BOOM Festival

Boom Festival
People dancing at the Dance Temple, Boom Festival 2012
Genre	Transformational festival, trance music
Date(s)	Full Moon of August
Frequency
Location(s)	Idanha-a-Nova, Portugal
Years active	1997 - present
Website
www.boomfestival.org

The Boom Festival is a biennial transformational festival in Portugal. The festival features music performances and a broad variety of visual art exhibits.

Boom Festival began in 1997 as a psychedelic trance music festival with a main stage and a lounge area with mellow, "chill-out music". Now, there are five stages: the Dance Temple, for psytrance and natural trance music; the Alchemy Circle is for house music; the Sacred Fire stage is for world music and live music performances; the Ambient Source is for chill-out music; the Funky Beach stage is for electronic dance music dee jays and producers. Other attractions include sculptures, an art gallery, street theatre, and fire performances. Within the shaded Liminal Village are lectures, yoga classes, film screenings, group meditation, and discussions. The Healing Area has group workshops for healing techniques, a pool for water therapy and a massage area.

Boom's main focus is to integrate a sustainability ethos with arts and culture. By design, it does not provide corporate entertainment or sponsors. The key goal is to provide a transformational festival for people of different ethnic backgrounds, nationality and ages. In its own words, "Boom is not only a festival, it is a state of mind. Inspired by the principles of Oneness, Peace, Creativity, Sustainability, Transcendence, Alternative Culture, Active Participation, Evolution and Love, it is a space where people from all over the world can converge to experience an alternative reality."

The festival is entirely funded by ticket sales. It does not use corporate sponsors, which eliminates marketing that is seen as visual pollution.