtown’s recent years. This time, we’re expecting all of the space within the outer perimeter of lighting to be used for the City, so while the ‘Uptown’ area visible behind the woods won’t be returning, the total size of the CIty might not change much at all.
The forest parties at the Hidden Woods, Tangled Roots and Tribe of Fog all feature on the map and will return to their previous locations – so despite not having ‘Uptown’ to get to, you’ll still get chance to climb that mammoth staircase up into the Tribe of Frog woods and the Hilltop campsite.
Last month, Boomtown revealed loads more details on some of this year’s new venues. In the brand new Botanica district, new venues include Obsidian, a collaboration by female and non-binary icons featuring queer parties and high-energy music from around the globe, and the Botanica Zoo, with animals and humans living in a utopian community after a former zoo was rewilded.
Though Boomtown is now completely sold out, it’s easy to buy someone else’s ticket through the secure fan-to-fan resale system. Anyone with unwanted tickets can generate a secure link from their TicketSellers account to sell tickets to someone else for face value. The tickets will then be regenerated with the new ticket holder’s name. Names on tickets must match your ID on arrival at the festival, which means official TicketSellers links are the only way to buy someone else’s ticket. Any other offers won’t get you into the festival and are almost definitely scammers. Never send a bank transfer for Boomtown tickets and make sure you’re buying from a ww2.theticketsellers.co.uk link.
Fortunately, you don’t need to know someone with spare tickets to buy some as the secure fan-to-fan resale system makes it safe to buy from strangers. There’s even a constantly updated list of valid resale links over on Boomtown Source, where (almost) every type of Boomtown ticket is usually available for instant purchase.
This year’s Boomtown line-up is being kept secret until right before the event, to encourage people to attend for the festival itself rather than specific big-name acts. However, if you can’t wait until then to start building your own Boomtown playlist, check out Boomtown Source’s list of rumoured and ‘self-confirmed’ artists. Dozens of artists have already let slip they’ll be at Boomtown this summer on their own social media channels and tour posters.
Boomtown Fair returns to the Matterley Bowl near Winchester from Wednesday 10th to Sunday 14th August 2022.
Image credits:
First: Tom Martin
Second: Benjamin Paul
Third: The Big Ladder Photography
Final: Jody Hartley
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