Day by day
Nineteen days, five stretches
15–17 July 2027
Getting there
Two flights and two nights. Mauritius, Istanbul, Lisbon.
- 15 July
Mauritius, in the evening
The group meets at Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International before check-in. Documents checked, bags weighed, and the two hosts travelling with you are there from this point until you land back. Then the flight north, to Istanbul.
Be aware
The routing is fixed. The airline has not published its July 2027 timetable, so the departure time is confirmed to you in writing as soon as it exists.
- 16 July
Istanbul
You arrive in Istanbul and the first hotel night is here. Nothing is programmed. The day is for sleeping, eating, and letting a long flight wear off before the next one.
- 17 July
Istanbul to Lisbon
A second flight, west this time, and one night in Lisbon. Repack before you sleep: the coach leaves in the dark.
18–25 July 2027
The festival
The coach before dawn, then seven nights camping at Idanha-a-Nova.
- 18 July, before dawn
The road to Idanha-a-Nova
Out of Lisbon in the dark and east into the Beira interior. Nothing is scheduled on arrival, deliberately: you find the group's patch, put up a tent, and the day is over.
Be aware
Budget four to six hours for the road. Tens of thousands of people converge on the same rural roads on the same day and the last stretch is the slow one. Four hours is the good case, not the plan.
- 18–25 July
Boom Festival
Seven nights camping inside the festival. There is no group programme here and there will not be one: you keep your own hours and the week is yours to spend. The hosts camp with the group, there is a fixed meeting point, and there is a time each day when someone is standing at it. It is hot, it is dry, and the walking adds up.
Be aware
We organise the way there, the camp and the people. We do not organise the festival, and we make no promise about its programme, its line-up or its facilities.
25–28 July 2027
Lisbon and the coast
Three hotel nights, a day with nothing in it, and the day at Costa da Caparica.
- 25 July
Out, and back to Lisbon
The festival ends. Camp comes down, the coach goes back to Lisbon, and the next three nights are in a hotel. A shower, a bed, and a meal nobody queued for in the sun.
- 26 July
Lisbon
Nothing programmed. Sleep late. The city is walkable, the hills are steeper than they look, and the hosts are there for a recommendation rather than a plan.
- 27 July
Costa da Caparica
A full day on the beach south of the river, and in the evening a party programmed by Selectro with the Mauritian DJs travelling with the group. It is the one night of the journey that sounds like home rather than like the country we are standing in.
28–31 July 2027
Türkiye
Istanbul, Cappadocia, the sunrise balloon and the Bosphorus at dusk.
- 28 July
Lisbon to Istanbul
Back east, and one night in Istanbul. An early start follows, so this is a short evening on purpose.
- 29 July
Cappadocia
A morning flight to Cappadocia, then a free afternoon in a landscape that does not resemble anywhere else on the journey. One night here.
- 30 July
Sunrise, then the Bosphorus
The balloon lifts at first light. Back on the ground by mid-morning, the midday flight to Istanbul, and that evening a cruise on the Bosphorus as the sun goes down.
Be aware
There is one morning for the balloon and there is no second attempt. The operator cancels the flight if the wind or the weather makes it unsafe, and in that case you are refunded to the extent the operator refunds us, no more. The rest of the day happens as written.
- 31 July
Istanbul, unprogrammed
A free day and the last full night in Istanbul. Two weeks in, most people want a market, a long lunch and no decisions.
1–2 August 2027
Home
A guided Istanbul morning, the evening flight, and Mauritius the next day.
- 1 August
A guided morning, then the flight home
A guided morning through the old city with someone who lives there, lunch, and then the airport. The flight home leaves in the evening.
- 2 August
Mauritius
You land nineteen days after you left, with a tent that smells of dust and a phone full of things that will not explain themselves to anyone who was not there.
