Boardmasters 2023 review: a volunteer’s experience
Boardmasters is a music and surf festival in Cornwall, the UK.
I attended in 2023 for the second time, having attended for the first time in 2021. I had a very different experience this time around and figured I’d share my thoughts on the festival with you.
Just to note, as with most of the festivals I go to, I attended Wilderness as a steward with Oxfam. It’s a great way to attend festivals; however, as I didn’t camp in the general campsites, my feelings may be different to an actual punter.
Ratings
Music: 4/5 • Activities: 3/5 • Audience & atmosphere: 2/5 • Site: 5/5 • Accessibility: 4/5 • Facilities: 4/5 • Value: 3/5 • Volunteer experience: 5/5 • Overall: 4.25/5
About Boardmasters
Boardmasters is a weekend music festival held in August each year. It began in 1981 as a surf competition, and in 2005 was expanded to include music as well.
As a result, the festival has changed a lot over its time! In reality now, for most people, Boardmasters is 95% music. The arena is located near Watergate Bay, which is on the other side of Newquay to Fistral Beach, where the surfing competitions are held. When you’re looking at a minimum 20 minute bus ride between the two of them, surfing no longer forms a major part of the festival experience for most punters.
To be honest, Lou and I joke that Boardmasters is now ‘surf-washed’, given how little surfing features in the festival experience.
However, what the festival has lost in surfing, it’s gained in music prowess.
A note on volunteering
I attended Boardmasters as a volunteer with Oxfam. The volunteering aspect very much changed how I interacted with the festival, as volunteers have their own campsite and access to staff perks. Therefore, I’ll also be discussing the volunteer experience as part of this article.
To give you a brief overview of festival volunteering with Oxfam, it works like this: in return for three eight hour shifts, volunteer stewards get free access to the festival, meal vouchers and a separate campsite with showers, hot water and electricity for phone chargers. It’s a great system full of friendly people and I’ve really enjoyed the festivals I’ve attended with them so far.
I’ll talk about how volunteering at Boardmasters compares to other Oxfam festivals later on, in case you’re interested!
What is Boardmasters normally like?
Surfing excluded, Boardmasters is all about the music. The main arena, perched in a coastal location between Porth beach and Watergate Bay, near Newquay, has over ten stages and attracts some great names in the line up.
Music tends to be of the popular variety and focuses on chart pop, indie, electronic and drum and bass. Every year we’re impressed with the line up!
Given its coastal location, the beach is an important aspect of the festival, and in good weather the arena and campsites can get a bit quieter as punters head out. You can walk to both Porth and Watergate Bay, which are great beaches with good sand and waves.
The festival is also fairly unique in that it has a second site at Fistral Bay. This is open to the public, is full of stalls and has a beach bar. It’s also where the surf competitions are held. A payable shuttle bus links the two sites.
The audience at Boardmasters
Boardmasters has a reputation for being the coastal version of Reading and Leeds: a post-school festival for slightly more affluent teenagers.
Unfortunately, when you’re there, this feels absolutely true. Whilst there are adults and older people at the festival, they are outnumbered by the youthful crowd, particularly on Wednesday and Thursday, when there are no day tickets. The silent disco held on these nights felt very young!
The audience felt much older between Friday and Sunday, when you can buy day tickets for the festival. During these times, the audience felt much more mixed, which was very much a good thing.
Weather at Boardmasters 2023
The weather at Boardmasters 2023 can only be described as mixed. Every day the weather was changeable, from gorgeous sun on Wednesday afternoon, to full rain on Sunday!
It never really got hot, although plenty of people burnt during the burst of sunshine on Wednesday. It was always quite windy and cloudy. Mud became a problem on Sunday as drizzle dominated the afternoon.
After attending Wilderness the week before (which was very muddy), we were happy with how the weather panned out, although would’ve appreciated more sun and less rain…
Boardmasters 2023: the various aspects
To summarise my experience, I’ve rated Boardmasters 2023 over several categories, which I have summarised below:
- Music: 4/5
- Activities: 3/5
- Audience and atmosphere: 2/5
- Site: 5/5
- Accessibility: 4/5
- Facilities: 4/5
- Value for money: 3/5
- Volunteer experience: 5/5
Overall score: 3.5/5 (excluding volunteer experience)
If you attended Boardmasters in 2023, let me know if you agree with these ratings! I go into each part of the festival below.
Music: 4/5
Boardmasters normally has a great lineup. This year, whilst it was still great, it just wasn’t quite as good as 2021. However, during 2021, some of my favourite artists performed, so I may be biassed!
The headliners in 2023 were Lorde, Liam Gallagher and Florence & The Machine. Florence’s performance was incredible! I didn’t enjoy Lorde’s performance as much; as a big Lorde fan, I didn’t like that some of the songs were remixed and featured heavy backing tracks, which made it difficult to sing along.
