Boomtown 26

Standing on dry, dusty ground at Boomtown in a hi-vis vest and a dust mask, with the sun low through the haze

Back at Boomtown this year, running the photography team’s office. The first three days were hot enough to change the job. Most of the thinking went on the schedule, moving photographers around the stages and districts so everyone had somewhere out of the sun to be.

The photography office at Boomtown, a desk with the day schedule up on the monitor, radios charging and site maps pinned to the wall
Three of the photography team working at laptops in the production office, one of them standing with a camera round his neck

Then the dust. The ground was bone dry and there were thousands of people walking and dancing across it, so it hung over everything, all weekend.

A wide view of a crowd sitting on dry grass at Boomtown in low evening sun, dust hanging in the air

Good year though. The team shot well, and the festival was bigger too, new stages, better production, districts that looked properly built.

It finished on Sunday night with Skrillex on Hydro XL. I went up on the cherry picker at the back of the crowd for the show, the closing ceremony and the drones.

Looking straight down onto a dense crowd from the cherry picker at the back of the field
The festival site at night from the cherry picker, stage structures and lighting laid out below
Lasers over the crowd on the closing night at Boomtown, seen from above the back of the field