The place community memory turned into myth—and what the sources actually let us say about it.
HERDADE DO ZAMBUJAL14–16 AUG 1997GOOD MOOD + MONOGATARIDOSSIER PT-LOC-001
What is documented
Boom places the festival’s seed inside the “magic forest” of Herdade do Zambujal in Águas de Moura, Setúbal. It describes Good Mood as a pioneer in introducing Goa trance and psytrance sounds to Portugal in the early 1990s.[01]
Paula Guerra’s research dates trance’s arrival in Portugal to the early 1990s and the first parties and raves to 1994, against a house and techno scene then thriving in large warehouses in Lisbon and Porto; she writes that trance “started appearing outdoors in secluded places” — her words, not “forest”. It identifies Boom in 1997 as a central stimulus.[02]
The first edition was produced by Good Mood, the organisation Boom itself credits with pioneering the Goa trance scene in Portugal. Peer-reviewed research places it over three days in August 1997 with around 3,000 people present. The exact days are not confirmed by any source we can cite — see the gaps below. Its announced line-up includes Digitalis, Jaïa, ManMadeMan and international DJs.[03]
The flyer is not decoration. It is a document: date, promoters, artists, contact details, language, price, directions and the international network condensed into paper.
What remains unresolved
Directions, hand-drawn maps, technical crews, sound systems, credited photographs, contracts, licences, tapes, complete lists and the people doing invisible work are still missing. We will not fill those gaps by association. They stay open for documentation.
Direct answers
Where was the Magic Forest?
At Herdade do Zambujal in Águas de Moura, Setúbal district.
When was the first Boom?
August 1997 — three days, around 3,000 people. The exact days are unconfirmed.
Who organised it?
Good Mood. Boom itself credits Good Mood Lda — trading as Good Mood Productions — as the cultural organisation that pioneered the Goa trance scene in Portugal and has steered the festival since its inception. No source we can consult names any other producer of the first edition.
DOI 10.4018/978-1-4666-8665-6.ch013. Note: the automatic citation on Academia.edu misattributes the book's editor — the editors are Simão, Malheiro da Silva and Tenreiro de Magalhães.
Reproduces the 1997 flyer image, captioned only 'Boom Festival first edition flyer – 1997'. It does not state the August dates or name the producers; an earlier version of this page cited it for both, which was wrong — see the corrections log.
11–16 August 2000, Herdade do Zambujal, near Águas de Moura.
Read 2026-09-03
CORRECTED ON THIS PAGE
2026-09-03 — "Monogatari Productions" appears in no source. The Trancentral page cited as evidence gives neither dates nor producers — it reproduces the flyer with the caption "Boom Festival first edition flyer – 1997" and nothing more. This was an invented claim resting on a citation that does not support it. see the log →
2026-09-03 — "Forest parties" was our own gloss presented as an academic finding. "Forest" is also a psytrance subgenre name, which compounded the confusion. see the log →
A claim without a source does not stand on this page as fact. Where the evidence does not exist, we say so. If you find an error, write to us through the Contribute page — we fix it and log the correction with its date.
DROP001Nº ___
DROP 001 / OBJECTS FROM THE RECORD / SIGNAL FIRST
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