Organisers of one of the UK's biggest festivals are hopeful this year's event will go ahead as planned, but have said it will be a scaled back version due to coronavirus.
The Bristol-based team behind the Hampshire event said they are "still working towards being able to bring us all together for an almighty celebration come August," in a statement shared on social media today (March 26).
However they added the twelfth edition of the festival will be a "more intimate experience, one that caters for a smaller number of citizens than we have grown to in recent years".
The statement reads: "Although this entire global situation is rife with uncertainty, one thing we do know, is that the world, and our events industry, will look very different to how it did a few weeks ago.
"This means we are going to take immediate and decisive action to pre-empt the far reaching knock on effect of this, to do our best to protect the event for our ticket holders, crew, contractors and the wider festival and events industry as a whole.
"As a core team with decades of event experience between us, we’ve been scrutinising all the moving parts that are included in producing such a complex show as ours and consulting with external advisers on the best way forward.
"After taking all things into consideration we are working towards Boomtown Chapter 12 being a more intimate experience, one that caters for a smaller number of citizens than we have grown to in recent years."
It goes on to say that more information about the reworked plans will be released over the coming months.
Last year it was announced this year's Boomtown was set to increase by 11,000 people with a revised capacity of 76,999, but that will no longer be the case after today's announcement.
Unless it is postponed or cancelled in light of the pandemic, the event will take place at the Matterley Estate near Winchester between August 7-12. More information and tickets can be found on the festival's website.
Yesterday it was announced all public events in Bristol until the end of July at the earliest have been cancelled due to the virus, which has so far claimed more than 200 lives across the UK.
This means the Harbour Festival and other major gatherings will not take place, while events scheduled to take place beyond July including the Balloon Fiesta will be "placed under review" and could face either cancellation or postponement.
Earlier this month it was also announced that Glastonbury Festival has been cancelled this year, with the Eavis family saying it was their "only viable option".
