EATING VEGAN AT... BOOMTOWN FAIR

Before I get into this post, I would just like to warn you that this is not going to be the most detailed post on what to eat at Boomtown you have ever read in your life. The reason for this is I genuinely cannot remember half of my week, and I do not think I need to explain why. Anyway, I hope this gives you some insight as to how I coped with eating vegan at a festival. Enjoy.

This was my second festival I had been to as a vegan, (I went to Creamfields last year), however, Boomtown is twice the size of Creamfields and I had already heard that the options for vegans were endless. So, I was very excited to see what Boomtown had to offer. It helped that I was going to Boomtown with my two friends who were vegan and vegetarian. 

The Preparations 

The first thing I did was go shopping for snacks to eat during the day. I had decided I was going to eat one hot meal a day and then snack on food I had bought with me if I ever got hungry, (which would be very likely considering at home I tend to eat every three hours). 

Here is a list of what I brought from Morrisons: 

Food 

·     A box of Naked Foods peanut butter bars 

·     A box of breakfast biscuits (purchased from the free from section in Morrisons)

·     6 pack of hula hoops 

·     2 packets of eat real hummus crisps (ate the night before L) 

·     A box of Lazy Day Foods rocky road snacks 

Drinks 

·     Bottle of water (refill) 

·     10 cans of carling black 

·     Litre bottle of vodka

I know this doesn’t seem like a lot, however, I always find that I come home from a festival with half of my food, as I always forget to eat it. So, learning from my mistakes, I decided to pack a little lighter this year, (I still managed to come home with half my food). 

Day One, Thursday: Travelling to Boomtown

It was time to go to Boomtown. The day before we stayed in my friend’s student house in Bristol. Seeing as we were all travelling from Shrewsbury, we decided to split the journey up. It took us just over two hours to get to Bristol and it was another two hours to get to Boomtown. 

We woke up at 8am, ready to leave by 9. On the way to Winchester we stopped off at Tesco to get some breakfast, (a meal deal of course). 

Tesco Meal Deal, (Falafel and Humous Wrap, Naked Smoothie, Salt and Vinegar Crisps)
Instagram: emeatsvegan

The day before we were supposed to go food shopping, as my friend hadn’t yet purchased his food for the weekend. However, we were all super tired from the drive down to Bristol, so we all decided it was best to go shopping in the morning whilst we were getting breakfast. We each picked our meal deals and drove off ready for the two-hour journey to Boomtown. 

About an hour had passed before we realised that we completely forgot to shop for my friend’s food. All he had was a three-litre box of wine and a meal deal to last him until Monday. The funny thing is is that he actually left his meal deal in the car. So, just the three-litre box of wine it is. 

The journey was a little longer than expected, as we did run into some traffic as we approached Winchester, which was understandable. We managed to get to the car park at 12.30pm, and after queuing for an hour and a half with all of our bags, we were through security and inside Boomtown. 

We met up with some friends and attempted to find a camping space. This was proving to be difficult, as it was now 2pm, and most of the camping spots had already been taken. We walked around Sector 6, Old Town and Lion’s Den, trying to find a spot to fit three tents. 

Two hours had passed, and we were still yet to find a camping spot. I have never known anger quite like lugging around a camping bag, a tent, a chair, and a trolley full of alcohol, (which eventually broke), across a 40,000 square ft festival. It was 4pm and we still had no luck. 

We walked across the festival towards Downtown, (the other side of where we came in) and reached a camp site called Distrikt 5. We managed to find a spot and at 4.30pm we set up our tents. 

After five hours of queueing and walking around trying to find a camping spot, we desperately needed a drink. 

Me and my friend grabbed a can and decided to investigate Boomtown. On our walk, I spotted tonnes of vegan food stalls, and it didn’t look like we were going to struggle to eat here at all. 

Thursday night was a little bit of a blur. It was a night where we were attempting to get to grips with everything. It truly was the biggest festival I have ever been to, and after doing a lot of exploring, we completely forgot to eat anything that evening. 

We spent most of the night in the Tangled Roots forest, which was so much fun. The music actually stopped at midnight on Thursday, which was a little disappointing. But it did mean we could head back to the tent for a good night’s sleep ready for the weekend ahead. 

Tangled Roots Forest

Friday 

It was our first morning waking up at Boomtown. We all woke up at 7.30am, (does anyone else wake up so much earlier at a festival, no matter how much sleep you got the night before?) We decided to grab some breakfast and get ready for the day. For breakfast I ate a Naked peanut butter bar and an apple and an orange, (courtesy of my friend). The first act we wanted to see was at 12pm, so we had a pretty chill morning. We freshened up and got ready for the day.

12pm came around very quickly. We made our way to the Lion’s Den stage ready to watch SHY FX. Their set was an hour long and whilst we were there it started to rain. It was at this point of the weekend that I learnt my waterproof jacket was certainly not water proof. I was soaked. 

We left SHY FX at 1pm and decided to hunt down some food. I was very excited for my first meal at Boomtown. 

