The ‘Booming’ world of alternative reality

Is it the fact that it’s clean from the visual pollution of brands, ads, corporate logos or any forms of marketing/promotional messages? Or the fact that it’s loaded with more than just open-air dance floors?
Really, I can go on with reasons why Boom sets itself apart from other international music festivals.

Taking place during the full moon cycle of Aug. 17-26 on the tranquil shores of lake Idanha-a-Nova, three hours drive from Lisbon airport, Boom is a biennial, non-commercial festival that is bursts with such a smorgasbord of entertainment and knowledge that you walk out of the festival fulfilled, enlightened and emotionally and intellectually charged, feeling like a new person.

With heaps to do, see, learn and take part in, the festival spoils and stimulates your senses: Music, paintings, sculptures, clothes, live arts, films, photos, discussions, presentations and workshops/seminars, thoughts, ideologies, experiences, communication, philosophies, you name it.
With so much in the air, every waking hour is a process of enjoying and absorbing information as well as exchanging ideas that enhances life experiences.

Initially started by Diogo Ruivo and Pedro Carvalho in 1997 as a psy-trance festival with a heavy influence of electronic music, the event has today mushroomed to become a global phenomenal: An inter-cultural, multi-disciplinary and conscious gathering of people from 80 different countries

Being one of more than 20,000 people from around the globe to camp for 10 magical days in this world of alternative reality was an exhilarating experience.     Everyday, I was overwhelmed with what I sensed in this cultural melting pot village inhabited by free spirits like a big worldwide family connected with the same values: love, peace, art, creativity and visionary culture.

The serene and peaceful lake of Idanha-a-Nova is a great afternoon escape for the Boomers. Courtesy of Joel Muenster

At Boom, no day passes without walking — unless you want to stay at your tent the whole day and get toasted by the more-than-40-degree-Celsius heat under the Portugal sun – as the distance from one venue to another is far-stretched on its more than 30-hectare-sized location.

There is a camping area, car/caravan parks, a community kitchen, restaurants, a KosmiCare tent to help people suffering psychedelic episodes drug-related or other wise, first aid tents, toilets and showers, a flea market, food stalls selling healthy organic food, clothing stores, stores selling accessories and nick-knacks, an art gallery, dance floors and a whole lot more.  

Richer Than Just Music

During the day the majestic nature surpassed the visual domain and influenced the art works and at night, comes a whole new world sparkling with lights, artistic shapes, lasers, mutant installations and colorful corridors and restaurants with geometry influencing most structures and colors.

The festival’s “music zones” are divided between Dance Temple, with psychedelic vibrations, Groovy Beach with a merge-music style and Sacred Fire that comes alive at night with strong African tribal percussive.

The cozy Ambient Paradise with its 24/7 music seems to be a favorite getaway for Boomers to chill, hang out, relax, daydream, chat, or simply lie down and have a siesta, accompanied by the sweet scent in the air and rich, mystical and hypnotizing fusion of live-jam set.

Liminal Zone houses paradigm films, discussions, presentations and workshops/seminars about time and space, behavior, the body, mind, art, love and evolution.

Guru Rattana from the United States tried to wake us all up to love, while Kate Magic of UK, broadened my horizon about the raw food lifestyle, and Amala Shakti Devi (Portugal) revealed the journey of sacred, tantric sex and how to use universe’s layers of energy to peak your sexual orgasm — thanks for that.

Meanwhile, Live Art presents theater, circus, fire dances, hula-hoop and amazing acrobatic stunts.

Being lost among the stunning paintings, psychedelic symbols and urban art in the bamboo-built, tunnel-shaped Art Gallery is another joyous experience.

But of all, nothing blew me away like Gamelatron, the world’s first fully robotic gamelan orchestra.

Surprised, speechless and frozen, I felt suddenly vulnerable as “home” hit me.

I mean, am I really standing here in the secluded Portuguese countryside, listening to a live gamelan set? It felt surreal.

Taylor Kuffner, the fluent Indonesian-speaking New York musician who put the gamelan together said:

“All the instruments were made in New York, and brought here.

“We made a special mount so that we could hang them on the wall to make it architectural,” explained warm, friendly and animated composer.

This robotic striking mechanism produces intricately woven and rhythmic sound, making it hard to believe that they weren’t played manually. “This is just a third from what I brought from Indonesia in 2006. They are the travel sets. The rest are in Brooklyn,” continued Taylor, who spent three-and-a-half years studying various traditional music styles in Indonesia.

Like a hypnotizing musical shrine, this pavilion brought passers-by to a stop to stare and listen to the beautiful, calming tunes.

Green Awareness

Loving and respecting the Sacred Earth is the message emphasized around the festival. At arrival gates, each “Boomer” (the name given to festival-goers) was given a small plastic test tube as an individual ashtray. Members of the Boom Team also regularly collected trash on roads or at the venue and cleaned the toilets.

Boom’s ecological responsibility is shown by its on-site recycling plant for all water used by restaurants, showers, bars and other facilities, alternative energies using windmills and solar power during the festival, and of course the dominance of bamboo used to build most of the event’s stages and structures.

Though I can say that — after witnessing one idiot peeing cheerfully into the bushes just a few inches from my tent — that not all Boomers shared this environmentally friendly spirit, but for a huge festival, the result was successful. I couldn’t remember seeing a cigarette butt in the 10 days I was there.

A Free Stage of Self-Expression

At trance festivals like Boom, normal dress codes and conventional attitudes disappear into thin air as the venue becomes a huge playground for free spirits to express themselves with live art performances and informal talent shows at every corner.

More than just festival goers, these liberated souls take the opportunity to express their personalities by wearing fancy make-up, extreme body paints, eccentric if not mystical and ethnic costumes (some tribal-styled ladies remind me of Xena warrior princess), and creative hairstyles.

No one stares or frowns upon anyone else, even the stocky middle-aged man in a fluffy bead-adorned mini skirt or the guy sporting a mohawk hairstyle in a sparkling silver bodysuit ala Freddy Mercury.

Like water, which is the theme chosen for the eighth time the event has been held, Boom keeps on changing, moving, flowing and recycling as a one-of-a-kind festival that believes in values of love, art, culture, peace and the sacredness of Earth, as we are all one.