A “small number” of people have been injured in a crowd collapse that led to one of the stages at the Boardmasters music festival in Newquay being closed on Friday evening.

Both police and festival organisers have commented about the incident, which led to the cancellation of the set by DJ Sammy Virji.

Devon and Cornwall Police issued a statement late on Friday evening to say: "We have been notified following a crowd surge at Boardmasters music festival in Newquay on Friday 9 August which left a small number of attendees injured.

“The injured parties are currently being treated on-site by medical staff or have been taken to hospital to be checked over. None of the injuries are considered serious.

"This is an isolated incident and the festival continues."

They have since updated the statement to describe the incident as a crowd collapse, rather than surge, also adding: "Contrary to speculation, we can confirm that there have been no deaths as a result of this incident."

You can follow live updates from what's happening here: Stage closed after crowd surge at Boardmasters: organisers respond

In a statement a Boardmasters spokesperson said: "We can confirm that Sammy Virji’s set was cancelled and that The Point stage was closed to allow onsite teams to respond to an incident in the audience.

"No serious injuries have been reported and the pit and medical teams immediately assisted those involved.

"Safety is our number one priority and we thank Sammy and our audience for their understanding."

The spokesperson said that all other stages were unaffected and performances had continued as planned.

DJ Sammy Virji, whose set was cancelled, said he was “gutted” about the cancellation but added “safety should always come first”.

The Press Association reported that in a story post on his Instagram he said: “I’m incredibly gutted about the stage cancellation for Boardmasters, whilst I’m absolutely honoured at the amount of people who turned up, crowd surges can be very serious and safety should always come first.

“The stoppage was completely out of my hands and hope you all understand the festival needed to prioritise everyone’s wellbeing. Hopefully catch you all soon at another set.”

One dad told the Packet that he had received a message from his daughter just after 9pm saying: "There was a bad incident at a stage. We were in there, people pushed and we all fell down like dominoes, everyone on top of each other's legs and all."

However, another dad wrote on X, at 11.20pm, to say: "I just spoke to my son who is there - it’s not as bad as all the speculation on social media. There was / is some overcrowding but it appears to be ok now - so much in fact he['s] going into the silent disco."

We will bring further updates when we get them. 

  • Were you there when it happened? Get in touch by emailing emma.ferguson@packetseries.co.uk