REVIEW | BOOMTOWN FAIR FESTIVAL 2022

By Mas Law • On Reviews

Where does one start to explain the exper­i­ence. I arrived on Fri­day, early even­ing and did the long pil­grim­age across the field to the artist sec­tion. After get­ting all my details sor­ted and all that jazz, I now need to set up and pre­pare my tent. In set­ting up my tent I start to see all these beau­ti­ful faces you expect to see.

Once I was set no ready I star­ted the long walk into the fest­iv­al. When you enter your on this hill and then real­ise the mag­nitude of the fest­iv­al. You start real­ising, that the whole fest­iv­al is a city. The sight alone was mind blow­ing, and I haven’t even stepped in yet. This is just the view from the hill.

With the sun set­ting and the fest­iv­al in full swing, my first stop was over to the main stage Grand Cent­ral. What great tim­ing too. Kof­fee was just about to take the stage and the crowd sig­ni­fied that. Just a sea of humans going back as far as the eye can see. She shut the place down with hit after hit and a band that weren’t miss­ing a beat. The karaōke crowd was in full affect singing along to all the hits and giv­ing back the same energy Kof­fee was express­ing. Great start to my fest­iv­al. After my sing alongs I decided to walk around the fest­iv­al a bit and make sense of this enorm­ous land­scape. Which coin­cid­ent­ally has been cut in half. I couldn’t even ima­gine what it was like when it was uptown and downtown.

After wan­der­ing around and being blown away by the shear ima­gin­a­tion that goes into this fest­iv­al, I found myself at the Vault Stage. This Was the stage for all things hip hop. I per­fectly pulled up just in time to see Dirty Dike Doing what he does effort­lessly. Such a boss at work­ing the crowd and you can tell the fan base is real. He went thru banger after banger and had the crowd attempt­ing to rap all words. Half way thru his per­form­ance he brought of one of his sign­ings. Look out for his label with the enig­mat­ic Pete Can­on called Mel­on Slice. Out came Sleazy F Baby with Black Josh. Dike lay on the speak­ers whilst the 2 of them just star­ted shelling with songs like ‘bitch I’m in the stu­dio’. The energy was up and the heads were wild­in out. Full per­form­ance from the man him­self. Dirty Dike!

I had to stick around for the next act as no one had seen him in the last six months whilst he was on his South Amer­ic­an hiatus. The stage was set for the return of Jam Bax­ter. Nice to see him back in the UK and no dis­ap­point­ment in his per­form­ance. Shelling out hits like ‘Brains’ and treat­ing us to some of his new stuff he was cre­at­ing in South Amer­ica, you def­in­itely felt his pres­ence. Plus it’s not a jam Bax­ter per­form­ance without a crowd surf. Major shout to Bax­ter and the energy he provided. My first night was filling me with pure goodness.

After these per­form­ances it was about float­ing around the rest of the fest­iv­al and work­ing what was where and how do you get to each place. By luck and for­tune I met up with IAHH fest­iv­al don, Nadia Otshudi who took me through the maze. By this time it was pure float along mode and lord knows where we would end up next.

The next day I woke up bright and early with the inten­tions to see as much as pos­sible. After sweet sun soaked morn­ing with my blood sis­ter the Amaz­ing Angel Mel Select­or who was host­ing the Hid­den Woods, I con­verged the power to head back into the fest­iv­al and see what was in store for the day.

The weath­er was at full on roast. Water and min­im­al gar­ments were the order of the day. I walked into the fest­iv­al which looked rel­at­ively empty. Think­ing prob­ably the wave from the night before for people wak­ing up late. The truth was the weath­er was so hot that all the hid­den areas became the per­fect set­ting to start your day. The Hid­den Woods where my sis­ter was host­ing was rammed. People spread every­where amongst the sandy floors and tree house deck­ing. The tangled woods where you got your full dub fla­vour (provided by Lion pulse x Sinai) was anoth­er hid­den enclos­ure. With a sound sys­tem that played thru 3 sound rigs provid­ing real chest warm­ing vibes.

My fest­iv­al hombre Ryda Vybe was play­ing on the Engine stage with Gwana Blues All Stars. I make my way thru the immers­ive exper­i­ence. To the Cop­per County which was designed like and old west­ern city. To the main stage which was decked out with a steam engine and mech­an­ics all round. The elec­tric Jalaba vibes was warm­ing up the after­noon. The people were com­ing alive.

The insane heat made me head back to the hid­den woods and what per­fect tim­ing. The woods was vibing in the shade provided by the trees all around and on stage was Havana Meets King­ston. It felt like real sound boy good­ness blessed with Cuban soul. Plus what a pleas­ure to see Feline shar­ing stage and shelling the way he does. Not a fest­iv­al without a Feline appearance.

The Reg­gae feel­ing was present and after that amaz­ing dose of sound boy good­ness, we were blessed with more reg­gae good­ness from the sweet tones of Shumba Youth plus live band. The Hid­den Woods was being blessed with some pure roots and cul­ture. Vibes on vibes was being transmitted.

Not long after I wander to the main stage to catch the legendary De La Soul accom­pan­ied by one of my favour­ite rap­pers Talib Kweli. Going through hits after hits per­form­ing with pure show­man­ship I was elated to of caught this per­form­ance. That feel good hip hop was filling the main stage with a bril­liant feel­ing of whole­some­ness. I left there feel­ing good.

