The Boomtown repairers fixing campers' broken gear

Claire Seek (centre) says the pop-up is a "quick win on the sustainability front"

It is a tale that many festivalgoers know all too well - arriving on a campsite only to discover a festival essential has broken and there is nothing on hand to fix it with.

With Boomtown hosting more than 75,000 people this year near Winchester, Hampshire, the organisers have teamed up with volunteers from repair cafes across the county to offer a helping hand.

The Boomtown Repairium pop-up repair space is dedicated to helping attendees fix their belongings rather than throw them away.

Clare Seek, the project's lead says it will help festivalgoers have a better experience, adding: "And it's a really quick win on the sustainability front."

The Repairium will be open all weekend

Ms Seek, who runs a repair cafe in Portsmouth, says the idea came about in February.

"Repair cafes are where people bring their broken things and we have repairers who are volunteers who will sit with you and help you fix things," she explains.

"We thought 'why not bring it to a festival?'."

Ms Seek and her fellow repairers say they have already fixed almost every camping item imaginable.

"We just love fixings things," she says. "Me personally, I'm really passionate about the planet.

"Outside in the real world it's mainly broken electrical items we fix but at Boomtown it's a bit different.

"We've had endless airbeds that have deflated, chairs that are broken, shoes and boots that have fallen apart, but its all good and nice to fix."

The strangest fixes so far, she says, have been bubble guns and a frog-shaped backpack.

Ms Blackburne-Tinker says the organisers were 'immediately on board' with the concept of an on-site repair shop

Lauren Blackburne-Tinker, the event's sustainability manager, says Boomtown hopes to be fully circular by 2026.

The Repairium is an opportunity to share skills between generations, equipping attendees with life skills that will be useful in the long term, she says.

"We've got this amazing, engaged, young audience and they're striving to make a difference.

"We've engaged them and we're educating them and, if anything, this is the perfect petri dish to try new things like the Repairium to make sure that the culture we embed this weekend is being pushed across the UK."

People who seek help with their broken items at the pop-up are known as "co-repairers", says Ms Seek

Ms Blackburne-Tinker brought her broken megaphone in to be fixed and Charles Cole, a volunteer from Winchester Repair Cafe, took on the challenge.

Within a matter of minutes, he spotted the problem and was able to get the megaphone back in working order - within an hour had used his expertise to also repair a trolley and several pairs of shoes.

Mr Cole says he has been repairing items his whole life

Help at the Repairium is not just practical, the volunteers say they have found there is an emotional element to mending beloved items.

"Lots of people have memories attached to items," says Ms Seek.

"Someone came in with a broken trolley saying 'my family's had this for years and I don't want to bring it back to mum broken'.

"So there's that feel-good factor that comes with helping people out."

She is confident the concept will take off at similar events across the country.

"There were some sceptics saying it would be really quiet and people wouldn't be bothered but we've definitely proved that wrong already," she says.

"I would love for repair cafes across the nation to get together, like we have in Hampshire, to create a repairium at their local festivals."