The boom festival continues to surpass itself as far as I'm concerned. This was our 6th boom festival, and definitely up there with the best of them. We had the usual fun on the first day – our car came to a halt in a traffic jam about 2kms outside idahna-a-nova, and you couldn't even get to the village itself. Heard from friends that had walked in that it was total chaos at the entrance, that there was a total of 24km traffic jams, so we did a 3-point turn on the road and headed to a campsite approx 10kms away for the night. Glad we did - turned out that some of our friends were 23hours in the queue and that tensions were starting to become frayed, especially with people trying to jump the car queue and wedging their cars in between others that had been patiently waiting for a long long time.

We drove back the next morning, and just like 2 years ago, we drove straight in. had about an hours wait on the wee entrance road, but otherwise a painless journey.

It was massive this year. Much much bigger than any previous year, and even if they hadn't been expecting to sell out, it was still at least a third in size again (if not more) in comparison to 2 years ago. The dancefloor was a bit bigger, but provided more shade, which was excellent (says the redheaded freckle). There was also a chaishop on the edge of the dancefloor providing more shade and seating, and a couple of sandwich/snack stalls so you didn't have to take the hike down to the restaurant area if you fancied something to nibble on.

The restaurant area was huge as well, and had all kinds of different kinds of food that suited everyone. From vegan to veggie to meat, Portuguese, Indian, Thai, Mexican and nondescript. ;) really good stuff too. don't think I've ever eaten so good or so much at a festie as I have at this one. Festie weight loss wasn't an issue for once. (mores the pity maybe... :) )

The long drop compost toilets were the biz. Always clean and practically inviting! :) the same couldn't be said of the porta-loos unfortunately, but you learned quickly to keep away from them. They also introduced not only male, but female urinals. I can't say I used them much, because when I went in there to check them out on the first day, 3 of the 5 'containers' had poo in them. I wonder which bit of the word 'urinal' people don't understand.... or was it 'urinol'... there were a few different spelling variations on the word. :) but other girlies I knew used them and were fairly positive about them.

I thought that the music was better this year than last. Or in any case, night time music was played at night, and day time and progressive music played during the day. There was a noticeable change in style around 11pm each night, but that was fine, I was getting ready to head to my tent at that point anyway - I'm not such a night time festie person.

there was also an alternative dance stage featuring dub-step, german techno etc. didn't quite float my boat any time I went down there, but it was certainly popular with lots of other folks. The chillout was as beautiful and, well, chilled, as ever, except that I found that it was smaller than previous years. There were more lil' gazebos surrounding the main chill area, I guess that made up for more seating space. We also discovered the floating cocktail bar just off the beach down the hill from the chillout after day 3 or thereabouts. That became a favourite haunt most afternoons around 5 or 6pm. :) Caipirinha's a go-go. :)

so does anyone want to tell me what ever happened the sustainable ferry? :) that was moored just off the cocktail bar, but we watched while a group of people took off in it and tried to manoeuvre it, but they basically went whichever way the wind fancied blowing them (and not for the want of much pedalling) and ended up pushing it back by hand to it's mooring place. Much to our amusement. :)

I was really impressed with the environmental steps taken by the organisation for waste recycling, water treatment, generators being run on vegetable oil, and the use of environmentally friendly materials in the structures.

I must also admit that I was impressed with the fact that they turned people away from the gates if they hadn't got a prepaid ticket, as the infrastructure wouldn't have been able to handle it, and it would probably have made it less enjoyable for the people already inside. 10000 is a lot of refusals. But 25000 is also a lot of people! ...when I think back to the first boom festival in 1997 when there were only around 3000 - 3500 of us... :)

there was a fantastic atmosphere throughout too. some in our group had never been to a psytrance festival, let alone one so huge, and couldn't believe how 'safe' they felt when wandering around, even when alone. big shouts go out to all our usual crew, and to all the new faces i met too. so yeah, we had such a brilliant time, and already eyeing up 2010! :)

photos can be found at http://www.doei.org/photo/boom_2008