Boardmasters Newquay reviews by real event-goers

Review of Boardmasters

Overall rating: 1.5

2024 was my 4th Boardmasters and the worst one yet. Previously a festival I have always loved and religiously attended, it's sad how downhill it has gone. Prices are going up an obscene amount every year- £35 just to rent some silent disco headphones! The arena has been made smaller to accommodate a larger VIP section, yet capacity is increasing every year- this is so dangerous! Security were on a massive power trip and creating a really unsafe environment, seemed to care far more about people with small amounts of drugs than keeping people safe. A member of our group was falsely pulled by a drug dog and taken to be 'intimidated' by police who accused him of possessing and being on drugs despite them not finding anything during the search, formal complaints will be made about this. The incompetence of security was further evident during the Sammy Verji incident where security took ages to respond to those injured and did not intervene at all to manage and disperse the crowd- it's a miracle more people weren't injured. This incident also highlighted the bad planning from the Boardmasters team who clearly did not consider the safety of the festival goers when putting such a popular artist on such a tiny and enclosed stage. I really thought they'd have learnt from when they did the same thing with Shy Fx in 2022 and caused so many people serious injuries. The bad planning goes further than this, the shuttle bus service from the white carpark offsite was horrendous. I live in Cornwall, about half an hour from the Boardmasters site, yet it took us over 9 hours to make the journey. We parked in white carpark and then were made to wait 8 hours for a shuttle bus to the main site, at one point only 1 bus turned up in a 1 and a half hour period. It was bad to the point people were choosing to walk the remaining 6 miles to the festival with all their belongings than wait any longer. We had to then pay an extra £3.50 for the 'privilege' to get on one of these buses despite paying for the festival ticket and a parking pass. The journey to Boardmasters from this carpark which should be a 10 minute drive, then took an hour and a half which just emphasised how badly planned it was and how they just don't seem to be able to cope with the increased capacity. The whole point of offering that service is to reduce traffic and make people's journeys easier but instead it did the opposite. There were also far to many 16 year olds in the campsite who were damaging people's stuff and being verbally abusive to other festival goers which totally destroyed the usually amazing vibe of the festival, I don't understand why literal children are allowed to camp without adults- just make it 18+ or have ALL under 18s have to be with an over 21. I was also disappointed by the sound system at main stage, unless you were at the front you could not hear the headliners. This was further encouraging people to push and make the crowds dangerous which was then causing the artists to have to stop their sets and direct security to incidents. Gutted to not be able to hear the music of people I was so looking forward to seeing.

I've always loved Boardmasters but I don't recommend attending if you want value for money, to feel safe, to listen to music or have a safe stress free journey., Let's hope the organisers listen to all the inevitable negative feedback from this year and improve for next year.

Music	Venue	Prices	Atmosphere

Would you recommended: No

Posted 13th Aug 12:41pm

Kaia Ismael-Tadfor d