Whilst we were looking for food, it started to pour it down and we got SOAKED. I had never seen rain like it. We needed the toilet, so we found some and hid in there for literally half an hour waiting for the pouring rain to calm down. It did not seem like it was going away any time soon. 

After half an hour of hiding, we finally braced the rain. We legged it towards our tent and managed to find a noodle bar on the way. We ordered two Pad Thais, (both without the egg), and they came to £6 each. This wasn’t too bad for a festival and it was quite a large portion. 

Pad Thai with Tofu
Instagram: emeatsvegan

As it was still raining, and we were right by our tent, we decided to take shelter and eat our noodles. The noodles tasted great and they definitely filled me up for the day. All in all a great start to eating vegan at Boomtown.

After we ate, we met up with the rest of the group and decided to head back out and brave the cold weather. The rain came in random bursts, every hour or so. However, when it did rain it RAINED. 

The thing about Boomtown is that it is all very open. The stages are hidden in forests, post offices, libraries, and 90% of them are outside with no shelter from the rain. The good thing about this was that you could take your alcohol anywhere, as there weren’t any “arenas” or security stopping you from drinking, as there is no set arena. However, this did mean when it rained, you were going to get wet. 

At 4pm we headed to the Robotika stage where they were playing all day dubstep. This was actually so much fun, as seeing as we could drink whilst watching acts, we all got very drunk. We spent around two hours here. 

The rest of the day again, seems like a huge blur. As I mentioned before, I cannot really go into detail about where we were during the day, as I truly don’t remember. Before we knew it, it was 7pm and we were back at the tent filling up our alcohol and preparing to watch Egoless at Tangled Roots. 

Friday night was a lot of fun. We saw Egoless, lost our friends in the process, leaving just me and Liv, and managed to reunite with everyone at the Sector 6 stage, where we continued to watch a few acts. 

We walked around Old Town and found lots of secret raves in Post Offices, and Libraries and eventually we were back at the tent at around 2am. This was definitely earlier than we wanted, but after waking up at 7.30am, we could not hack it anymore. A lie in was definitely needed tomorrow. 

Saturday

It was 10.30am and we had just woken up. We managed to have a bit of a lie in and at around 11am, we decided to start our day. We began with our usual breakfast – a breakfast bar, biscuits, an apple and an orange. 

We left our tent quite early on Friday and we had such a long day, meaning we were dead by the end of it. There wasn’t too much we wanted to see during the day on Saturday, so we were free until around 4pm when King of the Rollers were playing at Bang Hai Towers. 

It was quite nice weather on Saturday morning, and we did not have a pour of rain like we did the day before. We had a nice morning drinking, chilling and getting ready for the day. 

At around 2pm we decided we were hungry. When I was walking around on the Thursday, I spotted a Mexican stand advertising a vegan burrito. So, we decided to head there. 

When we got there, we saw that for a 12inch burrito it was £8.50 (a large) and for a 10inch it was £7.50 (a small). This was quite expensive, as in Bar Burrito, you can get one for a fiver. However, we were at a festival and food is always going to be expensive here. We sucked it up and spent £8.50 on a large burrito, hoping it would fill us up for the day ahead. 

Vegan Burrito
Instagram: emeatsvegan

Vegan Burrito
Instagram: emeatsvegan

The vegan burrito came with beans, lettuce, rice and guacamole on a toasted tortilla. It was worth every penny. It tasted heavenly and was just what we needed. I still dream of that burrito to this day.

We ate our burritos on the way back to camp, filled up on alcohol and headed to King of the Rollers at Bang Hai Towers. 

To say we were drunk on Saturday would be an understatement. This day is the BIGGEST blur of them all. After King of the Rollers, we started off looking around Downtown, walking through the library and the post office. 

Once we reached the post office, the man who worked there stopped my friend and gave her a secret mission to complete. 

On the piece of paper, it said that someone had been locked up at Bang Hai Towers and she needed to rescue him. We first needed to head to Old Town, to go to Behind Bars in order to get our next clue. 

When we got there, the man working at Behind Bars said the games were closed for the day and they reopened tomorrow at 1pm. This meant we would have to do the mission tomorrow. We put the mission in our bum bags and went on with our day. 

We headed to Old Town and noticed there were some actors dressed up, selling tickets to a private show tonight. In order to get an invite, we had to bribe them. My friend danced on a podium and received his ticket, and we gave up some sunglasses and some change for a few more tickets. 

We were extremely drunk, but so excited to go to the private show that night. On the back of our tickets, we were informed to not spill our milkshakes in the yard, as the clean-up is tricky. We believed this meant we had been invited to watch Kellis, (the singer who does Milkshake). With our tickets and naivety, we walked around the town a bit more, interacting with the actors and getting involved in more games. 

