Boardmasters Festival: Conditions 'terrible' for people leaving

People have been leaving the festival on Monday

People at a music festival in Cornwall said conditions were "terrible" for people leaving on the final night.

Boardmasters, held near Newquay, closed on Sunday in the wind and rain with a show from Florence + the Machine.

Louise Edwards from Plymouth said traffic was at a standstill on the coast road between Newquay and the festival site.

Boardmasters declined to respond to questions from the BBC but acknowledged the congestion in a social media post.

Ms Edwards said: "Cars were queued from the traffic lights on the main road from Newquay all the way up to the pick up point.

"People who were waiting to get picked up were sat near the bus stops in the wind and rain with all of their stuff and would probably be waiting a good couple of hours before getting collected as it was pretty much standstill there.

"Also no buses could get through so obviously most people decided to walk. Conditions were terrible, no lighting on the grass verges we had to walk on and due to rain.

"It was marshy so everyone was slipping, there were no real provisions for adverse weather."

Pictures from Sunday night showed people walking down the middle of the road between cars stuck in traffic.

'Gridlocked'

Alex Osborne, a BBC employee who was at the festival, said she walked three miles (4.8km) back to Newquay at about 23:30 BST on Sunday as she was told the shuttle bus would take at least one hour and 40 minutes to arrive at the festival site.

Ms Osborne said: "Organisation was pretty good apart from the exiting of the festival site at the end.

"We decided to walk the three miles back to Newquay with loads of others, traffic was gridlocked.

"The shuttle buses were stuck amongst all of the traffic."

In its post on Facebook shortly after midnight on Sunday, Boardmasters wrote: "Our pick up point is busy but traffic is moving.

"We do ask that that those collecting festivalgoers this evening use the pick up area rather than trying to pick up in Porth.

"This is causing congestion on the road up to the festival."

The five-day festival has now ended and Great Western Railway (GWR) said extra trains were running from Newquay to Plymouth and London.