The music in part was let down by the crowd. The crowd was fine during the day. However, as most punters were 16 to 18, crowd etiquette was quite poor during the evening acts (when people were drunk or high), which detracted from the performance at times.
Activities: 3/5
Boardmasters isn’t about the activities. However, there were still some experiences you could take part in if you wanted, with several areas offering yoga and other classes. There was also a cinema in Malibu campsite.
A lot of people also opt to rent a surfboard or swim at Watergate Bay, which feeds into the ethos of the festival.
We also loved how many freebies were at the festival. It makes sense – given the young audience, it’s sensible for brands to advertise heavily here. There were a lot of free drinks and merchandise.
Audience and atmosphere: 2/5
The audience at Boardmasters was pretty awful, to the extent that it detracted from the music a lot of the time. During the day, when most people were sober, it was fine. However, in the evening and night, when many of the teenagers in the audience were drunk or high, we found the audience to be fairly bad.
There was a lot of shoving, even in areas of the crowd where there was a lot of space. Many people didn’t have good crowd etiquette and talked over the acts, being so noisy!
A particular example occurred during Florence & The Machine, when a lone teenager kept trying to make a mosh pit, even when everyone in the surrounding area clearly didn’t want to mosh to Dog Days Are Over.
Site: 5/5
The Watergate Bay arena at Boardmasters is pretty nice. Unlike other festivals, it’s circular, so it only takes five minutes’ walk to get from one side to the other. It’s also pretty flat, and doesn’t feel too packed despite its 50,000 capacity.
Punters may be less impressed with the campsites, which sounded chaotic at times (again, due to the younger audience). (By the way, if you’re wanting to avoid this experience, it may be worth considering VIP camping, which seemed quieter and includes extra perks.) However, as a volunteer in crew camping I was somewhat sheltered from this.
Accessibility: 4/5
I’d say Boardmasters is very accessible. It’s a flat site and has facilities you’d expect from a festival of this size, like accessibility platforms and accessible camping.
Boardmasters’ biggest problem is probably also its biggest attraction: its location. Newquay isn’t the most accessible location in the country, with long travel times by train and car.
I should say, though, that the Boardmasters site is adjacent to Newquay Airport, if some people decide to arrive by plane. It’s also close to the A30, reducing travel times compared to other areas of Cornwall.
Facilities: 4/5
The toilets at 2021 were awful. They weren’t being emptied so were just piling up. It was bad.
By comparison, I was pleasantly surprised by the toilets in 2023. They were actually emptied and mostly had toilet roll. In the evening you do have to queue, but it was never terrible.
By the way, there aren’t any free showers for punters. I’m not too sure on the pricing of showers on-site but believe they were around £15. Punters desperate for a cheaper shower may want to check out the showers at Watergate Bay, which cost £5.
Value for money: 3/5
Boardmasters has average value for money for a festival. The tickets are average price, and so is the food. However, the shuttle buses between the two festival sites were pricey (at £9 return).
Overall: 3.5/5
Volunteer experience: 5/5
I had a pretty good experience at Boardmasters as an Oxfam steward. It’s definitely a festival where being crew pays off.
My shifts were good. I was a steward at the Fistral Beach site (which is a good post in itself) Thursday night, Saturday morning and Monday morning, so got to see all the headliners!
The Oxfield (that’s what the Oxfam campsite is called) was quiet compared to the general campsites, which is how I like it. We didn’t have great toilets this time and the portaloos blocked up quickly; however, we had good showers and, as at all festivals, a marquee where we could socialise. As the age range is slightly younger than the average Oxfam festival, it was very social and there were always people to talk to.
The benefits are also quite good for crew at Boardmasters. There’s a separate crew entrance to the arena less than ten minutes’ walk from the Oxfield, which never has queues or doesn’t conduct any bag searches (great for bringing in alcohol). This year Oxfam also had access to the crew catering, which had good food and big portions to keep us going: definitely much better value than anything in the arena!
Boardmasters 2023: summarising the experience
Being an Oxfam steward at Boardmasters is a great way to experience the festival. I wouldn’t want to be in the general campsites, so it paid off to volunteer.
With the improved toilet facilities and reduced Covid restrictions, I also enjoyed Boardmasters this year much more than in 2021. The weather wasn’t as good though, which definitely affected the experience.
In summary, I don’t know whether I’ll be back. I didn’t enjoy the young age group this year. Is it time to focus on festivals attended by people my own age? Possibly…
Do you have any questions about attending Boardmasters? Let me know in the comments!
If you liked this, check out my 2023 reviews for Wilderness and Reading. And take a look at my guide to Oxfam festival volunteering if you want to know more about this!
