[Interview] with Boom Festival -

Hi Boom Team, thank you for finding time to talk to us. Your festival is definitely the most regarded festival in the World of Psytrance, there is a lot o information online, but we have some more questions.

The first edition of Boom was in 1997, what have inspired you to make festival?

The intentions are always evolving, though it has always been bringing people together, from across the word, to experience an alternative reality, where you can acquire tools for change. We believe that conscious celebration is a tool for changing the world. Boom is much more than a line up.

For a festival as yours, what are the biggest difficulties for festival preparation?

We never look at difficulties, we rather focus on alternatives, solutions, ways to improve.

and what are the biggest difficulties during the festival?

Again, difficulties are not part of our lexicon, the main intention during the festival is look for the wellbeing of people and give them a mind-blowing experience based on arts, music, nature, sustainability, freedom and love

What’s new will be in 2016 compared to the 2014 edition?

You have to come to experience with all your senses :-)

Your festival is international, how many % foreigners did you have last year and how many different nationalities?

In 2014 we had 151 countries represented. The percentage of portuguese people is 15%. This data comes from our eticket system.

What do you think make people travel and join your event?

Boom is much more than a psytrance festival, it is a psychedelic culture festival, where psytrance is of course one of its main driving forces. But we’re so much more… We believe people nowadays look for integrity, for places where there is no division between speech and practice. At Boom we walk the talk when we mention sustainability, for instance. We try very hard to give the best for the people, that hidden intention is the most important thing.

This year edition is sold out, what are the possibilities for the people who don’t have tickets ? Is there an official way to buy tickets “second hand”
Unfortunately not, we have been annoucing limitatuion of tickets since 2014.

#CHILL

How many stages do you have this year and what are the musical genres that will be presented in each of them?

There are 4 main stages, plus a renegade stage (the Funky Beach). Music goes from psytrance (in all its subgenres such as forest, full-on, progressive, dark progressive, organic trance, etc), world music, psychedelic bass music, psybient, psydub, psych rock, progressive techno, glitch, etc, etc. A huge diversity always with a psychedelic DNA

How important is chillout stage for your festival?

It is important as we create an intimate, cozy and comfortable space. We have been quite apprehensive to see that many chill out spaces in psytrance festivals are losing the comfort and the sense of acoustic contemplation so people can dance. We believe is important that chill out zones are indeed chill out zones, though there is moments where you can be more active.

Tell us about the location / structure of your chillout stage?

We are continuously changing structures. This year we will have a beautiful bamboo temporary architecture piece with several surprises… We call it Chill Out Gardens, as the chill out space has a music space, gardens, art installations, workshops, 3 massage and therapies hubs.
We try every edition to surpass ourselves and this year we will also present a brand new experimental surround system designed by Funktion One and operated on location by Tony Andrews himself…

What is the musical concept of this space?

Diversity of experiences

Who are the headliners for this year edition?

Boom is a no headliner festival

What is the most challenging in making good chillout?

For us the most important of the chill out is to appeal to different senses, it should be an holistic experience, not only musical

#ORGANISATION

Organizing festival is very challenging task, and it require a lot of planning and a lot of finance. How many % of festival budget is financed with tickets sales and how many % with supplementary income (sponsors, food stands, drinks)?

We don’t have and don’t accept sponsors, everything comes from tickets.

How is your budget spent in % (location, decoration, security, music lineup, other art expenses, promo/communication)? Just an approximate info would be very interesting to hear.

At Boom we spend 1/3 on program, 1/3 on production and 1/3 on construction (including sustainability)

#OTHER

What are other the festivals that are an example on inspiration for you ? If possible tell us what do you like about each of those festivals?

We like to travel the world and experience events everywhere, we learn with everything.

The summer is very charged with festivals in summer, what do you think about concurrence between different festivals?

We really don’t see things with that perspective of concurrence. Each festival should be different from each other, at least that is what we try, we must give something new to the people each edition.