The music and surfing festival, Boardmasters, annually held in Newquay, Cornwall, has been canceled due to severe weather forecasted for the upcoming weekend. The gates open to the festival on Wednesday, but music acts are not set to play until Friday.
The festival, (attended by 55,000 people in 2018), was set to be headlined by acts including Florence & The Machine, Foals, Franz Ferdinand and the Wu-Tang Clan. Organizers of the event declared that it’d been officially postponed on Tuesday night.
Boardmasters issued a statement regarding the last moment cancellation, saying. “The safety of you, the fans and attendees, as well as performers and crew comes first, and the potential risk is too severe for the event to go ahead at this time.”
“We sincerely regret the disappointment to fans, and apologise for any disruption caused to local businesses, performers and crew who were looking forward to Boardmasters as much as we were”. They went on to mention that refund information would be shared “as soon as possible”.
A yellow weather warning has been issued by The Met Office for the majority of England and Wales on Friday and Saturday. It has been predicted that a heavy rain band and thunderstorms may cause disruption for the Newquay festival at Watergate Bay, which dates back to 1981.
Due to forecasted severe weather Boardmasters has been cancelled. Please read full statement. pic.twitter.com/MAUfKj6EKl
— Boardmasters (@boardmasters) August 7, 2019
Driven 6 hours, 270 miles, booked a hotel to wake up to it being cancelled
— yasminefletcher (@yasminefletch) August 7, 2019
Gutted for daughter and her friends. They were so excited for #boardmasters2019, only to discover at 11pm that it has been cancelled, having just finished packing. Safety is always paramount, but shame they made the announcement so late.
— Soraya
It has been noted that a five day surfing event held at Fistral Beach nearby, remains set to go ahead, despite the imposed weather warnings on the music festival. Other acts set to perform at the festival included Jorja Smith, Lewis Capaldi, Dizzee Rascal and Razorlight.
Train operator GWR advised the festivalgoers bound for Cornwall to ensure they “check their train before travelling”. The chief executive for Visit Cornwall, Malcolm Bell, stressed that the county was “still open for business”. Megabus also tweeted saying that they would be organising extra seats on a service from Newquay to London for those affected by the postponement of the gig.
The Boardmasters event has been cancelled, please check your train before travelling.
— GWR Help (@GWRHelp) August 6, 2019
Extra seats have been made available on the 10:55 M6 Newquy to London service this morning for passengers affected by the cancellation of #Boardmasters. Passengers can go online and amend there return tickets for this morning service #megabusupdates
— megabusUK (@megabusuk) August 7, 2019
Photo Credit: Sharon Alagna.
