“ONLY together can we make an event that works for everyone.”

Those are the words of organisers of one of the biggest music festivals in the UK, which is consulting over plans to increase its capacity. 

Boomtown Fair will be held for the 14th time from August 7-11 at the Matterley Estate, near Winchester. 

They want to submit plans to increase the number of people who can attend from 64,999 to 75,999 over a three-year period. Organisers previously applied for the expansion in 2021 but withdrew the application in December 2022. 

Public consultation events were held on June 25 and 26 at the Flower Pots Inn in Cheriton. 

The organisers explained that around 40 people attended over the two days. 

Boomtown public consultation (Image: Newsquest)

Shula Rael, Boomtown brand director, said: “We've had a steady flow of people and it has mainly been local people from the surrounding villages. There has been a good mix of people with concerns and also support. People have been grateful for the volume of information and the openness. 

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“This is part of the application process, and the feedback we receive from here will feed into that. Our licence is already at 77,000 people, but our planning permits 66,000. So we are trying to align our planning with our licence because we don't fulfill our licence due to our planning. Winchester City Council feels confident with 77,000 people, so we're asking the South Downs National Park Planning Authority if we can bring our number up to that. 

“There is currently no plan to submit a permanent application. We have taken all the feedback we received on the application we withdrew and taken that into consideration.”

Flower Pots Inn  in Cheriton(Image: Newsquest)

She added: “Only together can we make an event that works for everyone. We have a hot-line for residents that is live at the show. If they call it, someone will come out pretty quickly to their home to understand what the situation is. If it's a sound issue, a sound engineer will come out and test the levels, and if it's too high we can sort it.”

Nina Lloyd, of Turley Planning, said: “We have increased the quality of the surveys we have undertaken. We have much more information to be able to submit as part of the application. We have done 15 months of ecology surveys and extensive traffic management plans.”

This year the event is called Chapter Three - Revolution of Imagination with 12 main stages, more than 50 hidden venues, thousands of performers and one secret line-up. 

For more details about the plans, search boomtownfair.co.uk/planning-application.