boardmasters.com Reviews 23

Our experience at this year’s Boardmasters was extremely disappointing and far from the “family-friendly and accessible” event advertised.

Despite confirming in advance, we never received our PA pass on arrival.

Access to Fistral Beach was effectively impossible: driving required a £60 re-entry fee, while the shuttle bus involved excessive walking and long wait times, making it inaccessible.

On arrival, we were denied electric hook-up for our live-in vehicle and left waiting hours before this was resolved.

The accessibility email before the event was vague and unhelpful, leaving us without essential information.

The environment was not family-friendly: we witnessed open drug use and aggressive behaviour, which was deeply unsettling.

Adding to this, we were looking forward to seeing a DJ who cancelled after Boardmasters reportedly asked artists to sign a last-minute agreement restricting them from commenting on the humanitarian tragedy in Palestine. It has also come to light that the festival’s parent company has direct investments in weapons manufacturers and financial ties to the state of Israel, raising serious ethical concerns about where ticket money goes.

When we raised our issues, the only “resolution” offered was VIP access if we bought another ticket for 2026 — which is wholly inadequate given the scale of failures.

This experience was stressful, unsafe, exclusionary, and ethically troubling. We would strongly caution families, disabled guests, and socially conscious attendees against relying on Boardmasters’ claims of accessibility, inclusivity, or integrity.

The security at this festival were acting like they got off on power. Joke ting, and honestly its made me never want to come back, which is a shame because the site and vibe were lovely.
Security at a festival is important as we all want to feel safe so we can have a good time, we felt on edge on often taken the piss out of by security who not only didnt know how to help when asked questions, but also bullied us and others.
Horrible.

I don't like writing bad reviews, but something needs to be done about the absolute s**t show that was Boardmasters 2025. What was once an incredible weekend with like minded people, is now an opportunity for 16/17 year olds to let loose and cause trouble. Endless streams of them pushing through crowds in a snake formation attempting to get closer, only to realise its already packed full. None of which seemed even slightly interested in the music, they just stood having conversations and taking selfies. Raye actually did an age check during the set, everyone 16/17... And all with a beer in their hand? Boardmasters not doing a very good job with ID checks! So many stories about spiking and campsite wars, its just ridiculous. And then there is the new VIP campsite rules, being told to pitch in a box that isn't big enough for a decent sized tent. We go as a big group and expressed our concern, we were told to go down the far end, bottom of the hill to pitch if we needed more space (we appreciated that... at first). Quickly realised that the campsite only half filled, so we were a long walk away from any other tents, and even longer to the toilets. We set up our 4x large tents and a gazebo in the middle, security arrived and told us to take down the gazebo because its not permitted. It was always allowed before, why are we not allowed now? Its not on the prohibited items list? Security answered, "because people in general camping will get upset". I'm sorry, people in general camping did not pay for a VIP ticket, why are they going to be upset about our gazebo down at the back of a lonely empty field. Long story short, we took down the gazebo and got heatstroke. Thanks for a wonderful long weekend Boardmasters, you've lost yet another large group of once very loyal customers.

Myself and my partner attended the festival after winning VIP tickets on a radio competition.

We were very excited as a we hadn’t really had the money to do one.
Let alone go VIP!

The competition provider said that it was a VIP campsite that had posh loos and showers with access to premium parking and in camp food options and allocated pitching.

On arrival the ‘allocated pitch’ very quickly became apparent to mean grid system.
Which had you pitched almost on top of each other. With the Oxfam volunteers blindly neighbouring you next to anyone.

As a result the first day of the festival myself and my partner in our early thirties were next to three lads In their late teens.
I didn’t think to move as this was VIP and figured they might have forked out the extra bit of cash to get a good nights sleep.
Wasn’t the case…

After a night of dealing with noise and my tent having booze and spit all over it I moved pitch.

Got one good nights sleep in the next day only to have someone jump on my tent the following night with both of us inside.

The low down is this, The festival is sold as being like any other. And that VIP is a heightened level experience than standard.

The fact is that VIP just means you are less likely to be assaulted, sexually assaulted or harassed, drugged or burnt alive in your tent…

The festival is for kids though it isn’t sold as such and you can expect hordes of drugged up lads looking to stir up a fight than have a laugh.

Security is over stretched and you can’t expect Oxfam volunteers in their mid twenties to control a teenage mob.

Extremely disappointed with the whole experience on what should be a class act hippy-surf festival by the sea.

The best bit was going to the beach,
The ODD quiet times in the campsite,
The bands,
Leaving.

Festival for out of control teenagers. Been the last two years but it would take something incredible for me to return next year.

Was in general campsite last year and was constantly having stuff hit the tent early hours of the morning by kids that couldn't handle drink. Paid extra this year for pre pitched and it was exactly the same for the whole weekend.

