Co-owner of Boomtown Fair 'heartbroken' by amount of rubbish left behind at South Downs National Park site

Boomtown Fair returned to the Matterley Estate earlier this month after a three-year absence.

It welcomed 66,000 people from August 10- 14 for an extended weekend of partying which saw more than 500 artists including Shy FX, Gentlemans Dub Club and Kool & The Gang take to the stage in the blistering heat.

Speaking in a video posted to his Facebook page, Lak Mitchell, who founded the festival alongside Chris Rutherford, said: “From an audience perspective and from a show perspective, it was absolutely phenomenal. It was hands down the best yet. The layout, the design and the energy of it was just incredible.”

He added: “We are so proud of what we achieved there. But the challenges behind the scenes were immense.

“There are still people here sweating and giving it everything to pack up, and it’s going to be another 10 days before we’re done.”

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Mr Mitchell praised the determination of his crew for overcoming “relentless” issues such as staff shortages, machinery breaking down in the heat and last-minute cancellations from suppliers.

However, he admitted they didn’t manage to deter attendees from ditching their rubbish at the beauty spot.

“We didn’t crack the campsite waste and that was devastating,” he said.

Organisers have introduced several initiatives over recent years in hope of encouraging partygoers to clean up after themselves.

For the first time this year, crews of ‘Eco-Warriors’ toured the festival every afternoon with mobile pop-up sound systems encouraging people to get involved in the big Boomtown tidy.

The warriors handed out free 2023 festival tickets and merchandise to the cleanest camps and those doing their best to keep the South Downs National Park free from litter. 

Image: Leora Bermeister

“We’ve had all these amazing messages coming in from people who left their whole areas spotless, they really did leave no trace,” he added. “It was great to see the responsibility some people have taken.

“But there were other groups which left real messes and just didn’t care. It was heartbreaking, and we need to bring in some brand-new initiatives and really look at that quite heavily.

“The whole sustainability side of the festival is so far away from where we want it to be.

“We’re not even touching the sides with what we can do with it.”

Boomtown recently sold a 45 per cent stake to a trio of new shareholders in a bid to regain financial stability after a tasking few years for the festival.

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The deal sees Live Nation and Gaiety each taking an 18 per cent stake, with SJM Concerts taking a further nine per cent. Mr Mitchell says he hopes having the backing of a larger corporation will help the festival to achieve its goal of being Net Zero by 2025.

He was joined by green energy industrialist and owner of Forest Green Rovers F.C, Dale Vince, at this year’s event. The pair discussed ways of finding a sustainable power source for the festival going forward, something Mr Mitchell plans to put to the new investors.

He said: “Being part of this group and having that shared knowledge with other festivals like Glastonbury and Bestival allows us to look at further initiatives.

“We want to find radical solutions, harnessing these really clever and amazing people, and present them to these new additional partners we’ve got. It feels like it can go in the right direction.”