Boomtown staff complain of "mistreatment and discrimination" at festival

Bar staff from this year’s Boomtown Fair have released a statement reporting discrimination, invasion of privacy, and neglect at the festival.

As reported by DJ Mag, workers subcontracted through Freemans Event Partners have released a statement under the collective A Better Boomtown.

Allegations within the statement include "threatening, belittling and dismissive treatment" from bar managers as well as, "excessive physical searches" and "overly invasive full-body searches".

Read this next: Behind the scenes of Boomtown Fair with My Nu Leng and Mall Grab

Staff also claim that there was "insufficient" food including a disregard for dietary requirements, health conditions and "various forms of discriminatory behaviour".

After A Better Boomtown’s statement, Freemans Event Partners responded with a statement which has since been deleted; however, A Better Boomtown posted screenshots of the response via Twitter.

In 2019, the last edition of the festival before the pandemic, The Canary reported that staff were “treated like cattle” and were also employed via Freemans Event Partners.

The Canary added that at this previous Boomtown, one worker felt that they, and others, had been “racially profiled” with staff stating: “Never in my life have I been treated with such disrespect”.

Read this next: Lifting the curse: Houghton Festival is finally back and better than ever

Since this year’s festival which ran from August 10 to 14 in Winchester, Live Nation has acquired a minority stake in Boomtown.

A representative from Boomtown told Mixmag on the subject of Live Nation that: "For us as a business, our vision has always been very clear, we are a festival like no other – a full living theatre which is set around friends, community, and creative spirit.

"This decision will not only allow Boomtown to continue its vision to be one of the most exciting festivals in the world, but it will also ensure the flexibility to continue to uphold independence on all decisions around business and creativity."

Read A Better Boomtown’s statement below as well as, the screenshots from Freemans Event Partners since deleted response.

Becky Buckle is Mixmag's Video and Editorial Assistant, follow her on Twitter