Investigation launched into Boardmasters festival after people hurt in crowd surge

An investigation has been launched into a crowd surge at Boardmasters festival in Cornwall.

Seven festival-goers were injured during the fan surge on Friday at a DJ stage at the music event in Newquay. One woman called the festival a "disgrace" after fracturing her knee.

On Saturday, The Point stage was reopened after a “multi-agency review” was undertaken and the festival continued as scheduled until Sunday.

Police called it an isolated incident.

Now a spokesman for Cornwall Council has confirmed an investigation is ongoing.

“The council’s public protection service is currently investigating the incident that took place at the Boardmasters festival on Friday 9 August," the spokesperson said.

“We cannot comment further while this investigation is ongoing.”

On Friday, festival organisers announced that the planned set by DJ and producer Sammy Virji was cancelled and the stage was “closed to allow onsite teams to respond to an incident in the audience”.

A later statement said: “Seven attendees were transferred to hospital nearby for precautionary examination after presenting to our medical team.

“They have been treated for minor injuries and have all since been discharged.”

Devon and Cornwall Police said the crowd surge “left a small number of attendees injured”.

The force said at the weekend: “Contrary to speculation, we can confirm that there have been no deaths as a result of this incident.”

Dancer Jade Brooks, 23, from Yorkshire, said the crowd had been “pushed back and caused everyone to fall with me being the bottom person and I had about 10 people fall onto my legs”.

She says she went to hospital and an X-ray revealed she had a fracture in her knee, and will spend the rest of her Cornwall holiday on crutches.

Ms Brooks said: “We came to Cornwall for a two-week holiday like we do every year and this was in the middle of our holiday.

“Now this second week of the holiday is ruined, we can’t do what we usually do and I’m going to miss out on all family activities.”

Virji said he was “gutted” by the cancelling of his set, and added that “safety should always come first”.

The police and organisers have been contacted for an additional response.