I have no idea where the day went. Before we knew it, it was 8pm and we were sat down at Lion’s Den stage waiting for the Gorillaz to perform at 9pm. Our secret party was at 10pm, and the lady informed us that we must be there on the dot, else we would not get let in. As we were waiting for the Gorillaz, we had another scan of our tickets. This time we noticed it said, “this ticket admits nothing”, on the back, in small writing. We were a little sceptical and seeing as we had given up so much to go to this party, we were going whether it was a scam or not. 

We watched 45 minutes of Gorrilaz before making our way through the busy crowds back to Old Town. The place we needed to go was called “Nobody’s Inn”, (Christ there were so many signs, I am laughing as I am writing this wondering why we ever fell for this prank). When we got there, we found a note on the door informing us that the party has been cancelled. Apparently one of the team had been stung by a bee, therefore the party could no longer go ahead. It was at that point we knew we had been scammed – thanks Boomtown. 

We did not let this ruin our night. Next to Nobody’s Inn was another Post Office, with yet another rave. We spent a lot of time in here, doing the limbo and laughing. There was a man in there who made grabbed your head and made you a tin foil hat. 

With our hats, we made a quick trip back to the tent for more alcohol at 11pm. 

We headed to Sector 6, ready for DJ Q, and to our surprise, we managed to get to the front. We found a few friends who were also at the front and we spent the next couple of hours here. 

Once the DJs had finished, we headed back to Old Town and went to a load of random raves. We ended up in Tribe of Frog forest for a techno set, which, I have to be honest, I am not a fan of. My friend and I looked at each other, realised how hammered we were, and headed back to the tent. 

We had one more day left of Boomtown, and it was safe to say, my body was feeling it. 

Sunday 

Sunday was the day where we were dead to the world. We woke up at 10am, had our usual breakfast, then fell back asleep until 1pm. No amount of sleep could have cured us after yesterday’s antics. We were ruined. 

It was now 2pm and we realised we needed to face the day. But first, we needed to get some food. 

We walked back up towards Old Town and ended up by the burrito place from the day before. I did really want a burrito, but I also wanted to try something different, as I was only here once a year. 

My friend got some noodles and I found a burger bar that looked quite nice. They were advertising a “Vegan Steak Burger”, which I got along with some fries. This came to £11, which hurt my soul, however, I was so hungry I would have paid £20. 

When I ate it, it was actually just a bean burger. It was still lovely, and definitely filled me up for the day, but talk about false advertisement. 

We went back to our tent, changed our clothes and put on some make up, and then we set off to complete our mission. 

We went back to Behind Bars and we were informed that we needed to get a book out at the library. We walked back towards our campsite where the library was, (still hungover), and went to take out the book. On our walk back to the library, it started to rain torrentially. We ran to the library to take shelter. It seemed a lot of others had the same idea, as the library was full of bodies. We stayed there for half an hour before we accepted that this rain was never going to go away. We took the book out and ran back to our tent to read the next part of our mission. 

It was a letter from the man who had been locked up. I don’t know if we were just tired, hungover, being dumb, or a mixture of all three, but this letter made 0 sense to any of us. It was now 5pm and the games were closing soon. We decided to abandon our mission and drink our sorrows away. We could not waste our last day of boomtown feeling sorry for ourselves. 

Next year, we decided we are definitely going to get our missions on the Thursday, leaving us the whole weekend to work out the riddles.

We began to drink and proceed to face the rain. We figured if we got drunk, then the rain wouldn’t really bother us. 

We spent most of our time in Downtown, going in to random raves and exploring Boomtown for one last time. Again, the day slipped away from us, and it was now 10pm and nearly time for the closing ceremony at Sector 6. 

We headed towards the Sector 6 stage and watched a few DJs there. The secret headliner had been announced – Andy C – which after hearing rumours that it was going to be Chase and Status, we were a little disappointed, as we had already seen Andy C at Creamfields the year before. We stayed to watch his set anyway and then it was time for the closing ceremony. 

The closing ceremony was really good. It talked about how much plastic was left behind every year and showed photographs of the rubbish that polluted the field after people failed to use a bin. For Chapter 11 to go ahead, Boomtown informed us we needed to clean up the city. 

After the closing ceremony, before we went home, we knew we needed to have another burrito. It was too good to not have again. 

This time we got the 10inch, and proving that size really does not matter, it was just as incredible as we remembered it to be the first time. We ate our burritos and went back to the tent for a much-needed sleep. 

On the Monday morning, we woke up at 8.30am, grabbed some bin bags from some staff, and began cleaning up around our campsite. We packed up our tent and started the dreaded uphill walk back to the car. 

We were back in the car at 10.30am and then we began the 3-hour drive back to Shrewsbury. And that was the end of Boomtown 2018. 

If I was to recommend going to any festival, I would 100% recommend going to Boomtown. It is such an EXPERIENCE. With the actors, the morning newspapers, being able to take your alcohol anywhere you want, the food, and just the all-round positive atmosphere that Boomtown oozes. It truly was the best weekend of my life, and I cannot wait for Chapter 11. 

Until next time,

Emma xxx