Boomtown Fair is looking to expand, having successfully maintained its license following a review triggered by Hampshire Constabulary in response to the death of a 22-year-old man at the event last year.

Winchester City Council’s licensing sub-committee has granted Boomtown Festival its premises licence for alcohol and music, which means the event will go ahead at Matterley Estate from August 10-15 with a lineup including Maribou State, Sex Pistols and Sean Paul.

After the police withdrew its complaint, a council licensing sub-committee meeting was postponed until 30 January. At that meeting, councillors heard 17 complains from local residents about the festival. The complaints ranged from lack of sleep to the environmental impact caused by the event, and its build and break.

Objector Terence Jones said Boomtown takes five weeks to build, one week to run and three weeks to dismantle by an on-site team of 2,000 workers. As a result, he suggested around 250 hectares of the 444-hectare site is used for camping and car parks that result in destruction of the habitats for ground nesting birds. Boomtown’s solicitor Matthew Phipps said there was no proof of birds dying.

Boomtown, which is part owned by Live Nation, has now launched a separate application to the South Downs National Park Authority for an increased capacity of 76,999 from the current 65,999.

“We’re planning for Boomtown to grow back out of Downtown and return to the surrounding hills,” it said in a statement. The aim is to continue to stage the event at the Matterley Estate for the next five years. Some 1,000 Sunday tickets will be set aside for the local community, and Boomtown has promised to enhance its commitments to managing the event’s impacts on ecology, transport, sound, and lighting.

The Boomtown team unsuccessfully applied to increase the event’s capacity in 2021. Details of the new application are available here.

Boomtown Fair co-founder and creative director Luke Mitchell takes Access All Areas on site for an AAA Backstage podcast interview that finds him talking about the challenges and rewards of running the event, and what led up to him creating it. Watch it here.

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