The dismantling and clearing of the site that was home to Boom Festival 2008 has come to an end. The 7th edition of this event of independent culture and artistic expression was visited by 25.000 people of 85 nationalities. The main cultural attractions were: four musical areas, one theatre, a film festival, a conference area and an art gallery. Approximately 800 artists participated in Boom 2008.

Energy: Recycling of Used Vegetable Oil

Boom developed a project to deal with the energy issue. “Your Oil is Music” (www.oleoemusica.org) was aimed at recovering used vegetable oil from hundreds of local Idanha-a-Nova homes. In addition, the idea was to avoid the emission of fossil fuels. In the end, about 45.000 litres of used vegetable oil were used, avoiding the emission of 117.000 kg of CO2 into the atmosphere.

Water: Not a Drop Went To Waste

In terms of shower water treatment, just like in Boom 2006, a system based on evaporation and aquatic plants was used. In the first stage, 200.000 litres of water were evaporated, re-entering their natural cycle. The second stage is happening right now: 1 million 200 thousand litres of water are being stored in a man made lake for treatment with aquatic plants such as Typha sp, Eichornia sp or Azolla sp. Not even a litre of water used in Boom showers went to waste.

Between the 11th and the 22nd of August 230.000 Kg of rubbish were removed from site. This means that, on average, each person produced 1 Kg of rubbish a day…

 The use of compost toilets meant that 106.5 cubic metres of excrements did not need to be transferred to the local water treatment station for chemical based processing.

  Festival Waste Transformed into Organic Compost

42.000 kg of organic waste were collected from the 17 restaurants at Boom and are currently undergoing a composting process. In six months time, about 20.000 kg of compost should become available for use as an organic agricultural fertilizer.
59.000 kg of human excrements were taken from the compost toilets and will also be treated through a worm based composting process that will result in about 30.000 kg of organic compost.