Boardmasters!

[Peclet]

Hi all-
looking for experienced mums who have had their offspring go and return from this festival.

DD and 3 mates are going on Wednesday and leaving on the Monday. Is the traffic a nightmare? Any camping tips?

Any advice woild be appreciated.

waves

First time for us as well- they are getting the coach and doing Wed-Mon like your DD.

Weather looks crap on Thursday and Friday but probably too early to be sure.

Bare minimum is what my DS is taking, have read horror stories on here over the years of everything being stolen.

My sons first time too, mum worry gone into overdrive 🤦‍♀️

Isn’t it!! I know my Dd is a good girl and so are her mates. But I am not naive.

My Dd and her friends are going for the first time too so no tips! I’m going to be worrying the whole time!

Joining for tips too. DD16 going for the first time. Although she did do a small local festival earlier in the year as a taster. She’s sensible so hoping it’ll be ok. We’re dropping her off Wednesday early afternoon so dreading that bit as traffic likely to be hellish?

We live pretty near to it and try not to leave the house on Wednesday and Sunday 😉. Eldest DC went last year and youngest going this year but only for day ticket as too close. No major issues although both of mine are quite sensible. Has a bit of a reputation locally for drug pushing particularly as so many too young to buy alcohol but probably not different to other festivals.

Traffic can most definitely be hellish and already seems to be a busy year for tourists this year.

BY CAR

We highly encourage everyone to avoid driving to Boardmasters Festivals including picking up and dropping off. Instead, consider the convenience and eco-friendliness of taking Big Green Coaches or using public transport.

However if you do decide to drive it is essential to follow the AA signage and not sat nav or map directions.

These pages will help you:

TRAVEL - Boardmasters

Traffic Management - Boardmasters

Thanks @Charabanc. Need to drive unfortunately as we’re coming from south wales.

Traffic is horrendous. DS went on an organised coach last year and still had a very long walk to the entrance.

Don’t take too much - there were lots of thefts from tents.

Needle stick injuries happen. Make sure they know what to do and where to find help

Mobile reception is awful. Don’t expect to hear much from them and have a robust plan if you’re picking them up yourself.

They’ll hopefully have a ball. You won’t sleep much!

Dd survived this in a heatwave 3 years ago - traffic was ok if you were canny about timings, I think. I didn't drop or pick up so she might have just been brushing off my boring mum questions 🤣. Nothing terrible or even annoying happened to them but maybe everyone was too busy trying not to collapse from heatstroke to be nefarious, so her experience may be atypical. She spent a lot of time in the sea or seeking shade.

And yes, mobile reception was dire!

Dont drive to the site to pick them up, we did last year and it took 6 hours to get out of the car park. Never again. Arrange to meet in Newquay, they can get a shuttle bus there. Upgrade to VIP camping if possible, especially for girls. Much safer and will be able to sleep and shower.

Great tips about dropping off and making plans that are not reliant on mobiles

Have heard about thefts! Not sure what can be done about it. SHe will have a day pack to keep valuables within her.

Needle stick injuries- what fresh hell is this?

Have just looked up needle stick injury and what to do. Thank you for that. Horrible.

DD is going, also 16. I’m worried to death but trying not to show it. She’s fairly sensible but I know plenty of others aren’t. I worry about spiking. We’ve spoken about it but she can be quite naive.

Make sure that you’re prepared for there to be no signal. Like none, unless you’re on whichever network is sponsoring the festival this year. Last year it was Vodafone.

If they’re there early enough, they can buy a WiFi dongle. But they’re massively overpriced, so it really depends how much you want to connect with them - maybe send them with some cash/money on their cards if you’re worried.

i went last year and it was pretty boring. There was a rush at one of the stages, but it was quiet apart from that. Nobody was really aware of what had been going on. The security were useless and so unhelpful. We had day tickets, left, got literally two steps past the exit and realised we had gone the wrong way. They refused to let us go back in to get to the right place, we had to walk to the campsite where they then wouldn’t let us in, and sent us back to the entrance we’d left from. There were volunteers along the way who said that this kept happening, and that security had been awful. They tried to get us to walk down the main road (a fast country road, in the middle of the night, with a load of drunk/high people around!), eventually one of the lead volunteers took us through the festival to the right exit.

