Investigation launched into Boardmasters festival after crowd surge

An investigation has been launched into a crowd surge at Boardmasters festival in Cornwall, the local council said.

Seven festivalgoers were injured including a young woman who suffered a fractured knee during the fan surge on Friday at a DJ stage at the music event in Newquay.

On Saturday, The Point stage was reopened after a “multi-agency review” was undertaken and the festival continued as scheduled until Sunday.

Police called it “an isolated incident”.

On Tuesday, a spokesman for Cornwall council said: “The council’s public protection service is currently investigating the incident that took place at the Boardmasters festival on Friday August 9.

“We cannot comment further while this investigation is ongoing.”

In response, a spokesman for the festival said: “The safety of everyone at Boardmasters is our first priority.

“As part of our event debrief process, we will be working closely with our local authority partners to examine the circumstances of Friday’s incident and ensure relevant learnings are included in the planning process for future events.”

On Friday, festival organisers announced that the planned set by DJ and producer Sammy Virji was cancelled and the stage was “closed to allow onsite teams to respond to an incident in the audience”.

A later statement said: “Seven attendees were transferred to hospital nearby for precautionary examination after presenting to our medical team.

“They have been treated for minor injuries and have all since been discharged.”

Devon and Cornwall Police said the crowd surge “left a small number of attendees injured”.

The force said at the weekend: “Contrary to speculation, we can confirm that there have been no deaths as a result of this incident.”

Dancer Jade Brooks, 23, from Yorkshire, told the PA news agency that the crowd had been “pushed back and caused everyone to fall with me being the bottom person and I had about 10 people fall onto my legs”.

She says she went to hospital and an X-ray revealed she had a fracture in her knee, and will spend the rest of her Cornwall holiday on crutches.

Ms Brooks said: “We came to Cornwall for a two-week holiday like we do every year and this was in the middle of our holiday.

“Now this second week of the holiday is ruined, we can’t do what we usually do and I’m going to miss out on all family activities.”

Virji said he was “gutted” by the cancelling of his set, and added that “safety should always come first”.

The police have been contacted for an additional response.