Ahead of the ticket release at 7pm tonight, Boomtown have revealed details of the festival’s next incarnation set for August 2021. Chapter One: The Gathering will feature a completely new city contained within the former ‘Downtown’ bowl, where every main stage is: “a brand new concept nestled deep into magical district surroundings”.
The music line-up will no longer be released ahead of the event, with most acts kept secret until “just before” the festival gets underway. A new story will be introduced and ticket prices have been reduced, while a switch from fixed-allocation ‘tiers’ to timed, ‘phased’ ticket pricing should ensure the cheapest tickets are more widely available. Tickets go on sale at 7pm tonight.
After coronavirus forced the cancellation of Boomtown’s Chapter 12 this summer, organisers said they have embraced the chance to pause and reflect, commenting: “Resetting from the foundations to allow us to really get things right and to be the forward-thinking, progressive, and inspirational festival community we know we can be. By starting a brand new story with Chapter One: The Gathering, this allows us even more scope to start afresh, with our ethos, creativity and ambition all aligning into one combined vision.”
The festival’s brand new ‘Main City’ is billed as the most detailed Boomtown yet, interspersed with “beautiful forest chillouts and the woodland parties we love to escape to.” Chapter One: The Gathering‘s story will focus on “reflection, acceptance and reconnection” as the new world of the post-pandemic festival “rises from the ashes” of Chapter 12: State of Emergency.
Boomtown’s founders commented on the decision to keep the line-up under wraps, saying: “We have spent months debating whether this was the right thing to do but what is clear, is that there are many aspects to the way the music industry runs that don’t work for independent festivals. The complex process of releasing a music line-up with the exclusivity, billing and escalating costs has led us to decide this is the time to rethink the way we approach it and explore new ways of doing things.
“We have always been a creatively led festival and people attend Boomtown because of the overall experience; we will continue to book incredible headline artists, and all the festival favourites, but by approaching our programming announcements in this radical way, we can create lineups that are even more phenomenal and diverse than we have ever been able to before.”
Over 90% of Boomtown’s 2020 ticket holders declined a refund for the cancelled festival, instead choosing the keep their ticket for the 2021 event. The remaining tickets will go on sale at 7pm tonight, first priced at £199 for public transport users and £209 for those arriving by car.
The official ticket page is here, while the unofficial Boomtown Source has put together a comprehensive guide to securing the cheapest Boomtown tickets.
Image credits: OneEyeIn / The Big Ladder Photography / Lucas Sinclair
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