Queue chaos for people heading to Boardmasters

The five-day music and surf festival began on Wednesday with an increased capacity of 58,000

Queues have caused havoc for festival goers trying to get to Boardmasters in Newquay.

The five-day music and surf festival began on Wednesday with an increased capacity of 58,000, with performances by Chase & Status, Sam Fender and Stormzy.

The gates opened at 15:00 BST with reports of people leaving their lifts on the road to walk the rest of the way to the venue.

Two festivalgoers from Hastings said it had been "a bit of a headache" getting down to Cornwall but were "here now so it's all good".

'Newquay is really nice'

Others said they were looking forward to spending time in the seaside town and enjoying the atmosphere.

One Boardmasters ticket holder said: "Newquay is a nice place for me, I live near Birmingham so it's not like the best of areas, but down in Newquay it's really nice so I think it will be a good time there.

"We haven't got beaches up in Birmingham, it's just minging rivers really."

Boardmasters said local roads along Henver road and Watergate Bay road were closed to allow for a safe space and multiple crossing points for people at the event, and that a £50 car park re-entry fee had been introduced to encourage use of its shuttle buses.

It said a Park and Ride service on the fair fields off the A3059 would be available so people could park their car and then take a shuttle to the festival gates to reduce traffic congestion and encourage greener travel.

Mark Warren said the event brought more than £40m into the economy

Organisers faced criticism from businesses in the area, which said the police "shipped" visitors straight to the music venue and that it deterred regulars and holidaymakers from their shops.

Mark Warren, Newquay's Business Improvement District manager, said the event brought more than £40m into the economy.

He said there was "always going to be mixed feelings around large-scale events".

Mr Warren said: "I think it's a great thing, we get a lot of positive feedback from businesses - it brings £40m worth of additional revenue to the surrounding areas.

"They set up at that festival site for over a month, a lot of the tradesmen, a lot of the electricians and all those people that are involved in setting them up and taking them down are all involved through that whole process."

He said it was important to get people arriving off the trains safely to the venue.

Mr Warren said: "I do think there's some work to be done with Boardmasters on how we can interact with the businesses more.

"I think once they're in and settled, we then bring them back into the town centre - that's the next challenge."