Fans have reacted with shock and anger after the Boardmasters musical festival was cancelled at the 11th hour amid severe weather warnings.
The three-day event, due to be headlined by the Wu-Tang Clan, Florence + The Machine, and Foals, was due to take place in Cornwall this weekend.
However, organisers pulled the plug late on Tuesday night after the Met Office warned of wild weather, including heavy rain and high winds.
— Boardmasters (@boardmasters) August 6, 2019
In a statement, the festival said: “The safety of you, the fans and attendees, as well as performers and crew comes first.”
Music fan Kristina Powell said she had not been able to sleep for shock after learning that the festival had been cancelled.
She had been planning to attend the event with friends, and had travelled down from Cheshire.
She told PA: “My cousins came from London to meet me yesterday. Two more of our friends travelled to Newquay yesterday and stayed in a B&B last night. One more was on an overnight coach and arrived in Newquay at 6am.
I get it. Health and safety. England. But… we’re still allowed to be absolutely f**king devastated and the short notice is a disgrace. For some, our whole year is about the #festival. We’re not really over the fact there’s no @Bestival and now this @boardmasters #boardmasters
— Kristina (@schmangled87) August 7, 2019
“At first we couldn’t and didn’t want to believe it and honestly thought it was a hoax. It all seemed a bit unprofessional — a screenshot of a statement written on a ‘notes’ app?
“The website was down, which added to our doubt. Then when it did come back up, tickets were still available to buy.”
She said tickets were still available on the website until 1.30am, despite the festival being cancelled hours earlier.
She told PA: “I get safety is important but we’re seasoned festival-goers and that includes all weathers.”
Refund information will be shared “as soon as possible”, organisers said.
Jokes on Joe and I since we got an early night to be ‘ready for boardmasters the next day’ so went to sleep soundly at 10 to wake up at 5, basically get out the door and realise we’re twats and it’s cancelled #boardmasters
— Georgi🐰🐚 (@georgivardi) August 7, 2019
Georgina Vardigans began travelling to Cornwall from Surrey with her boyfriend Joe, leaving at 5am before they realised the event was cancelled.
She told PA: “I am absolutely gutted. This was our only holiday this year, we bought £100 worth of clothes and supplies and were so excited to see amazing music.
“Finding it hard to deal with the disappointment and the fact that we’ve both lost so much money and booked time off work too.
“Not to mention we bought add-on purchases that definitely won’t be refunded.”