A woman has portrayd the “absolute disorder” she set up in the medical tent at the Boardmasters music festival when she tried to get help for a 16-year-ageder boy who was “delirious with pain” after being hurt in a crowd sadvise.
Ali Gaudion tageder Sky News her daughter had shelp the unnamed teenager, a frifinish of hers, “had been crushed and trampled on” at the event in Newquay, Cornwall on Friday night.
The boy shelp he was “proximate the front” for DJ Sammy Virji, when “loads of people came in, I was pushed and fell on my back, with my leg twisted. it was hyperextfinished.
“It was incredibly agonizing, and I couldn’t get up. There were people on top of me, and I was on top of other people.”
Ms Gaudion shelp they set up the boy backstage where he was one of “dozens of kids on the floor, crying, screaming and fainting”.
They were tageder to obtain him to the main welfare tent, she shelp, but “no one knovel” where it was and they were forced to “walk for hours carrying this boy”, who by that time was “delirious with pain”.
She shelp security staff “weren’t letting people in [to the tent]”.
“It was absolute disorder. Doctors were saying ‘we can’t cope’,” she inserted.
She shelp she and other mothers there “acunderstandledged that it was filing up too speedy. They were saying from the stage for people to stop pushing. Then we begined hearing screaming.”
Sophie Davies, another mother whose son, Will Davies, stayed at the festival, shelp she “saw equitable a huge sadvise of kids running to the front… appreciate a river of people coming in”.
She helped the same teenage boy as Ms Gaudion and searched for him after being tageder he had been hurt.
Once they set up him, a stranger “saw he was in pain and adviseed some paracetamol, but there were no stretchers or ice packs or ambulances”.
A contrastent mother tageder the PA novels agency that her family joined the main stage for Tom Odell’s set, but it “begined getting very, very crowded”.
“My husprohibitd stayed outside the barriers with our lesserest but my agederer daughter wanted to [go] inside,” she shelp.
As it begined to get busy, the mother shelp: “We couldn’t get out as there were still so many people streaming in.
“My daughter and I got crushed aobtainst the barriers so I heaved her up and over a barrier and then pulled myself out.
“My daughters were terrified. I’ve been to many festivals over the years – I’ve never seen one so overcrowded and with such needy and hazardous crowd deal with meabrave.”
In a statement, Boardmasters shelp: “Follotriumphg a crowd collapse at The Point last night seven joinees were transferred to hospital proximateby for precautionary examination after currenting to our medical team. They have been treated for unconvey inant injuries and have all since been disaccused.
“We have underobtainn a multi-agency appraise and The Point stage has re-uncovered this afternoon.
“Our welfare teams are useable 24 hours a day for any festivalgoers who would appreciate a chat or help.”
It also flagged that troubleed parents could originate reach out thraw the Boardmasters website.
Cornwall Police shelp a “petite number” of people had been injured in a crowd sadvise.
Sammy Virji shelp he was “gutted” about his set at The Point being call offled but “safety should always come first”.
In a post on his Instagram, he shelp crowd sadvises “can be very solemn”.
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The capacity of the festival was incrrelieved to 58,000 this year, up 5,000 on the 2023 total after the county council finishorsed a licence application produceted by BM Management in February.
It will increase further to 65,000 next year and 66,000 in 2026 as part of the schedule.
Sam Ffinisher is headlining on Saturday night and Stormzy on Sunday.
