A woman has described the “absolute chaos” she encountered in the medical tent at the Boardmasters music festival when she tried to get help for a 16-year-old boy who was “delirious with pain” after being injured in a crowd.
Ali Gaudion told Sky News that her daughter said the unidentified teenager, a friend of hers, “was crushed and trampled” at the event in Newquay, Cornwall, on Friday night.
The boy said he was “close to the front” of DJ Sammy Virji, when “a lot of people came in, I was pushed and I fell on my back, with my leg twisted.
“It was extremely painful and I couldn’t get up. There were people on top of me and I was on top of other people.”
Ms Gaudion said they found the boy backstage, where he was one of “dozens of children on the floor, crying, screaming and fainting”.
They were told to take him to the main welfare tent, she said, but “no one knew” where he was and they were forced to “walk for hours carrying this boy”, who at that point was “delirious with pain”.
She said security staff were “not letting people in [to the tent]”.
“It was absolute chaos. The doctors were saying ‘we can’t handle the situation’,” she added.
She said she and other mothers “noticed it was filling up really fast. They were telling people on stage to stop pushing. Then we started hearing screams.”
Sophie Davies, another mother whose son, Will Davies, stayed at the festival, said she “saw a huge wave of children rushing forward… like a river of people coming in”.
She helped the same teenager as Gaudion and searched for him after being told he had hurt himself.
Once they found him, a stranger “saw he was in pain and offered him paracetamol, but there were no stretchers, ice packs or ambulances.”
A different mother told the PA news agency that her family attended the main stage of Tom Odell’s set but “it started to get very, very crowded”.
“My husband stayed out of bounds with our youngest daughter, but my oldest daughter wanted [go] inside,” she said.
When it started to get busy, the mother said: “We couldn’t go out because there were still a lot of people coming in.
“My daughter and I were crushed against the barriers, so I lifted her up and over a barrier and then came out.
“My daughters were terrified. I’ve been to many festivals over the years – I’ve never seen one so overcrowded and with such poor and dangerous crowd control measures.”
In a statement, Boardmasters said: “Following a crowd collapse at The Point last night, seven attendees were transferred to a nearby hospital for precautionary checks after reporting to our medical team.
“We have carried out a multi-agency review and The Point stage has reopened this afternoon.
“Our wellbeing teams are available 24 hours a day for any festival-goer who wants a chat or support.”
It also signaled that concerned parents could make contact via the Boardmasters website.
Cornwall Police said a “small number” of people were injured in a crowd.
Sammy Virji said he was “devastated” by the cancellation of his show at The Point, but “safety should always come first”.
In a post on his Instagram, he said the crowd surge “could be very serious.”
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The festival’s capacity was increased to 58,000 this year, an increase of 5,000 over the 2023 total, after the county council approved a license application submitted by BM Management in February.
It will further grow to 65,000 next year and 66,000 in 2026 as part of the plan.
Sam Fender will headline on Saturday night and Stormzy on Sunday.
This story originally appeared on News.sky.com read the full story
