Boomtown Festival has survived an official review following the casualty of a man at the 2024 edition and local complaints.
As reported by BBC, the Winchester City Council’s licensing committee has decided to not change the premises licence for alcohol and music for the annual music in Hampshire. The 2025 edition of the fest will take place from August 6 through the 10.
The review of the festival’s license came after Hampshire Constabulary applied to examine the running of the annual event after the death of a 22-year-old man at the Winchester site at the festival last year. The death was confirmed to be “unexpected” and allegedly due to a “medical incident”.
General view of the stage and audience at Boowtown Festival, Matterley Estate in South Downs National Park, near Winchester, Hampshire, 12th August 2022. CREDIT: Patrick Ford/Getty
The committee have heard that the police have withdrawn their complaint ahead of the sub-committee meeting and are currently in discussion with the festival’s organisers to resolve any concerns for this year’s edition of the event.
Along with the death of the attendee, councillors also heard 17 complaints from local residents about how the festival has negatively impacted them. The complaints ranged from the the lack of sleep due to the event to the impact on the local red listed bird populations in the area.
A festival organiser shared that the site was chosen for Boomtown due to the beauty of the South Downs National Park. They explained that they had no intentions of harming or destroying the environment, and wanted to showcase its beauty to visitors.
Other complaints included the heavy traffic it brought in and the strobe lighting used at the festival which would hit unsuspecting drivers. Despite the objections the licence was not changed.
The Boomtown Fair. CREDIT: Dawn Fletcher-Park/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Elsewhere, last year, the festival said it would be “blacklisting” people after receiving “hate speech” comments to a post supporting the LGBTQIA+ community.
“The kind of negativity we saw on Saturday goes against everything we stand for at Boomtown. We were angered and saddened by the hateful comments. There’s no place for that here,” a statement read.
“We have a zero tolerance for any type of hate speech and our team swiftly removed the offensive comments and blocked the accounts. Unfortunately, further comments required us to disable comments entirely to protect everyone.”
Boomtown 2025 – previously dubbed ‘Chapter 4: Power Of Now’ – will see the likes of Sean Paul, the Sex Pistols featuring Frank Carter, Maribou State, Overmono, Hybrid Minds, Nia Archives, Azealia Banks and Rudim3ntal perform at the festival.
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