The Boom Festival is a biennial transformational festival in Portugal. The festival features music performances and a broad variety of visual art exhibits.

Boom Festival began in 1997 as a psychedelic trance music festival with a main stage and a lounge area with mellow, “chill-out music“. Now, there are five stages: the Dance Temple, for psytrance and natural trance music; the Alchemy Circle is for house music; the Sacred Fire stage is for world music and live music performances; the Ambient Source is for chill-out music; the Groovy Beach stage is for electronic dance music dee jays and producers. Other attractions include sculptures, an art gallery, street theatre, and fire performances. Within the shaded Liminal Village are lectures, yoga classes, film screenings, group meditation, and discussions. The Healing Area has group workshops for healing techniques, a pool for water therapy and a massage area.

Boom‘s main focus is to integrate a sustainability ethos with arts and culture. By design, it does not provide corporate entertainment or sponsors. The key goal is to provide a transformational festival for people of different ethnic backgrounds, nationality and ages.[citation needed] In its own words, “Boom is not only a festival, it is a state of mind. Inspired by the principles of Oneness, Peace, Creativity, Sustainability, Transcendence, Alternative Culture, Active Participation, Evolution and Love, it is a space where people from all over the world can converge to experience an alternative reality.”. The festival is entirely funded by ticket sales. It does not use corporate sponsors, which eliminates marketing that is seen as visual pollution

Here is a photo report of the 2016 edition, divided into the following categories : Art, Music, Performances, Workshops, Lectures & Portraits

ART

MUSIC

Aside from the Psytrance, there were many live acts and shows, from electro, afro-beats to flamenco.

PERFORMANCES

Many Art performances, with street theatre & bubbles sunset for example.

WORKSHOPS

Workshops were held in groups or individual sessions, ranging from Yoga to Sweat Lodge.

LECTURES

Everyday was a different theme, the days 4 ( Shamanism), 5 (Humanist Technology, hacking and Ai) and 6 (Ecology and Permaculture) were particulary appealing to me.

PORTRAITS

Photo Report from AUGUST 24TH, 2016