The ground
A reservoir shore, and everything after the gate is on foot
The site is a private estate on the east shore of the Idanha reservoir, in the Beira Baixa. The dam is 3.5 km to the south-south-west, the nearest town 7.4 km away across the water, and the road in arrives from the north-east.
- Arrival gate
- Camping terraces
- Kitchens and market
- Medical and welfare
- Main stage
- Workshop grounds
- The quiet garden
- The lake shore
- Reservoir
- Estate boundary
- Road in
- Tracks
- Watercourses, dry in July
- Where things are set up (indicative)
- 39.972° N · 7.182° W
- Dam · 3.5 km SSW
- Idanha-a-Nova · 7.4 km SW
The festival itself
Before you go
Everything above this is our journey. This is what the festival itself asks of the people who come to it (what to pack, what will not get past the gate, how the ground works), put into our own words, with the page it came from beside each one.
What to pack
The festival publishes its own list and it is the one to pack from. A tent, a sleeping bag and something to sleep on; a head torch and spare batteries; a refillable bottle; ear plugs; sun cream, lip balm and a brimmed hat; a warm layer for four in the morning. At the gate you show your ticket and a passport or identity card together. One without the other does not get you in.
What you cannot take in
No glass, in any form. Vehicles are searched for it, so decant before you travel. No open flame of any kind: no campfire, no candle, no incense, no gas canister, because the fire risk in that valley in July is as high as it gets in Europe. No private sound systems or generators, no drones, no pets. National flags and selfie sticks are asked for rather than confiscated. But they are asked for, and the reasoning is on the page.
Where you sleep
Camping and the caravan park sit inside the festival ticket, so nobody pays twice for a pitch and nobody shares one. The tent is yours to bring: camping equipment is not in the package price, and the budget above sets money aside for it. The festival rents out a limited number of tipis, ready-pitched tents and cardboard shelters, and there is a gear-hire partner on the ground. Both go early, and neither is arranged by us.
Water, showers and the toilets
Fifty-seven public drinking points across the ground, metered and tested, which is why a refillable bottle is on the festival's mandatory list rather than its suggestions. Showers run to published hours, because the water comes off the same grid that serves the villages around the lake. Every toilet on site is a dry compost toilet: no flush, no chemicals, and nothing goes in one that will not break down.
Medical cover, welfare and the lake
Boom runs medical services on site around the clock and keeps firefighters there throughout. Kosmicare, the harm-reduction association Boom has worked with for more than twenty years, has a team on the ground (psychologists, therapists, nurses, volunteers) for anyone having a difficult time, whether drugs are involved or not; the festival's own instruction is to ask the nearest steward, staff member or medic. Assume there is no pharmacy: bring prescriptions in their own boxes, and say in advance if anything you take must be kept cold. And Boom does not call the lake safe: never swim alone or under the influence of anything, and stay inside the marked areas.
How you pay on site
Most of the site runs on a cashless account you top up online or at a portal on the ground, so a card that works internationally matters more than a thick wallet. The Bazaar is the exception and takes cash. There are cash machines by the Info Stand and a supermarket selling bread, fruit, drinks and some camping kit. The year's exact top-up and refund rules are published by the festival closer to the date.
Buying your own festival ticket
The Open Passage and The Lisbon Passage are built for travellers holding their own ticket, and the festival sells those itself. General online sale opens at 09:00 Portuguese time on 13 October 2026, in phases, each phase limited. And the festival says it has been selling out since 2014. Mauritius falls inside Boom's Friendly Price band, which is issued only through a Boom Ambassador and against proof of residence. Every ticket is bought against a named person (first and last name, date of birth, country of residence), and the Friendly Price ones are stated to be non-transferable.
If you need support on site
The festival asks anyone who needs accessibility support to register before travelling rather than at the gate, and publishes its form closer to the date. Tell us at the same time, and early: the ground is a kilometre and a half of uneven, rising terrain in high heat, and something that can be planned into the coach, the hotel nights and the walking is a different problem from something discovered in a field in July.