Boardmasters 2024

[PoloMum]

Any other parents with teens at Boardmasters worried about safety following last night’s problems with overcrowding?

https://www.itv.com/news/westcountry/2024-08-10/injuries-after-crowd-surge-at-boardmasters-music-festival

It's frightening me as I don't want to clip my daughters wings but I had understood Boardmasters to be aimed at teens and hadn't realised the drugs.

I think it will depend on your child. DS has paid to be there with money he’s saved. Don’t think he’d waste his money on drugs, plus his friends are also fairly sensible. They splashed out on some cans of cider to take, and probably thought that was quite pricey.

Live nearby and have heard so many stories about spiking by needles and the welfare tents aren’t safe as there’s reports of sexual abuse in the welfare tents! Know someone who works for Oxfam who helps there and she said it’s horrendous.

What do you mean about the welfare tents?

Taking Ketamin has irreversible effects on bladders. I have a friend who works in this area and they have a huge increase in very young people (who would normally have no bladder issues) and it is because of taking Ketamin! This really needs to passed on the potential Ketamin takers as then they will have these bladder issues for the rest of their lives! I don't know why it isn't more widely talked about/publicised.

Boardmasters has always been a messy festival. Shitloads of kids, some away from home unsupervised for the first time. It's carnage.

Organisers and volunteers work really hard to educate young people about safety but the fact is, the demographic makes it riskier than other festivals IMO.

Well, alcohol is also a drug, and one of the worst ones when abused 🤷‍♀️

My ds is there. I think wherever there are teenagers there will be some taking drugs and sadly some spiking / assaults these days. But most people will have a great time. It’s certainly scary as a parent letting teens go to things like this. But at the same time we can’t keep them at home forever and they have to learn to manage some risks out in the world. There’s drugs available in every high school and sadly crimes committed in our home towns every Friday. So not necessarily a reason not to let kids go to festivals in my opinion. Roll on tomorrow!

All my three children went to boardmasters a couple of years each - I camped on a nearby site that they could walk to for breakfast, have a shower and generally chill/be subtly checked over by me before returning to the festival early afternoon. All of them saw drugs being sold through the perimeter fences , one had a phone stolen whilst asleep in their tent, all got drunk but needling wasn’t around as much as this was 6-10 years ago and I’m mot surprised things have got worse since then.

My child just got back and had a brilliant time. Part of a big group all know each other well. Didn't come into contact with any drug taking and knew of no one who was spiked. So it was a positive experience.

My DD aged 18 is there again this year, we took her the first time aged 11 and she’s been for the last 3 years with her friends. Shes also been to other festivals.

She says it’s hell this year and has already left before the campsite trouble reserved for the last night begins.

Compared to other festivals, boardmasters is quite a small area and is FULL of unsupervised teenagers. When we used to go, we stayed off a site so didn’t have to experience the camp sites but now she goes on her own she has no choice.

it sounds like they definatly need more security in the camp sites!

My Dc is there. Texted to confirm not in the crush for which I was v grateful
for, but then phoned to check in yesterday which is very unusual. Sounded fed up and said lots of people leaving early, nothing specific had happened to their group but ‘the vibe was off’ and the weather was crap. Will be interesting to hear how it compares to Reading. I think where ever you live then one closest to you is the one you hear about and get told to avoid!

Had a message back from DS - appears to have been pretty much unaware of the headlines/reasons for them. Heading back soon.

My DD is home safe. Really enjoyed the music, but found it very overcrowded and at times unsafe. She's not planning to go back next year.

DS has been there since Friday. Very much Mr Sensible this year and camped well away from the usual lively camping areas. Mainly so they can sleep undisturbed until midday.

There is a lot of drugs because there is a big market for them. His first year there, in 2021, he was shocked by the number of his friends taking ketamine and smoking weed. He’s always been very anti drugs ( unfortunately not anti alcohol) but he said that it was easier to tell the medical tent that you’d been spiked than fess up to taking drugs and risk your parents being informed. Since you have to carry ID this isn’t difficult for the police. I suspect that a lot of “spiking” cases are self inflicted with either drugs or alcohol.

