Hydro XL | Boomtown 2026
Technical production on Hydrogen.
AF Live’s role as Technical Production lead at Boomtown Festival has been 17 years in the making and for every step of this journey, adapting to the needs of the festival and wider world has been a defining aspect of the process. For this year’s edition, steps became leaps, as Hydro XL flipped the paradigm on main-stage power.
Setting a New Standard
Boomtown’s organisers forged ahead to break new ground in 2026, as one of the leading immersive, story & set driven music festival’s in the world. Focusing on the ongoing work of enshrining an environmentally responsible ethos, Hydro XL’s evolution into the festival’s main stage was a bold statement of intent.
Having first thrilled audiences at Boomtown in 2025, Hydro and now Hydro XL have sustainability at their heart – setting pace in the industry as fully hydrogen powered stages. Running off generators fed entirely by hydrogen fuel, the only emission produced in operation is water vapour, bringing down environmental impacts immensely.
Future Facing
With such a strong core identity, it was only natural that a bold, futuristic and utopian approach to the set design would follow. Working alongside core creative team members from Boomtown were industry leaders Brutal London, who’s mind-bending, large-scale set work continues to influence the work of their peers around the world. AF Live had the pleasure of taking part in this development process to ensure that sound, light, video and SFX matched up.
Sound System design was initiated by Sergiy Zhytnikov of Red Flame Creation and developed by George Chandler. Using L-Acoustics’ Sound Vision software alongside site maps & arena design drawings, a behemoth of a rig was specced to answer every question posed by the stage concept.
Power, clarity and coverage within the arena are, of course, a key concern for any large scale festival system but this is only part of the picture. Matterly Bowl Estate is surrounded by the homes of local residents and, during Boomtown’s live days, filled with more 200 venues – from small to obscenely large. With this in mind, it follows that controlling sound propagation on & off site is a crucially important area of focus for sound system design and management.
The Tools of the Trade
The resulting system design was a graceful monster, comprised of a huge suite of cutting edge L-Acoustics hardware. Four delay tower would each house 9x K2,while the stage proper would be adorned with two main hangs made up of 2x K1SB, 8x K1, 4x K2 and two out-fill hangs would be equipped with 4x K1 & 8x K2each. For sub support, the system would be underpinned with some serious power from 33x KS28, split between two end-fire arrays to either side of the arena and a huge central group. All of this power and precision would be controlled from front of house on a DiGiCo SD12.
Making the Plan a Reality
With the calculations run and the design locked in, all that was left was to bring together all the key people and Technical Production teams on site, and build the thing for real. It was AF Live’s pleasure to work alongside such a strong roster of crews and individuals for this build and the end-results spoke for themselves. Supporting us on sound was Stage Audio Services, who provided kit and engineering expertise. Lighting saw Wolf Lighting handle towers, while LiteUp took care of Stage Set Lighting and Mark Jones designed & operated the light system as a whole. Providing video was Arena Video on LED screens and iMag on opening & closing ceremonies. The spectacular SFX featured in the massive arena were delivered by Entertainment FX, Reach Lasers, Laser Grafix and Aardvark.
As the stage’s opening ceremony on Thursday the 13th of August approached, despite the challenges of building in the baking heat and clouds of dust, hard deadlines were met and the scale of what had been achieved through the group effort of all the team’s involved became apparent. By the time the opening ceremony got underway, there was more than a few chuffed looking faces among the Technical Production teams as they watched the crowds flood in to fill the arena.
The Sound of Success
Once the festival was underway and area was open, our crack team of engineers clicked into gear, bringing their skills and experience to bear and ensuring that the seamless customer experience, was matched by the adherence to sound restrictions on & off site. It’s a massive shout out to our AF Live team on site who absolutely smashed it. George Chandler – System Tech, Tom Baxter & Alhor Bryne – PA Tech & Monitors, Dave Ryan & Sidney Ruben – DJ Tech and Josh Nixey – FOH & PA Tech.
It was a vintage year and a project which AF Live were incredibly proud to have been able to be a part of through all stages of conception, development, delivery and operation. In a world where the challenges of the future are increasingly the challenges of today, having the opportunity to work on solutions which can carry the festival industry forward is nothing short of a privilege.