Police confirm minor injuries suffered in Boardmasters 'crowd collapse'

Devon and Cornwall Police have confirmed those affected by a 'crowd collapse' at Boardmasters have not got serious injuries.

A number of festival goers were taken to hospital from the site in Newquay last night.

The event is continuing as planned today.

Devon and Cornwall Police statement

We were notified following a crowd collapse at Boardmasters music festival in Newquay on Friday 9 August which left a small number of attendees injured.

The injured parties were treated on-site by medical staff and a small number were taken to hospital to be checked over for minor injuries.

Contrary to speculation, we can confirm that there have been no deaths as a result of this incident.

This is an isolated incident and the festival continues.

Boardmasters statement

Boardmasters said: "We can confirm that Sammy Virji's set was cancelled and that The Point stage was closed to allow onsite teams to respond to an incident in the audience.

"No serious injuries have been reported and the pit and medical teams immediately assisted those involved. Safety is our number one priority and we thank Sammy and our audience for their understanding.

"All other stages have been unaffected and performances continue as planned."

DJ Sammy Virji said he was "gutted" about his set being cancelled but "safety should always come first".

Eyewitness account

A festival attendee has described the "terrifying" experience in a crowd crush with her daughter at Boardmasters music festival in Newquay.

A mother, who told the PA news agency she attended the festival with her husband and two daughters, said: "It was terrifying. Massive issue with overcrowding and security were doing nothing about it."

She added that her family attended the main stage for Tom Odell's set.

"My husband stayed outside the barriers with our youngest but my older daughter wanted to (go) inside," she said.

"When we went in, it wasn't too bad but it started getting very, very crowded so we tried to move out. We couldn't get out as there were still so many people streaming in.

"We managed to push to the outer edge near the barriers and I called to a security person to ask why we couldn't get out. She said there were too many people pushing in so we were stuck. They were aware but did nothing about it despite seeing the danger."

She then described a "massive crowd surge".

"My daughter and I got crushed against the barriers so I heaved her up and over a barrier and then pulled myself out," she said.

"I warned the security guards again that there was a big problem brewing. Nothing seemed to be done... There was no security stopping people."

The festival attendee added that she and her family remained at the festival for another few hours before deciding to leave as the situation was too dangerous.

"We stayed for another couple of hours. We were right next to The Point stage and we could see it getting massively overfilled," she said.

"We decided to get out of the whole festival. As we did, they must have closed the Point because again, we got crushed by a huge crowd surge and people telling us there were people with broken bones and not to try going down the way we needed to go to get to the exit.

"In the end, we went through an emergency exit."

She went on to criticise organisers of the festival for "poor and dangerous crowd control measure".

She said: "My daughters were terrified. I've been to many festivals over the years - I've never seen one so overcrowded and with such poor and dangerous crowd control measure."

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