All up for being young and having fun, but having been there before, these kids would not last two seconds at Reading or Leeds. They would be sent home crying.

Even Raye done an age check during her set and it was clear the majority of the audience was 16/17 year old. It was a festival full of out of control kids without the security to deal with it.

The other common theme was the 'need to be at the front'. Every act we watched there was a constant stream of big groups arriving late and then insisting they had to push past everyone else, who was there on time, to get to the front. So much lack of respect.

I won't comment on music because that is all down to preference, and there was plenty of options for food and drink. Paying extra for the showers was well worth it as the normal ones were £5 a day but that's where the positives end.

Coming to this festival over the years it has just gone really downhill. Firstly, we arrive at Green gate and are gestured to walk down and through the security. (I don't even have my ticket scanned at this point) wondering around aimlessly trying to redeem purchased tickets from inside the festival to then be sent back out to que up and be told there is no need for bands on Saturday passes, but after being told this I was then told I would have to wait to be searched for drugs, as the search dog thought it picked up a scent, even though I had no drugs on me and so 2 hours of my time at the festival was wasted. Also whilst waiting to be searched a mother of a young child was also being questioned and a father with a pram because the dogs didn't like the scent, it's just a disgrace. (I was made to get basically down to boxers then told there was nothing on me and i could go after missing the acts i had paid to see) The whole festival has gone so downhill and why would anyone buy tickets when it's easier to walk in than to scan a pre brought item. If this festival happens next year, for anyone out there don't worry about paying for day tickets if that's all your going for just walk in. Cause apparently it's more hassle to scan a ticket than it is anything else.

The Ticketing system is dreadful, have been trying to speak to someone but no luck and I am waiting for a refund as it’s well over the 7 days that they have promised

2 boys were spiked on the Arm! and have had numbness and nausea.

The security guard said there were 3 boys going round spiking people!! OK what are you doing about it.

This has been reported to the police and hope gets to the media.

Parents could be shocked and for the record non of the boys were drinking! Otherwise god knows when they would have realised.

We are writing to the organisers (how you can manage 150,000 people !! ) asking for money back and compensation.

This was my second time attending boardmasters. Granted my first time was in 2014 so a good while.
This time around this festival didn’t feel fresh or exciting just an opportunity for young adults and children to make a mess and get drunk.
On arrival there were far too few directions as to where to go from the car park to the camp and the staff when asked seemed disinterested or didn’t know them selves there was a lot of ‘well I don’t know’ or telling you the completely wrong instructions resulting in walking around in circles which became very frustrating.

Overall if you are older than 25 I’d say give this festival a miss it’s not for you. While the acts were great. It’s definitely not catering for mature audiences. Which isn’t a problem but I’d definitely say when choosing a festival if you are older to not choose boardmasters.

My son was stabbed in the arm with a needle. Paid for a shower and there was poo on the floor. Had his tent slashed with a knife and all his belongings stolen and trashed on the last night. There clearly isn’t enough security and insufficient entry checks being made.

My daughter attended and said it would be her first and last festival. Too dangerous. Not enough security to control the crowd surges, spiking with needles containing fentanyl and ketamine, security not checking bags properly. She repeatedly had fingers nails with white powder offered from young teenage lads around her ~ so classy! Thankfully she doesn’t partake. However the scary part was when she could see girls around her dropping in the crowd and then her friend just dropped in front of her whilst dancing. They carried her to security who were quick to respond and get them to the medical tent where they found a large bruise and a needle spike in her arm! The whole experience was ruined. She couldn’t relax for the rest of the weekend. This festival is an accident waiting to happen. No cover service either!

Complete and utter chaos at both the Chase and status & Sammy virji crowd. No crowd control what so ever, i was involved in a huge crowd crush at chase and status which resulted in my friend breaking her knee. Security were helpful and kind but as soon as we reached the medical tent i was in absolute shock at the treatment we received. We had to carry our friend into the tent as she couldn’t walk and were told there were no seats for her and she had to sit on the floor. we refused to leave her on the floor as her knee had been snapped backwards in the crush and were screamed at by paramedics to stop acting ‘childlike’ and ‘gobby’ as our 16 year old friend cried out in pain on the floor. Another friend of ours then had a panic attack as we were forced outside with no way to speak or connect with our friend inside the tent as every time we asked for updates we were told to ‘f* off’. A staff member at the tent entrance saw my friend having a panic attack and instead of helping or offering any kind of support he shouted ‘is that the gobby one, tell her to get a life’. i was absolutely appalled at the way the staff treated the vulnerable people inside and the worried ones outside, to add to that there was also a mass spiking happening at the festival and when girls were being carried in they were being turned away and told to come back when ‘it had done something’ with huge circular bruises on various points of their bodies from the needles. Wish i could give the medical staff a 0 star rating because i have never been more disgusted in my life at the treatment of others. Especially young vulnerable girls who have fallen victim to this horrifying attack.

