The UK’s Boomtown Festival says it will “blacklist” people from attending the festival after a post it made online to celebrate Pride Month was met with “hateful comments”.
Boomtown marked the start of Pride Month on 1 June with a social media post, paying tribute to “some of the incredible queer talent” that had graced the Hampshire event’s main stage over the past couple of years.
“We’re forever in awe of the LGBTQIA+ crew, artists, performers and citizens that bring the colour and make our city vibrant,” it said.
However, it has since disabled comments on the post, saying it attracted “negativity” that “goes against everything we stand for”.
“Recently, we encountered hateful comments on a post we shared celebrating the LGBTQIA+ community at the heart of Boomtown,” says a statement by the festival. “We are deeply proud of our beautiful LGBTQIA+ crews, artists, performers and citizens and we will wholeheartedly continue to celebrate the diverse communities that make our city come to life.
“We want to make it very clear that anyone with this type of view is not welcome at Boomtown”
“The kind of negativity we saw… goes against everything we stand for at Boomtown. We sincerely apologise to those who were targeted and to anyone and everyone who was affected. We were angered and saddened by the hateful comments. There’s no place for that here.
“We have a zero tolerance on any type of hate speech and our team swiftly removed the offensive comments and blocked the accounts. Unfortunately, further comments required us to disable comments entirely to protect everyone.”
Warning it would seek to ban those responsible, it added: “We’ve also created a blacklist to prevent these individuals from spreading hate on our platforms. Where possible, we’ll be taking steps to prevent them from attending the festival now or in the future. We want to make it very clear that anyone with this type of view is not welcome at Boomtown.”
Featuring 12 main stages and more than 50 hidden venues, Boomtown’s 2024 edition is titled: “Revolution of Imagination” and will be held at the Matterley Estate in South Downs National Park, near Winchester, from 7-11 August. Tickets cost £310 (€367).
First held in 2009, the festival has previously hosted acts such as Gorillaz, Lauryn Hill, M.I.A., The Streets, Wu-Tang Clan, The Specials, Cypress Hill, Limp Bizkit, Chase & Status and Madness. Live Nation, Gaiety and SJM Concerts took stakes in the event in 2022.
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