LONDON (CelebrityAccess) — Live Nation has acquired a minority stake in Boomtown, a music festival held annually on the Matterley Estate in South Downs National Park, near Winchester, Hampshire.
The deal, first reported by IQ Magazine, included Live Nation executives Denis Desmond and Stuart Douglas joining Boomtown’s board as Chairman and Chief Operating Officer, respectively, in July.
According to IQ Magazine, the two Live Nation executives join Boomtown co-founders Luke Mitchell and Christopher Rutherford, and finance manager Mark Nicholls on the board.
Launched in 2009, Boomtown, formerly known as the Boomtown Fair, has been held at its current site since 2011. The festival features multiple stages of music along with a continuing storyline that’s recounted through annual chapters that include sets, live actors and a variety of alternate reality games
The story is structured around a core set of progressive values set out in the festival’s vision code, The Six Pillars of Boomtown.
However, the festival, like much of the live music world, took a hiatus in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic and struggled amid the challenging economic environment.
A smaller event planned for 2021, the Boomtown Village, was also canceled due to COVID restrictions. The festival returned this year with a reboot of the storyline and an eclectic lineup that included Kool & The Gang, Four Tet, Jojo, Shy FX, Squarepusher, Arrested Development, De La Soul, and Ed Rush, among others.
Neither Live Nation or Boomtown commented on the acquisition but the appointments of Desmond and Stuart to the festival’s board took place on July 6th, according to filings in the UK’s Company House.
