Lion’s Den | Boomtown 2026
The return of a legend.
After seven years living purely in the memories of Boomtown’s citizens, 2026 heralded the return of one of the most iconic stages the festival has ever included. Spanning reggae, dub, jungle, ska, drum and bass, dancehall, disco, pop and dance – the massive line up befit the occasion and AF Live was on hand to ensure everything sounded massive too.
A Boomtown Legend
Lion’s Den was, for many years one of the festival’s key main stages and, after a 7 year stretch of non-inclusion, it returned in 2026, bringing the signature blend of styles which made it such an iconic fan favourite in the first place.
The prodigal stage’s return included a musical programme which pulled no punches, including acts such as Andy C, David Rodigan, Faithless, Gentlemen’s Dub Club, Scissor Sisters, Scooter, Wilkinson and many more. With such a high calibre of acts and such varied technical load-outs nailing the production would be critical.
The Lion’s Habitat
With a total capacity of 47,500 Lion’s Den was the largest single stage area at the festival, hosting it’s massive audience throughout the vast natural amphitheatre within which the stage is positioned. This setting offers as many potential benefits as it does unique challenges for sound and tech production across the board.
AF Live were responsible for the design, deployment and management of the sound system for the stage, an operation which, in addition to the skill of the company’s own engineers, enlisted support from the team at Urban Audio as well as Sergiy Zhytnikov of Red Flame Creations and highly experienced professionals such as Med Ran on FOH and Ben Pedley as Audio PM.
The Next Evolution
The aim of the game was always to build on what had come before, and contribute to a glorious return for an area of the festival which had been so close to the hearts of attendees. Master stage-crafters Brutal London took all that had made previous iterations of the stage so impressive and took them each a step further – achieving a result which was truly exceptional.
As the set design was in development, so too were plans for the teeming armoury of cutting-edge, technical production hardware elements which would bring the arena to life.
Designing the Perfect Sound
L-Acoustics systems are something of a speciality for Red Flame Creations and having the experience and technical understanding of Sergiy Zhytnikov on board was an enormous benefit to the project.
Speaking about his involvement with the project, he had this to say: “I am proud to support AF Live at Boomtown Festival 2026 on the iconic Lions Den stage, where I delivered full system design and engineering for the L‑Acoustics setup. The site’s unique terrain —steep gradients, uneven ground levels, and the natural bowl of the arena—demanded a highly tailored approach.”
As with all areas of the festival, striking the right balance between power and coverage for the audience with control for on & off site levels is paramount and L-Acoustics industry leading Soundvision software continues to play an indispensable role in this process.
As Sergiy went on to say: “Every array position, coverage angle, and delay placement was shaped around the landscape to ensure consistent power and clarity across the audience area. Weeks of detailed modelling and on‑site calibration came together for a seamless, impactful start to the festival.”
Interdisciplinary Coordination
For an arena of this scale, video is essential and had been extensively built into the design of the stage as well as the FOH booth – long time collaborators of AF Live, iMag, were brought in to take care of LED screen design, deployment and management. Lights and SFX represented mammoth tasks also and so having the expertise of Aardvark SFX on pyro, TSL on set & crowd lighting and Laser Grafix on lasers paid dividends.
Despite battling the heat and dust of Matterly Bowl Estate, the build proceeded according to schedule with all teams working in unison effectively. Tuesday, the week of the festival, was a crucial point in the build for the AF Live team, as the full set of PA hardware arrived site for rigging.
The Sound System
The team had their work cut out of them, with the extent of the sound system which the enormous area called for. The fully L-Acoustics system was comprised of: two main hangs of 12x K1 & 4xK2, two hung subs of 8x KS28, further sub support of 18x KS28 on the ground, two out fill hangs of 14x K2, 6 delay towers of 8x K2 and front fill comprised of a central hang with 6x Kara II and a mix of A15 Wide and Kara II on the stage.
The prompt & effective deployment of this monster system was a credit to all those involved and something which was picked up on by other professionals working on the team.
FOH Engineer, Med Ran, who had this to say about the project: “I was really impressed with the PA deployment this year. Sergiy’s integration of the delays and fills as extensions of the main system was absolutely flawless, unifying the whole amphitheater. It gave me real confidence at FOH, both when mixing and when assisting and supporting visiting engineers, that the decisions made on the console translated to the whole arena.”
In Practice
Once the festival was underway it was fantastic to be able to hand over these systems to skilled & experienced engineers such as Med, who, working alongside the rotating door of touring engineers and those based on site for the whole festival, delivered an amazing show.
“The whole audio team worked hard and delivered smooth, punctual changeovers often swapping multiple headline-level acts per day”, Med explained, continuing that: “opening the stage with Madness was an amazing bit of programming. Throughout, we felt well supported by AFLive and Urban Audio.”
The 2026 return of Lion’s Den to Boomtown was a project which inevitably had the bar of expectation set high. It was AF Live’s pleasure to work alongside so much talent from within the festival’s core team and the network of brilliant event production suppliers, who collectively ensured that this bar was surpassed. 10/10, would do again.