DS rolls with an affluent crowd so drugs are rife. I’m glad he has his own mind. He was spiked 18mnths ago which really shook him up, one of the girls he was with was drinking his spare pint and he thinks it was meant for her. He knocked it back as they were leaving and doesn’t remember anything else from the evening. When he arrived home her put his hand through a pane of glass in the front door and we spent the rest of the night in A&E. He was mm from severing tendons. He has a big scar on his hand to remind him.

One thing he will do is intervene if he sees a girl in trouble or a younger lad. Not always a wise decision but he thinks that someone must have put him in a taxi to get home when it happened to him so feels that it’s important to look after vulnerable people.
It was a bit of a wake up call for all of his mates. He a 6’3” rugby player so if it happened to him then it can happen to anyone.

They are currently on a beach outside Newquay waiting for the traffic to clear a little before heading home. They have had a good time because he hasn’t moaned. They have discovered a suitable, cheep drinking venue in Newquay away from the Boardies and has spent the daytime mixing with interesting locals and more than likely playing pool.

I stayed with my DSis on the south coast, where she lives, so was only 40mins away, the first year he went down. The second year we rented a cottage 10mins away and he camped but I picked him up early morning so he could shower and catch up on sleep. He hadn’t been keen to go again but last and this year they are festival savvy and thoroughly enjoyed the weekend.

DS swore he’d never go again but is on his way home from his fourth year. They no longer spend much time on the site during the day, and also parked in a longterm carpark in Newquay so they could go elsewhere if they wanted.

Basically word for word what my DS said.
Enjoyed it but was really overcrowded (58k this year) compared to last year (50k) and with next year set to be even more (65k) said he really wouldn't want to go again.

Ds is home, happy and exhausted!

They set up camp on the edge of Pipeline with the VIP section behind them and went off exploring. Came back to find a group of girls had pitched their tent right in the middle of their group’s 5 tents!!

They did get caught up in the surge - he ended up on the ground but all managed to get up and left that stage straight away. He said there were just too many people at a really small stage.

By all accounts security around the campsites was a bit slow to get up to speed but their group were all ok.

He’s chalked it up as a great success. I’m very relieved to have him home in one piece.

DS home, finally. Enjoyed it but found it very busy. Not that bothered about going next year. Said security seemed less good than last year.

My DS arrived home a couple of hours ago. They had a great time, probably because they chose to camp in Mavericks the campsite furthest from the stages.

The only interesting thing that happened to them was they had a police check ( they seem to think it was anti terrorism or maybe a response to recent riots) done when they arrived in the car. They explained to them that it was a routine check. The guy behind them was arrested by them. It wasn’t clear what they were checking for but maybe the festival pass over intelligence of known drug dealers or trouble makers or possibly sex offenders. They said it was quite scary. But they were stopping and checking cars with men in.
It could have been part of a local sting, they didn’t really give much away.

I’m sort of glad they were focussing on the more serious issues than the behaviour of some of the younger feral teenagers. It is not the security staffs responsibility to correct their behaviour. It’s very much the parents who should educate their children in acceptable behaviour. They need to take a little responsibility for sending their out of control offspring to a festival.

DS and his friends are no angels but they have respect and understand the need to clear the site of their rubbish and camping gear. Maybe because they are country boys and understand that the fields revert to grazing after the festival.

My son got home last night and said he'd had a brilliant time - second time there and this time he went on his own, which was a bit daunting, but he made friends with a group and hung out with them. He was at the back of the crowd during the surges so not affected, but reports a speaker falling on people.
He did say the Ketamine use was rife; apparantly on one of the camping fields they held a 'Ket Olympics' with pairs of participants all drugged to the eyeballs. As a mum, I found it worrying how open the drug use is, but Boardmasters seems to be turning a blind eye. A friend found a girl apparently unconscious in his tent, lying in her vomit...they don't know what the outcome was for her :(
My son wants to go again next year but I'm hoping he may choose a different festival that has fewer out of control teens.

Yes, DS said lots of people had dumped their tents and didn’t clear up. Had also heard about spiking going on. He says he probably won’t go next year. It was too busy with more people than last year.

My daughter was in Mavericks too, had a wonderful time. Very little sleep and came back exhausted and sunburnt but unscathed.

She said there were several groups of very helpful boys in the Mavericks site who helped her and her friends with their tents and lent them a mallet. Maybe your son @Angrymum22? 😁

Sounds like it was handled correctly by the organisers - this wouldn’t concern me unduly.