In a bit of a fit of madness, I followed through on the 2020 plans of booking myself in for a big music festival. My main search terms for finding “the one” was forest party and psytrance, ideally in the UK and within easy enough reach.

After not very much deliberation, Boomtown Fair came out as the winner with its sheer size, theatrical ARG storyline, forested & other whacky micro stages, drum & bass and electronic music focus and sheer production value.

I braved the madness of it all by myself, which turned out to be a great decision. Not going to lie, in the weeks leading up to the trip I had a decent amount anxiety, but this was mainly regarding the prep and not so much about the fact that I’m going alone. By the time travel day rolled around though, I was feeling very zen and ready.

In my mind, I was basically heading on a 6 day camping adventure, pitching up next to a big, exciting, crazy town of delights that I could go for long wanders in daily.

This is pretty much exactly how the week played out. After a gruelling long day of travel, queues and haulage to get to my camping spot, I was all set and in a great mindset for the rest of the week to just explore and enjoy. We had perfect festival weather throughout, with only a bit of rain (until departure day, when it bucketed it down).

I was committed to doing the whole festival fully sober, part for personal safety reasons, but also in a big part because I actually enjoy the natural high and altered mental states that come with dancing until I drop.

Staying sober meant that I didn’t deplete my energy reserves too bad or too quickly. But even so, I was pretty knackered at the end of each 25k+ step day of constant uphills and booty shaking cardio. By the last day, the only thing that kept me going was the music. I just can’t help but move with euphoria as soon as the bass drops.

I rushed at the chance to see some acts that were the biggest hits of my early 20s.

First of them was Andy C, who actually opened the festival. The crowd had such a great energy. Similar to Shy FX who opened on the last day at the main stage. That set then rolled directly into A Little Sound, and if anything, I liked her act even more. Such fun, much dancing.

Some of the other beats heroes of old were more of a miss for me if I’m honest. I all but destroyed my eardrums waiting for Deekline to come on for about an hour and a half. By the time he started, I was over it and ready to crash. Kinda similar with Skream too. I did catch some of a Skrillex covers set though and that was proper good fun.

Predictably, I ended up spending a considerable amount of time at the psytrance stage regardless of who was on. I tended to end up there especially at the end of each night as it was right on my way back to the campsite, and gave the perfect setting (for me) to wind down for the night.

My top acts (most of them new to me) that I randomly caught over the 4 days:

• My Baby kind of like a Dutch Warpaint
• A Little Sound DnB beats and her own vocals, super fun
• Girls Don’t Sync four chicks mixing up a storm
• Soul Scientist psytrance energy with her own live guitar solos
• Captain Flatcap funky eclectic electronic beats with live flute riffs on top
• Hippo Sound System all I remember is the vibes more than the music

I also compiled a massive list of things I walked past or heard at a distance that sounded good, to check out in the coming weeks.

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By the end of the week my cup was very full, I was very tired and ready to head home.

On the whole, I’m chuffed I gifted myself this experience and this time of reconnecting with myself, even though I don’t think I would attend a similarly large festival again, not for another decade at least. I’m keen though to do some research to find something that’s a fraction of the size of Boomtown, and has a more eco conscious and chill crowd, but with similar levels of counter-culture hippie vibe.

So, the music festival itch is well and truly scratched… until next year at least!