Festival Review: Boomtown 2026
Photo Credit: eljaybriss
From a hillside eclipse to a drone-lit sky, Boomtown 2026 was a story you danced through.
Boomtown has always been more city than festival, and Chapter Five arrived with its most audacious plot yet. With the festival returning back to pre-covid size, BIGACORP and BETTERCORP had merged into the monolithic BBXL, a corporation declaring Earth a single use planet and launching its citizens toward the stars. Meanwhile, The Network plotted resistance in the shadows. Over five days across Matterley Estate that story played out in the stage design, and I was there covering it for the first time as press rather than punter. An experience like no other. So let’s take it back to the start.
The heat hit first. Trains from Devon ran quiet, a small mercy before my trolley began its own private rebellion against the weekend. Entry was seamless despite the sun’s best efforts, and once artist camping was pitched (tent versus wind, wind winning most rounds) I climbed the Lion’s Den hill for the eclipse. Strangers linked arms as the sky dimmed, and a singalong of the late Bonnie Tyler's 'total eclipse of the heart' rippled across the field. Street parties broke out in Odyssey and Hidden Woods before the sun had even fully set. Four days of mayhem waited on the other side.
Thursday felt like the prologue nobody warned me about. Messie opened Hidden Woods with a bass heavy set of UK club and breaks, dancers choreographed across the stage while sand kicked up around bare feet. Just beyond it in Tangled Roots, an unscheduled discovery in DJ Hippopotamus turned a lowkey wander into one of the day's best surprises. Then Metropolis finally threw open its gates, the first real storyline beat of the week, the choice between BBXL's new district and the queue for Kelvin 373 at Boomtown Bobbies setting the tone for a festival that never lets you see everything. Toby Ross closed out the Helix corner of Metropolis with soulful house and disco edits, pure Boomtown immersion. Eats Everything and Wonka shut Hidden Woods down at midnight with one of the weekend's biggest dance parties, curfew arriving before the party wanted to stop. As far as warm-ups go (alongside the ever-present heatwave), festival revellers couldn’t have asked for better.
Friday opened with fireworks over Hydro XL and a Groove Armada DJ set that set the tone in disco and pink confetti, house heavy and building into their own remix of Disclosure’s 'you & me'. Techno intensity followed in the tight room of Gabber Kebbaber courtesy of Reddem, the best new discovery of the weekend. Over at Lion's Den, Shy FX and Rage brought jungle history home with a Giggsopener and the day's biggest crowd so far, while DJ EZ delivered a relentless UK garage masterclass at Hydro XL, built around classics mixed with new anthems. Notion then followed in similarly punchy form before a return to camp for the evening shift.
The evening turned into a street party writ large: Upon my return to Hydro XL, Faster Horses and Y U QT spun Prospa's 'Free Your Mind' as a mission statement. Eats Everything returned with TSHA and went back to back for one of the day's best sets, followed by Effy & Ross From Friends for a genre blurring hour, culminating in an incredible 'where's your head at'. edit. Darren Styles worked through early sound trouble at Spectrum 360 into a hardcore set stacked with classic Clubland tracks & unexpected edits; Justin Bieber’s 'Beauty & A Beat' among them. 999999999 brought pounding acid techno and pyros to close Hydro XL, and Kasra, Samurai Breaks and Strategy, carried Hidden Woods into the early hours.
.Hak Baker - Photo Credit: EFCeviejpeg
Saturday began gently with Hak Baker at Grand Central, intimate storytelling offering a rare chill moment before Lion's Den took over for the afternoon. It was all about the Kings of the Rollerstakeover, as Crossy, Gray and Harriet Jaxxon with Spyda, opened up the arena before Benny L, Break and Skeptical kept the pressure on with GQ and MC Det, playing out an overdue rendition of 'Police In Helicopter' that had the crowd, some dressed as pensioners, in full voice. Hidden Woodsbrought grime back with Sir Spyro, Killa P and Lady Chann, equally heavy on the bass and the pull ups.
Later in the evening, a dense crowd gathered nearby for a booming rendition of Shaggy's 'It Wasn’t Me' the most captivating moment of the day. Scooter turned Lion's Den into full blown nostalgia, pyros and all, the set of the entire weekend, while further sets from Rossi. B2B Silva Bumpa, Ryota B2B Yung Singh, Alix Perez, Cheetah, Jenny Sparks and Brutalistius 3000 kept Hydro XL and Hidden Woods moving until Zero closed the latter with a beautifully told, bass heavy story of a set.
Shaggy - Photo Credit: scottmsaltphoto
Sunday started late and ended in orbit. Fcukers kicked things off at Lion’s Den with chaotic, sweaty post-punk and a pointed word for Donald Trump, live instrumentation cutting through a crowd running on fumes. Talib Kweli followed with an intimate, sample driven set built around a tribute to D'Angelo & J Dilla, and sharp words on inequality between the bars. Marlon Hoffstadt played at Hydro XL with a set atmospheric and sombre enough to feel like an ending itself. Sherelle brought the jungle back for the penultimate Hydro XL set of the weekend, hypnotic and relentless, while KiLLOWEN offered a brief UK rap detour on the way, admittedly only caught only in passing.
Faithless, the set I would have loved to see, played out at Lion’s Den whilst Skrillex closed the festival nearly forty minutes late and briefly too quiet, but a surprise appearance from Chase & Status turned it around fast. Then came the story's final chapter: BBXL's rocket tore into the night sky above Matterley Estate, the space programme launching for real as the closing ceremony's centrepiece, before being hacked by an unknown entity called Bill Tops. Hundreds of drones bloomed into sky overhead and presented an incredible light show. Five days after a total eclipse opened the gates, Boomtown closed them by sending itself into space; a fitting way to cap off a wonderful festival.
Faithless - Photo Credit: giugliotto
Five days after that eclipse on the hill, it’s hard to know where the music stopped and the story began. That’s always been Boomtown’s trick, folding a festival’s worth of chaos into a city that refuses to break character, and Chapter Five leaned into it harder than any year I’ve attended. BBXL got its rocket, The Network got its hacker in Bill Tops, and somewhere in between Scooter found room to remind Lion’s Den why they’re still considered legends of dance music. Watching it all unfold across the weekend felt like a privilege. The sky that opened this chapter with an eclipse closed it with a thousand drones. Whoever’s steering that rocket by the time Chapter Six begins, I’ll be back through the gates to find out.
Words by Alex Peters
