Boom Festival – Portugal
This is more than a festival, it’s a whole philosophy. It’s more than just music; it’s an international, week-long celebration of art in all its manifestations. And I already know it’s among my favorites in this series and on my bucket list. Let me tell you why.
The first Boom Festival took place in 1997, the next one in 1998 and every two years since then. It started out initially as a 3 days psytrance festival with two stages, a dance floor and a chill-out area. Today it features music, paint, sculpture, video art, installations cinema, theatre and a concept of bringing all these arts together. There are, besides the just mentioned, a ‘Sacred Fire’ stage, for world music, acoustic sets and live bands, and the ‘Groovy Beach’, which debuted in 2008, with contemporary genres of electronic music like Dubstep, Breakbeat, Techno and Minimal.
The idea behind concept is “to create a space in this time continuum where people from all over the world can live an alternative reality”. Starting point of this philosophy is that communication, and along with it, human society, has changed from an oral, extroverted type to a written, introverted one. Here, people turn to their extroverted, community-conscious selves, living a week long psychedelic experience in the heart of nature with people from all around the world.
Another thing to be mentioned is that Boom Festival has a non commercial approach, it doesn’t rely on sponsors. The objective is not only to keep the public safe from visual pollution, but also to defend it from any marketing strategy. And it is also environment-friendly and self sustainable.
What about the next “Boom”?
The 2010 edition of the Boom Festival will take place between the 18th and 26th of August at Lake of Idanha-A-Nova in Portugal, synchronized with the full moon. This year’s theme is water; paying homage to water as the source of life, as the element in a continuous, cyclic movement, as “that which gives life to all and asks nothing in return” to mention just a few reasons named on the festival’s page.
Tickets are being sold in three phases and can be bought either online or from a local Boom Ambassador.
The three phases are:
- 30th November – 30th December – 130 €
- 31st December – 13th March – 155 €
- 14th March – 26th June – 180 €
There are also tickets for the “After Boom”, for the bus to the festival and back to the airport, at different prices in developing countries and, what I liked most, is the tradition of the Free Boom Ticket country. Every year, a developing guest country is chosen, whose residents are granted free entrance. It was: 2002 – Brazil, 2004 – South Africa, 2006 – India, 2008 – Republic of Macedonia and in 2010 it’s Republic of Chile.
In terms of music, Boom 2010, will offer a retrospective trip to goa trance trough live shows and DJ sets. Some of the producers and DJs who will trance the time away will be: Gus Till, member of the Flying Rhino crew, Man With No Name, Green Nuns Of The Revolution and a special live act by Psychopod.
There’s a camping at Boom, for accommodation, a caravan park and a car park, people with special needs and children are welcome, however pets should not be brought as the loud music and crowd can be a traumatizing experience for them.
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