This year, Boomtown brought with it a sense of immense excitement and cautious apprehension. It’s no secret that three years of lost revenue would impact any festival, let alone one that reinvests so heavily in the spectacle of art and culture.

Photo credit to Nick Caro

Noisily festival, oh how we’ve missed you…

As the UK leg of the Crash tour lands in London with a guest appearance from Caroline Polachek, Charli performs the entireity of her number one album Crash alongside hits like “1999”, a revised version of “Boom Clap” and the zeitgeist-shifting “Vroom Vroom”.

As with any band, Sebastian Murphy — being the Viagra Boys frontman — gets the lion's share of attention, and tonight he earns it with topless dad dancing, solid vocals and curling up in a ball on the stage to deliver lines where other frontpeople would make themselves larger.

No doubt there’s been plenty of post-pandemic shows celebrating the fact we’re all able to convene and dance together again. (You have to wonder just when we’ll all get over it).