Cur­rently rolling alone so I was free to dis­cov­er all the fest­iv­al had to offer. I walked through Met­ro­pol­is which was decked out in psy­che­del­ic disco col­ours for the dance and elec­tro ravers.

I walk thru and stumble on a castle. The Ori­gins Stage. Where the main stage is way up in the air. The crowd is huge. Drum and bass is pump­ing the and the wave of energy is send­ing out pos­it­ive vibes. The lyr­ics com­ing thru were doub­ling up that energy of pos­it­ive vibes. The tone sounds famil­i­ar, I look on the big screen only to see Inja doing a one man show of his mater­i­al. The per­form­ance was next level, his tracks were thump­ing through the insane sound sys­tem, his mix­ing was on point, and the way he was shelling was pure fire. Hon­estly prob­ably a high­light of my fest­iv­al know­ing how long the broth­ers been doing his thing. Know­ing he’s a child of the uk hip hop we love so much. Big salutes

With that feel good feel­ing in me I wander back to the cop­per county to catch Smokey Joe & The Kid per­form­ing with our very own Mys­diggi. The French duo brought a blend of live per­cuss­ive hip hop with an MPC live show, that had me skank­ing out. Add a like Mys­diggi cha­risma and you know what time it is. Full on good­ness muvvaluvvas.

After a brief wander and refuel­ing I found myself by the Vault Stage to a large crowd. I look on stage to see 2 old men shelling and the crowd rap­ping along. I get front stage and real­ise the frenzy from the crowd is com­ing from Pete and Baz. Salute to the guys as they put in full energy. From the cho­reo­graphed dance steps to being up front full involved with the crowd. The duo is truly an exper­i­ence to witness.

The rest of that night was me float­ing around the immers­ive exper­i­ence provided by the back­drop of Boomtown Fest­iv­al. It truly is a mar­vel to wit­ness at night. Amaz­ing cred­it to the cre­at­ors of this exper­i­ence cause it’s really worth it. Plus it was only half the size (which was insanely huge). The kind of fest­iv­al that deserves a tram to take you throughout.

Rest reset and repeat I’m ready for day 3. Sunday vibes. After the morn­ing chill out social­ising in the Artist camp, I’m ready to go into the fest­iv­al. I got that Sunday feel­ing. So I find myself a good munch from the pleth­ora to choose from and float into the entangled woods. I eat my munch with the sweet reg­gae thump­ing from Sweetie with Mad X.

I linked up with Daddy Skitz and Joe Burns on route to the Street Party Stage ready to run the dance. Always gassed to hear Daddy Skitz rock­ing the decks. He star­ted with some clas­sic Skitz Dub­plates. Warm­ing up the vibes for the Sunday zom­bies. Sip­ping a sweet fruit smooth­ie I was skank­ing thru the med­leys of hip hop and jungle sounds being played. I got that sweet Sunday feeling.

I’ve worked up an appet­ite for live per­form­ances now and made my way over to the Vault Stage. Nice Sunday crowd had assembled to see Lee Scott And Friends. Lee Scott had the crowd zon­ing out to the dusty smooth pro­duc­tion he pro­duces. With appear­ances from the ever cha­ris­mat­ic Stinkin Slum­rock, the slick spit­ting Black Josh. With Mor­ria­chi on the but­tons it was a full show case off what to expect from the Blah general.

Next to the stage was a per­form­ance I was eager to see cause every time I’ve seen her she’s been a power­house per­former. The nice even­ing tem­per­at­ure was in full effect. The band was ready. Natty Speaks intro­duces the Queen her­self, Eva Lazarus.
Track after track she took you through a full blend of being uk. Rep­res­ent­ing in mul­tiple genres and bring­ing some­thing lar­ger than life to it. She showed full on star power, a def­in­ite fest­iv­al high­light for me. Espe­cially shar­ing the stage with her son and part­ner. The evol­u­tion was evid­ent. Salute to her prowess and def­in­itely one who deserves big stages.

With time for a quick drink and refresh­ment the eclect­ic Tiggs Da Author took the stage. You can tell the crowd knew him for his hip hop bangers but the Tan­zani­an sing­er had a sweet range of music. That real afro soul was evid­ent in his mater­i­al and beau­ti­fully por­trayed in the moment.

It was head­line time and I made my way to the main stage which had a sea of people. People as far as the eyes could see. Ready for a mega star per­form­ance from Kool and the Gang. Packed with a full live band and super­star out­fits, they played hit after hit after hit. The karaōke feel­ing through­out the crowd was beau­ti­ful. People from all ages and cul­tures singing along in uni­son with that beau­ti­ful Sunday float­ing feel­ing. The feel good factor was at an all time high.

After float­ing around for a while I found myself on top of a hill. Right at the point the fest­iv­al was end­ing. The 3d light show com­ing from the Ori­gins castle was in full effect. The light show being provided by the whole fest­iv­al really showed how fant­ast­ic of a design this fest­iv­al was. How big (even if scaled down) this fest­iv­al was. For a fest­iv­al that had no line up pro­mo­tion but still pulled in its loy­al mass crowd. As a Boomtown Vir­gin my cherry is offi­cially popped and this is some­thing I will wanna attend for many years to come!

Salute Boomtown Fest­iv­al Fair

Writ­ten By Mas Law

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Mas Law

Artist/Producer hail­ing from NW Lon­don. Enig­mat­ic storyteller and End of the Weak Eng­land Organiser.

About Mas Law

Artist/Producer hailing from NW London. Enigmatic storyteller and End of the Weak England Organiser.