Best of Boom's 25th Anniversary Edition
Reconnecting with the tribes at the 25th-anniversary edition felt absolutely amazing, and we’re floating a few inches above the ground even now. While still finding dust in peculiar places, we wanted to share with you this Boom festival review. Where we highlight the best moments of the 2022 edition as part of Psylo’s summer tour. Plus, as an extra bonus - you'll find snaps taken at the Psylo Boom Land shop, sharing those magical moments with you.
This year, the climate has posed some serious challenges for all the teams involved. On July 13th, just a few days before the festival started, Portugal experienced the hottest day of 2022 and the 5th hottest day of the 21st century. Temperatures were above 40°C and it was difficult to move; even the sewing machine needles melted. With such extreme conditions, the event was almost cancelled (!!) So first and foremost, a big thank you goes out to the community: the Boomers, musicians, artists, performers, healers, speakers, organizers, traders, and everybody who makes this dream a reality. THANK YOU!
With a heart full of gratitude, let’s move on to sharing Psylo’s highlights from Boomland 2022:
The theme chosen by the Boom team for this edition was ‘Tales from The Anthropocene’. This theme acted as a call upon the activist within each of us; the sensitive being, the dreamer, the visionary. An appeal to our positive nature to make a concrete contribution to a regenerative Anthropocene. Creating Boom as an alternative reality, an imagined better world, and as a tool for change.
This means that Boom, beyond being a music gathering, is a fully immersive experience. Encompassing workshops, talks, rituals, therapies, and so much more! Worth noting are the Liminal Village 'conference' area - a platform for presentations, master classes, discussion panels, lectures, workshops and documentaries, and the NGO Dome, which serves as a practical amplifier. The Being Fields, an area entirely dedicated to practices which nourish the body, mind, and soul. The Nataraj Dance Stage for workshops and shows of the ancient magic of rhythmic movement and its capability to push limits.
Boom Land holds many more wonders for everybody to enjoy: the Young Dragons kids’ area, various art installations, performances, Bike Village and Envisionary Art Lounge. While at the food market you can indulge with yummy Poke bowls, veggie wraps, easy pizzas and refreshing acai, all the way to Argentinian BBQ for a tasty anti-Boom meat feast. All making Boom Festival a wholesome, mind-expanding experience.
But don’t you go thinking that with all this nourishment, Boom neglects the music part. It’s exactly the opposite. With some of the best acts in the world, playing across 4 huge stages, and with sound, visual & installation production exceeding perfection - Boom is a real treat to the eyes & ears of alternative music lovers. Everybody who has experienced the energy of Boom’s dance floors knows how incredible it is!
Some of the best 2022 moments we caught are Giuseppe's set for evolution and freshness into the sound, Render, Jumpstreet, Samhadi, Drip Drop and Melting Point all kicked ass, with Nuki stealing the show at the Dance Temple with her best set yet! At the Alchemy Circle, it was Rodhad who topped the show, as well as Symbolico’s opening, Grouch in Dub set, Brojanowski, Breger, Kromagon, Kliment… Also here, female power totally rocked it - with Sama’s phat sound, huge energy and a charismatic presence onstage.
At the Sacred Fire stage, we enjoyed some amazing bands and world music. One of the favourite places to chill and get some food - such a cool place to hang out! But the best was The Gardens, for super-relaxed vibes, especially at night. They looked and sounded ace, with beautiful sonic selections: Anatolian Weapons, Forest Drive West, Burnt Friedman & João Filipe Pais live concert, Manu and many more… Giving pleasure to our ears, eyes, mind, body & soul.
As all this amazing alternative world was happening around us, the Psylo team was busy at our festival wear shop. Reconnecting with customers, friends and family, giving style or fit advice, digging that right size for you from one of the boxes in stock, and generally spreading good vibes. This year, we’ve asked the talented festivals photographer Sammy Leigh Scholl, aka @sauriel.samfairy on IG, to capture some of the magical moments of the Psylo festival stall at Boom 2022. Sammy is the official photographer for Origin Festival (South Africa), Noisily Festival (United Kingdom), Global Eclipse, and many more. Here are selected snaps to give you the flavour:
To summarise, Boom gets the highest scores for leading the scene and blowing our minds since 1997. On top of these highlights shared with you here, we must mention two other “departments” where Boom truly exceeds, and one that we would love to see improve in the future:
Although water cuts might be beyond the control of the festival’s organizers, having the only option at the bar for water being small cans for 1.70 Euro, is not only heavy on the pocket, it’s heavy on the environment, too. As each can holds only a small amount of water, and in such a hot climate, do not go very far. So moving forward, we would love to see better solutions for sourcing the “energy of life” during the event. With that being said, it’s a pure pleasure enjoying a beautiful festival site that is being worked on, nourished and gardened all year round, and that is being kept tidy throughout the event, too. There was never any rubbish anywhere. We were also impressed by how sound the crowd was. To put it bluntly - it was almost dickhead free, which is rare. Well done to everybody involved, for building this strong community and safe space.
Thank you, Boom!
WE ARE ONE.
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The next Boom is from 20 to 27 July 2023 (Waxing Crescent Moon), with tickets becoming available in October 2022 (this does not mean that Boom will be happening every year from now on, but rather going back to doing the festival on odd years - 2025, 2027, and so on). Stay tuned for the launch of the new theme, too via the Boom festival official: boomfestival.org
About Psylo - The Creators of This Boom Review
Founded by a group of world-travellers with a passion for seeking out new experiences, Psylo has been breaking boundaries since 1999. Located in the subcultural fashion epicentre of Europe, Camden, as well as having several flagship stores worldwide, our clothing is a rebellion against fast fashion. We strive only to create clothing that is both ethical and environmentally friendly, infusing each piece with ethnic elements from different cultures to create bold, edgy and rebellious garments. Each of our garments is produced in-house at our own independent workshop. Shop with us in-store at one of our flagship stores, catch our festival stall at the next festivals, or find our collection online.
