Access All AreasBoomtown Fair co-founder and creative director Luke Mitchell is the latest festival operator to feature in Access All Areas’ new podcast series AAA Backstage.
The podcast series meets festival founders to explore what lies behind the events and their instigators. This conversation was recorded while sitting on a car bonnet with a panoramic view of the festival build at Matterley Estate in the South Downs National Park, where Boomtown has been staged since 2011. Mitchell charts his event organising experience, including the transition from staging massive raves to the inaugural Boomtown, and the challenges of overseeing what has become one of the UK’s biggest festivals involving a hugely complex three-month build.
Interviewed by Access All Areas content director Christopher Barrett, Mitchell reveals the thinking behind the move to put tickets on sale this year without announcing the festival’s lineup, the difficulty of coping with huge costs, the enormous contribution of the festival team and his place at the centre of the “whirlwind”.
As with all episodes, it is available to watch on YouTube or to listen to via all the main podcast platforms including Spotify, Apple and Amazon.
The first episode of the AAA Backstage podcast series was launched last month, with an interview with Secret Garden Party (SGP) festival founder Freddie Fellowes. Aimed at everyone involved in the burgeoning festival industry, the series of monthly podcasts is set to feature some of the sector’s most influential figures.