UK: Boomtown has announced that it will be welcoming more visitors than ever for its eighth edition in just a few weeks’ time, after securing the licence for an increased capacity to 60,000.
In tandem with the expansion, more than 80 street venues have been added to the line-up, including new additions The Sky Bar, Behind Bars and Patisserie Calorie, as well as mainstays the Job Centre, Postal Posse, The Bank, and the ASBO Disco!.
In anticipation of more people on the ground, sustainability steps are being taken to minimise the festival’s impact on the surrounding environment. With audience travel making up around 70% of a festival’s carbon footprint, BoomTown are encouraging sustainable, green travel and reducing congestion via a number of public transport methods including: coach & festival ticket packages, shuttle buses from the train station and car share schemes. To help those who plan to attend via public transport, the event organisers are offering a couple of pre-pitched tent hire options to help minimise the load and encourage attendees to only bring what they need and intend to take home.
Sticking to the promotion of environmental awareness and sustainability, Boomtown’s main charity partner for 2016 is Energy Revolution. Every penny donated is directly invested into clean, green energy projects to helping balance travel emissions and create a sustainable future for everyone. Longtime pioneers of the EcoBond project, Boomtown encourages all attendees to bag up their waste and hand it back in to us, dramatically reducing the impact the fair has on the estate.
Boomtown’s charitable and sustainable ethos goes even further, with a vast amount of guilt-free shopping available across a spectrum of charity based shops. Vintage clothing can be found at Help Refugees, where items – at a stall decorated by the refugees from the ‘Jungle’ in Calais – have been donated to their Calais refugees project. For the fancy dress lovers who want to preserve memories, the Barrio Loco crew have snuck a photo booth into the set. For whose who may have left some essentials behind, the Oxfam Festival Shop has a range of second hand items – from practical warm and waterproof clothing to sparkly and vintage wares. All money raised goes directly helping people all over the world fight poverty.
