Boardmasters Review 2016

A huge week of music and partying in the sun on the Cornish coast in Newquay.

The woes of torturously slow traffic and cramped legs were quickly washed away when we arrived at the Boardmasters festival grounds to see the immense beauty of the Cornish coast.

Watergate Bay provided the perfect backdrop to a weekend of sunbaked slumber, monster mosh-pits and mid-morning raves fuelled by nothing but killer DJ’s and glorious, glorious festival food.

The BBMlive.com team had the privilege of shooting for The Point stage hosted by Relentless Energy Drink which easily had the best spot on the field, looking directly over the beach side below.

Arriving on the Friday we were met with a hive of musical activity. After setting up the tent and grabbing our gear we headed in.

Boardmasters Festival hosted 4 major stages with another 5 smaller stages and venues which all pumped out back to back killer acts across the weekend. Headliners included Eats Everything, Chase and Status, Dead Mau5, James Bay, Wolf Alice and plenty, plenty more.

The spotlight wasn’t always on the superstars however. Smaller acts like Louis Berry from Liverpool captivated the crowd with his rockstar poise and potent mojo. It didn’t seem to matter that no one in the audience could speak a word of scouse. We smiled and nodded between songs like you do with your granddad that never really got the hang of his dentures but we danced like crazy when he belted out tracks like ‘Nicole’ and ‘.45’.

When the headliners were done melting your ears and soul and the party was over for the night, it wasn’t really over. Boardmasters’ Party Palace was a kick-on mini festival fantasy, nuzzled in between a break in the camping grounds and featuring a big top with hip-hop, trap and pop DJ’s behind the decks, a late night bar and plenty of rides and attractions.

This mini warm down zone helped all the kiddies get the partying out of their system so as to avoid a 24 hour campsite rave where no one really gets to sleep.

The Point stage proved to be most consistent throughout the festival however. During the day the sloping green hill was the perfect spot for a lie down in the sun but at night the Relentless sponsored stage became a little corner of ecstasy.

Eats Everything, Dusky and Jackmaster headlined the weekend, Carly Foxx, Bodhi and Heidi all deserve an honourable mention for doing a killer job behind the desk on Friday and Saturday Night.

Overall, seeing the sunset over one of the most spectacular coastlines in the world whilst standing metres away from a state of the art sound system at the disposal of some of the best deep house and electronic producers in Europe was an experience we wont soon forget.
Check out our video here

Words by Locke Laurent
Find the full gallery shot by Locke Laurent on our Facebook Page.