Planning Application

We’re looking ahead, and we wanted to share what’s next. After growing last year, our focus now is on doing things better, not bigger - making more space for people to breathe, connect and enjoy the festival, while taking care of the land we temporarily call home.

We’ve officially submitted our new five-year planning application to the South Downs National Park Authority (SDNPA).

Here’s what we’re applying for:

• Host Boomtown annually for the next five years at the Matterley Estate
• Maintain the increased capacity introduced in 2025, with planning permission sought for 76,999 attendees, including 1,000 Sunday tickets reserved for the local community
• Maintain our commitments to managing our impacts on ecology, transport, sound and lighting
• Create a total of 13.27 hectares of new wild flower meadow, contributing positively to the natural biodiversity of the South Downs - this is our Biodiversity Net Gain commitment and equivalent to 18.5 full size football pitches.

Boomtown is deeply rooted in the landscape and ecology of the South Downs National Park. We are committed to being responsible custodians of this ancient land, protecting and enhancing the site through rigorous ecological planning. 

This application builds on a suite of professional ecological surveys (2023–2025) and a Landscape and Ecological Mitigation & Management Plan (BLEMMP), aligned with national and local policy.  

Current commitments that will be extended with this permission include:

• Protection of 0.56 hectares of calcareous grasslands
• 42 Skylark plots to support breeding bird populations.
• 23 barn owl, bat, and bird boxes erected to protect and enhance protected species 
• 52 hectares of woodland enhancement, native planting, and habitat creation
• Sensitive lighting strategies, fencing, and litter hand-picking in SSSIs and SINCs
• Creation of loggery/brash piles in on-site woodlands to enhance the site for reptiles, bats and badgers

Additional commitments include the creation of:

• A 1.77 hectare wild flower meadow - within the red line boundary (1.77 hectares is equivalent to 2.5 full size football pitches) 
• An 11.5 hectare wildflower meadow - outside of the red line boundary and within the Matterley Estate (11.5 hectares is equivalent to 16 full-size football pitches) 
• 1.62 km of hedgerow enhancement 
• Extension of the management of 7.52 hectares of woodland enhancement, native planting, and habitat creation for one year to 2030
• 3 additional barn owl boxes erected (alongside the 23 barn owl, bat and bird boxes to remain in place to protect and enhance protected species, totalling 26 on site)

Boomtown balances creativity and ecology, ensuring that people, planet, and culture thrive together. 

This application builds on over three years of listening, learning, surveying and planning  and on the one-year approval granted for the 2025 festival.

A five-year permission gives us the stability to make long-term investments in sustainability, environmental protection and community benefit, so we can keep improving how we operate year on year.

Boomtown happens in a nationally protected landscape, and we don’t take that lightly. This application reflects our commitment to celebrating the Park’s beauty while helping to care for it.

The SDNPA has opened a public consultation, and this is the moment where your voice matters.

If you want to share your support, it doesn’t have to look or sound a certain way. People connect with Boomtown for all kinds of reasons, and planners look at a whole mix of factors - so every perspective helps paint a fuller, truer picture.

Maybe you’ve:

• Worked at the festival, or know someone who has, and seen how many local jobs and skills it creates.‍
• Run a local business and felt the boost when thousands of people eat, sleep, shop and travel through the area.‍
• Performed, created art, designed sets or shared your craft, and found Boomtown gave you a platform you might not get anywhere else.‍
• Lived alongside the festival for years and feel we handle traffic, transport or sound thoughtfully and with care.‍
• Seen the efforts around biodiversity and habitat creation, and value the work being done to look after the land.
• Seen our efforts to be a sustainable event and value the work being done to further the progress in this area.
• Felt the impact of our community grants and donations‍
• Simply enjoyed the cultural energy the festival brings to the region - the creativity, the colour, the sense of community.
• Or maybe you just had a moment here that meant something real to you.

All of these things matter. None of them are too small or too simple. They help show the Park Authority what this event means in people’s actual lives - not just on paper.

Say whatever feels true to you.

Your voice, in your words, can genuinely make a difference.

Email your comments to planning@southdowns.gov.uk quoting the reference - SDNP/25/04953/CND