Full of teenagers, so we wont be returning and I suspect many others wont be. The organisers should consider a way to make sure there is a better mix of ages. Me and my friends (six of us) were 31 -33 but felt 'old'. I would hazard a guess that about 90% of the guests were under 20 years old it was that bad!

The festival was put together quite well by the organisers, security was decent and cleaning crew was on point. Having options like the Club Class add on is brilliant - even if you don’t pay for fancy showers/loos, the general toilets were cleaned a lot and well stocked with toilet paper. So you can really see some excellent maintenance from the organisers. But let’s be real - when you have an event absolutely swarming with teenagers, the whole vibe is pretty awful if you’re over 21. I’m 28, and it felt uncomfortable. The majority of the environment was very much children trying to point-prove their social worth to each other, which meant skimpy outfits from the girls (upsetting), and disrespectful lads-lads culture from the boys, which included being generally boisterous, but also included witnessing several racist and sexist remarks from these kids, evidently trying to sound cool or funny but instead came across as vile to those of us who have developed our pre-frontal cortexes. What needs to be addressed by Boardmasters is the amount of underage drinking, and, sadly, teenagers under 18 lying about their age so as to gain sexual consent from adults there. Not good. Or, yknow, legal. Plus all the drugs of course, and when used around kids who basically drug-take purely for social currency, it’s just all a bit sad to witness. Basically - A good festival on behalf of the organisers. Don’t go if you’re past your mid twenties.

Full of teenagers, would be nice to have more of a mix of ages. Basically if you are older than 25 you are in the minority.

The teenagers were pretty well behaved, plenty of drunkeness and obvious signs of drug use (and chatter, like it is so normal to do drugs these days - sad).

Line up was good, lots of variety and mostly on time however there was pretty much nothing until after lunchtime. A few local bands would live the opportunity to perform. Weather was terrible, I know that is out of the organizers hands but they could prepare for it better.

The organisation of the event itself was carnage, we got directed into the overspill car park thinking it was the standard green car park and spent an hour looking for the car...in the rain...

Marshall's seemed to mostly lack knowledge of the site. Signs were very poor across the site. Having spent the money on previous luxury camping etc at other festivals what you got for your money at this one was dissapointing. It was nice to have the separate showers and toilets which were mostly clean. Hairdryer and straightening tongs were a nice touch and well used. Phone charging tent was OK. 1 drink venue, 1 food venue and 1 Cafe venue. There was also another covered area with a small mic set up, we saw one person there before we left.

Nothing much happening on Wednesday or Thursday...

Surfing competition was an hours walk away...the only good thing and the set up was the arenas are all in the same area meaning it is really easy to get from one stage to another.

Venue is spectacular and we will come back but not for this event.

I cant give 0 stars! I have had exactly the same experience with buying the deposit option. I purchased two tickets (£60 deposit each, £120 in total). My tickets were tier 3 VIP, £335 each. So my total should be £670. When I came to settle the balance, I had to pay £790 (£670 + £120). I thought it would automatically deduct my deposit buy it didn't. I cant get any response from See Tickets or Boardmasters apart from an automated email with options to send me around in circles. Nowhere does it state the deposit option is in addition. Hence, it's a deposit and not a reservation fee! Totally disgusting behaviour and they will be reported. I hope others affected do the same as its a total scam.

Unclear pricing - I purchased a tier 3 ticket for £269 plus booking fee . This was the price showing on the website to select. I opted to pay the deposit and remaining balance later. I am now being told this means I have to pay more for the ticket, it is not clear anywhere that the deposit option increases the price of the ticket. I have no information from Boardmasters showing this.

If there was a more beautiful location for a festival in the UK then I certainly have not yet seen it!

With breathtaking panoramas over the beautiful scenery of Watergate Bay and perfect, cloudless, blue skies we were in for a treat at Boardmasters.

Boardmasters 2023 was rubbish this year way to much drum and bass not enough variety in the music genres, if I wanted to listen to that much drum and bass I would’ve went to boom town not boardmasters sort it out !!!

AWFUL!!!!!
beyond angry! Due to a technical error, we were refused entry to our camping and festival after a 5 hour journey. I purchased camping for the duration of the festival as well as 5 x Friday day tickets to be told this was a glitch in “see tickets” booking system and Boardmasters website. Camping shouldn’t have been able to be purchased with just a day ticket…… but guess what THEIR system allowed me to do this and took over £1k from me.
We tried to resolve this with the staff including The box office manager Daniel (yes I am going to name and shame you) he was extremely unhelpful and basically told us to go away as it was not his problem. The only advise we were given was to send See Tickets an email with a complaint, the have no contact number.

We were left stranded at 6pm with no accommodation and over a £1k out of pocket leaving us no choice but to make the 5hour journey back home.

Totally unhelpful!!!!!