Boardmasters Festival, Newquay
By Charlotte Gay
Nestled on the cliffs of Cornwall, Newquay welcomed its 30th year of surf, skate and music. Relentless Boardmasters Festival, twinned with NASS and Freeze festival, is no longer a Cornish secret, with big names such as Fat Boy Slim and Klaxons taking the lead at the Watergate Bay party site.
Sad to say, the weekend did start drizzly but, determined to have a great time, the 15,000 festival goers partied from Friday to the early hours of Sunday, regardless.
Boardmasters 2011, by Graham Joy
Friday’s music was kick-started by Eliza Doolittle brightening up the main stage with her summer tunes, followed by the surprisingly bouncy set by the Bombay Bicycle Club boys, with their new track ‘Shuffle’ and BBC classic ‘Always Like This’ proving to be by far the most popular.
Klaxons took to Friday’s main stage, boasting what the many people in the audience called a flawless performance. Over at the Relentless tent The Skints performed an epic ska set, winning over many new fans for the Camden based band. Backbeat Sound System as always put on a popular performance for the Cornish home boy’s band, and Gentleman’s Dub Club wowed the Relentless tent as the most dapper looking band, mixing their high energy ska, reggae and dubstep influences into a mesmerising gig.
Meanwhile over at the Vans tent, Skindred were tearing the place up, pulling in such a big audience that the crowd spilled out into the wet weather. Lead singer Benji was clearly an ace when brewing up a storm, bantering with his Ragga-metal fans. The Tuaca tent brought in the hard-core dubstep and DnB fans who partied out till the early hours of the morning to Krafty Kuts.
Boardmasters 2011, by Graham Joy
Saturday morning saw most of the music fans, switch around the festival and head down to the town centre and onto Fistral Beach. Here sports fans could revel in world champion surfers, BMX bandits and cunning skaters proving their worth over the weekend’s qualifiers and finals. This part of the festival is completely free to the public. Also down at Fistral beach, Thursday night’s Beach Sessions took place, showcasing Newton Falkner and Charlie Simpson, while BBC Radio One listeners were also treated to a visit by Radio 1′s Fearne Cotton.
But back up to Watergate Bay, Saturday night was certainly a dance raver’s dream come true. The main stage featured Radio One’s Zane Lowe, followed by the epic Sub Focus and then mighty Fat Boy Slim. Norman Cook gave one of the most spectacular performances of the weekend, as the dazzling laser light show combined with the best drops and kept thousands of people bouncing for hours.
A little frustratingly, the sun only truly shone at its brightest as campers were packing up. Boardmasters proved itself to be a brilliant up and coming festival, definitely one to keep an eye on. Its only drawback was its extremely civilised campsite, where many hardy festival goers would have preferred the party to keep going. This happy 30th birthday will certainly be bringing the crowds back, and people can only hope for a sunnier beach bum festival.
For those who cannot wait till next year, Relentless Freeze Festival will be hitting Battersea Power Station, London from the 28th to the 29th October. Names such as Groove Armada, Beardyman and Zane Lowe will be lighting up the snow sports festival.
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