#125 - Worldbuilding for a Better World | Lak Mitchell (Boomtown Fair)

At their best, festivals are platforms for personal and communal transformation by creating temporary immersive worlds, ripe with participation and opportunities for growth. Few gatherings do this with the theatrical flair of BoomTown Fair, a choose-your-own-adventure playground in the English countryside. Today on Life is a Festival, visionary leader, Lak Mitchell, shares how his vast team creates a living, breathing town once a year and how why they are now starting again with Chapter One: The Gathering. On the show we discuss English festivals from Glastonbury to the Free Part movement. Lak shares his evolution from crafting speaker boxes to building worlds. We discuss leading large creative teams and tools for staying still in the center of a whirlwind creative process. We talk about Boomtown as political storytelling and their new focus on eldership, indigenous wisdom, and six essential principles. Finally we discuss the decision to reset Boomtown to Chapter One and the new amazement park “Wake the Tiger.” Lak Mitchell is the Co-founder and Creative Director of Boomtown Fair, an independently owned festival that has grown into one of the largest and most celebrate in the UK. After getting his start building speaker boxes for Europe’s Free Parties, Lak co-founded Boomtown Fair in 2009. He is also the Co-founder and Creative Director of Wake the Tiger, the world’s first Amazement Park in Bristol opening this year. :07 - The essence of an English Festival from Glastonbury to the Free Party movement :14 - Dreamy Lak learns to build speaker boxes :20 - Building a living breathing town :26 - Leadership and worldbuilding :31 - Tools for staying in a still center during the creative process :37 - Boomtown as a political storytelling process :43 - Eldership, indigenous wisdom, and principles :53 - Reseting the Boomtown Storyline to Chapter 1 1:03 - Boomtown’s Amazement Park Links Lak Mitchell: https://www.instagram.com/lakmitchell/ Boomtown Fair: https://www.boomtownfair.co.uk/ Wake the Tiger: https://www.comingsoon.wakethetiger.com/ Mac Macartney: https://macmacartney.com/