The 10 best things about Boom Festival

I wasn’t prepared for how much I’d love Boom. What usually draws me to a music festival is the amazing line-up of bands and artists. At Boom 2023, however, I recognised none of the names on the programme. Nonetheless, I had heard about this festival a while back and thought it would be a great experience: a whole week in the beautiful Portuguese countryside with people from all over the world and loads of activities to take part in. For me, the music was actually of secondary importance. And that did not affect my enjoyment of the event at all. In fact, I’d say Boom tops the list of amazing festivals I’ve been to (and I’ve been to a lot). Here’s an overview of what I think are the 10 best things about Boom Festival.

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Magical setting

Boomland is simply stunning. The main feature is of course the large lake where Boomers gather to chill, picnic, swim, play and sunbathe. It’s hard to imagine the festival without this cooling body of water. With temperatures hovering around 35 degrees during the day, it’s an essential part of what makes Boom so special. Additionally, the terrain is covered in Holm Oaks (azinheiras in Portuguese), which are typical of the region. There are more than enough trees to provide ample shade for festivalgoers to camp and relax under. Boomland is also hilly, which makes for great viewpoints. I remember sitting in the entrance of my tent at sunrise on Saturday, looking out towards the festival and hills far beyond, hearing the sounds coming from the Alchemy Circle and thinking: this must be the most magical festival setting in the world.

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Love is in the air

The energy you feel at Boom is hard to put into words. You have to feel it. The interconnectedness of existence really comes alive here and there’s something very primal about the whole festival experience, like a remembering of times past when we would gather under the stars, tell stories, make music and dance. You can literally feel the love in the air. People from all over the world are there to connect with themselves, with others, with the music, with the land. The theme for the 2023 edition of the festival was Radical Love. This is what Boom Festival wrote on their website about the theme:

“Based on the psychedelic tradition of the Boom Festival, expanding boundaries, discovering new dimensions of the Self and the Other, and generating new approaches to love and affection that have the potential to generate change in the system. In an era of polarisation like the one we’re living today, the ability to empathise is of fundamental importance. Putting ourselves in the other’s shoes, questioning individual and social assumptions. More active listening, more empathy and compassion are imperative.  Radical Love is needed.“

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Real connection

I have always found festivals to be places of real connection. However, that feeling has waned in recent years as mobile phone and social media use has increased. It’s a sad sight to watch an artist or band perform on stage to a sea of smartphones, don’t you think? This is not the case at Boom. When reading the information on the official website, I noticed how adamant the organisation was about using your phone as little as possible. And, whether they were following official advice or listening to their own internal guidance systems, people at Boom overwhelmingly stayed away from their mobiles.

It was a breath of fresh air to experience the level of interaction and connection that can happen when people are not distracted by their devices. While I wish I had taken more photos, I am grateful to have had those four days almost fully offline. And I’m convinced that this might be one of the main reasons why Boom feels so special –  it helps us to remember what life was like before we posted everything online.

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Getting naked

At Boom, I also remembered what it was like to not be self-conscious about my body, which took me all the way back to early childhood. On the second day of the festival, my friends and I decided to do the mud bath. We stripped down and got into a shallow terracotta-coloured pool of mud with around 20 other naked humans. My goodness was it liberating and a hell of a lot of fun! After covering our bodies in the liquid earth, we walked to the lake and swam to a rocky outcrop where we lay in the sun like muddy mermaids.

But it wasn’t just us mud bath folk. Lots of people were walking around partially or fully naked at Boom Festival and I found this to be such a revelation. In today’s society, we tend to either feel shame around our naked bodies or we over-sexualise them. At Boom, being in your birthday suit is about innocence, acceptance and freedom. It’s beautiful.

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Weird and wonderful workshops

You could come to Boom for the workshop programme alone. From breathwork to acro-yoga and from ecstatic dancing to Qigong, there’s a dizzying array of activities to take part in. Next time I will do more research though, because I know I missed a lot of great stuff. I did manage to make it to two very interesting workshops: Love in Kung Fu and Alchemy of Tantra. The latter had me doing a sort of hand dance with a total stranger, connecting with the spirit animal of my root chakra (a jaguar, it turns out) and crawling around all fours growling at people. Like I said, weird and wonderful. When I return in 2025, workshops will definitely feature a lot more heavily in my festival experience!

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The marketplace

Never have I seen so many beautiful items for sale at a festival than at Boom! Vendors from across the world come here to sell their unique and often handmade and organic products. Clothes, jewellery, massage oils, art prints, smoking pipes, books, hula hoops, figurines, natural soaps and candles – it was a real joy to see all the wonderful things on offer. There’s a more central market area as well as a plethora of stalls lining the busy trajectories of the festival terrain. You could actually spend a whole day just looking around and buying gifts for yourself and your loved ones.

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Spacious camping

Have you ever arrived at a festival a little on the late side only to discover that the remaining free space for camping is right next to the toilets? Or that the campsite is so busy you have to set up your tent so close to your neighbours that you feel like you’re sleeping in the same bed as them? That’s just not an issue at Boom. There’s an extensive and very spread out area to camp in, meaning that every individual or group has enough space to themselves. You’re still close enough to other Boomers to be able to socialise and make new friends, you just don’t need to hear people getting intimate five centimetres away from your ear.

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Amazing food

Now that I am no longer a poor student, I can actually afford to buy food at festivals rather than survive on a diet of Pot Noodles. While there are community kitchens at Boom (you’re not allowed to take camping stoves due to the fire risk), I recommend eating at as many of the different food stalls as possible – everything I ate was delicious! Indian, Thai, Middle Eastern, Brazilian, Japanese, Portuguese… it seemed like the whole world was represented. My personal favourite? The Argentine BBQ. Here, I not only got a plate of cooked-to-perfection steak with chimichurri, potatoes and grilled veggies for only 15 euros, but I also got a huge portion of entertainment as I watched the staff dance along to 90s classics like Pump Up the Jam, Macarena and Scatman. So fun!

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Respect for water

In 2022, the whole of Portugal experienced drought. Boom Festival recognises water as a sacred resource and there is deep reverence for the land. Every drop counts here. The organisers use water as responsibly as possible and they often remind festivalgoers to do the same. You’re never far from a water refill point though. With the high temperatures, copious amounts of sun and physical activity, staying hydrated is really important! You also get pretty sweaty and dusty, so you will probably want to take showers. To save water, the showers only operate at specific times and people are encouraged to be quick (and I found that they almost always were). You are also advised to only use organic products so that the water is as clean as possible when it goes back into the grid. It was great to see this level of respect for this precious resource.

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The toilets

I’m sure this is something you would not have expected to find in a blog about the 10 best things about a festival. But at Boom, the toilets were so amazing that they deserve a paragraph written about them. Not once did I encounter a pee-covered toilet seat. Not once was there a lack of toilet paper. Not once did I have to cover my nose and mouth because of the stench. And the longest I had to wait in the queue was maybe 4 minutes (and that was close to one of the biggest stages). On top of all these practicalities, the bathrooms were adorned with beautiful artwork. And on the inside of the door was a poster explaining how the compost toilets work, no water or chemicals involved! Boom Team, I commend you on your lovely lavatories.

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All in all, Boom Festival was the best festival I’ve ever been to in terms of overall experience and I cannot wait to go back in two years’ time. The event will be held from 17 to 24 July 2025 at Boomland, close to Idanha-A-Nova in Portugal. Check out the festival’s Instagram page and official website to keep up-to-date with developments! In the meantime, you can get into the festival vibe by checking out the special Boom playlist I made on Spotify.

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