Boomtown announces 'reinvention' for 2021 - and they will not reveal the lineup

Boomtown, the UK’s largest independent festival, has announced a 'reinvention' for 2021.

The team behind the mammoth Winchester festival have said they will not release the lineup for next year's edition in August (11th - 15th) and will "keep the majority of acts secret until just before the festival".

Boomtown's founders Chris Rutherford and Lak Mitchell say: "We have spent months debating whether this was the right thing to do but what is clear, is that there are many aspects to the way the music industry runs that don’t work for independent festivals.

"The complex process of releasing a music line-up with the exclusivity, billing and escalating costs has led us to decide this is the time to rethink the way we approach it and explore new ways of doing things.

“We have always been a creatively led festival and people attend Boomtown because of the overall experience; we will continue to book incredible headline artists, and all the festival favourites, but by approaching our programming announcements in this radical way, we can create lineups that are even more phenomenal and diverse than we have ever been able to before.”

The festival, which began in 2009, has also revealed plans to change the layout next year. A statement by the festival's organisers reads:

"The Main City and its unique worlds will all now be located in what was previously known as ‘Downtown Boomtown’. Every main stage is a brand new concept and nestled deep into magical district surroundings. For the first time ever we will be using every inch of the ‘Downtown’ valley to build up the most detailed festival city we’ve ever dreamt up! Around the city will be the beautiful, forest chillouts and woodland parties we love to escape to.”

Boomtown's capacity had been increased to 76,999 for 2020. However, the outbreak of Covid-19 saw the event cancelled as the global pandemic put a halt to the festival season.

Previous headliners have included The Streets, Gorillaz, Limp Bizkit, Carl Cox, The Specials and M.I.A..

Tickets for Boomtown 2021 go on sale at 7pm on Thursday 1st October.

Read: 2021 Festivals You Can Already Buy Tickets For