honestly it’s fine, I’ve seen more atmosphere at a football match or an f1 race! I’m sure they’ll have a great time though, if they’re into the music that’s on.

son and his friends went last year - they flew as we live in Scotland

if rain is forecast then make sure they know how to pitch their tent correctly and keep everything in poly bags within their main bag as it's miserable with wet clothes and nowhere to dry them. Try to persuade them to take one jumper/joggers/socks more than they think they need as they will be grateful to you in the end. Thick bin bag for their sleeping bag during the day if it's raining. Keep one set of clothes for travelling home as everything else, including your child, will be rather fragrant by then!

camping chairs are highly sought after and make sitting around their camp much more comfy - just don't leave them out and don't expect them to come back.

mobile signal is terrible although fine if they go into town during the day so expect day time messages from them. The main issue is if they get separated from their group/plan to meet others within the area at night then they simply cannot contact each other and the main areas are too busy at night to chance on finding people. Best plan is to always be with at least one other person

the food options are fine but expensive. The Aldi in town was visited daily and there was a cafe in a converted church that they went to daily for decent food and toilets

there is a safeguarding team - if they are under 18 and trying to bring in alcohol then they will probably be caught and you may get a phone call from the safeguarding team (several of us parents got said call over the 5 days). The most successful method was to buy a box of wine from Aldi and tape the bag of wine to their backs and wear several layers of clothes when re-entering the grounds! Drugs were available but easily avoided

there are several different camping areas - our lot had decided in advance where they wanted to be and set up camp together on arrival. The final night was when there was trouble - groups seems to go round wrecking tents and stealing. My son and his friends are big rugby lads and seemed to take it in turns to stay by their tents/stay awake to defend their area which meant that the girls felt safer than had they been alone. There was nothing significant stolen but they definitely need to keep their valuables on them at all times. Have low expectations of tents/kit coming home again. If there's an option to leave late Sunday night then take it!

that said, they had a fantastic time!!

Amending whether or not to put for a Sunday exit. I think that would be best but am feeling DD will be very opposed. Also hellava drive for DH who is picking up.

do the shuttles run all the time from town into Newquay? Are they on a loop.

I am nervous about the stealing!

great tips about keeping things dry. Thank you as I hadn’t thought of that!

My son went a couple of years ago.

Traffic was busy and it was a long walk, with lots of queuing, from where the car was left to where they were camping. Food and drinks were very expensive. Drugs were rife, my son has been to other festivals but it was this one where he said there were loads. Lots of theft but I think that’s just festivals and my son and his friends didn’t have anything stolen. Mobile signal was rubbish as others have said. But, despite all of that, they all had a great time.

Tell them all that they must stay together, no letting one person walk back to tent alone at night etc. Give the lectures about drugs even if you don’t think your child would take them. Make sure that they know where their tent is! Lots of groups were wondering around lost, unable to find their tent, so make sure they know where it is, what it’s near etc.

Be prepared for your daughter to sleep for 2 days when she gets home! 😂

I have just tried to reassign the tickets to my DC’s name (from mine as the person who booked) and it is saying it is too late to do so? There was no deadline mentioned when we booked...
Help - the customer service seems to be a useless chatbot. Anyone managed to change their ticket allocation relatively late on?

My DD went last year with some friends. They got the train there. It seemed to be fine to me - much less scary than Reading - no one set any tents on fire! They had a deal where you pay to hire a charging pack and then you can swap it every day for a charged one which was very useful.

Monday was the deadline to reassign- I got a lot of emails about it as itc as my mate who did the booking.

Keep trying customer services!

Yes I’m pretty sure the buses run all the time, and the trains on a Monday are always full of kids who have been to boardmasters. Could you not see if they could get the train and meet him halfway?

I actually feel sick.

When I planned to have kids I thought I had covered every scenario - but then growing up and having their own life wasn't one of them 😂.

I went through what to do with needle stick injuries, and reminded them that there is safeguarding and first aid. Not having signal worries me, not to update me but in case they lose each other- I know the world still spun before phones, but we so used to them.

I did get some emails but none of them mentioned a deadline to do it. I was waiting as he has been having problems with his email account.
I’m hoping I won’t have to go down there myself (4 hour drive) as he is already on his way 😳
Am going to put DH on it this morning as he is much better at this sort of thing - SEE tickets don’t seem to have any contact numbers at all.