Boardmasters Festival Newquay 2027: Dates, Tickets and Tips

Boardmasters 2027 runs from Wednesday 4 August to Sunday 8 August 2027 at Watergate Bay near Newquay, with the surf and skate programme at Fistral Beach. Boardmasters sells its music weekend as a camping ticket rather than a day pass, and the 2027 entry tickets start at £233 (about €271, $315) on the official site. The last edition to take place was Boardmasters 2026, which ran from 5 to 9 August 2026 with Fatboy Slim, Kasabian and Lily Allen headlining. Every price, rule and timing below comes from the festival’s own 2026 information pages and its published 2027 ticket list.

Belgium is a serious music festival country and I had been to my share of them, but I had never been to one abroad until I went to Cornwall for three days of music at Boardmasters. That trip was my first festival in the UK, and what follows is the planning detail for 2027 alongside my own notes from the festival site, the glamping field and the shuttle bus.

Disclosure. My trip to Boardmasters was hosted by Visa as part of the Visa contactless challenge, and I paid by card only for the whole weekend. The opinions here are entirely my own.

What is Boardmasters Newquay?

Boardmasters is a five-day music, surf and skate festival on the north coast of Cornwall, split across two sites in and around Newquay. The festival pairs a ticketed music arena and campsite at Watergate Bay with a free surf and skate programme at Fistral Beach, which is what separates it from a standard UK music festival.

The music side fills Trebelsue Farm at Watergate Bay with stages, food traders, bars and 8 general admission campsites. The sport side takes over Fistral Beach with the Boardmasters Open surf contest, a skate ramp, a talks tent and a shopping village, and none of it needs a ticket.

Cornwall Council licenses the event for a daily capacity of 58,000 people, made up of 53,000 ticket holders plus roughly 5,000 staff and performers, according to the licence details reported by CornishStuff. Boardmasters’ 2026 licence application asked for no increase to that figure, no larger site and no change to its hours.

When is Boardmasters Festival?

Boardmasters 2027 takes place from Wednesday 4 August to Sunday 8 August 2027, with campers leaving on Monday 9 August. Boardmasters publishes those dates on its official ticketing site alongside the venue, Trebelsue Farm, Watergate Bay, Newquay TR8 4AN.

The festival lands in the first full week of August every year. The dates and headliners of the last two editions are set out below.

Arena and campsite hours ran to a fixed pattern in 2026 and are a reasonable guide for 2027. Gates and the campsite opened 10am to 9pm from Wednesday to Sunday. The arena opened at 5pm on Wednesday, 3pm on Thursday and 11am from Friday to Sunday, closing at 2am each night, and day ticket holders had last entry at 8pm with no re-entry.

You still get a printed booklet on site with the full line-up, the set times and a map of the stages and camping fields. The official Boardmasters app carries the same set times plus a searchable map and a friend finder, so download it before you lose signal.

What is the Boardmasters 2027 line-up?

The Boardmasters 2027 line-up had not been announced at the time of writing, and the official line-up page still shows the 2026 bill. Boardmasters releases its line-up in waves, with a first wave in late autumn and further waves through the winter and spring, so the first 2027 names should land before the end of 2026. Watch the official Boardmasters site rather than a resale listing, because the early tiers sell out once a wave drops.

The 2026 bill is the fairest guide to what the 2027 programme will look like. Fatboy Slim, Kasabian and Lily Allen headlined, with Lily Allen closing Saturday night and performing her album West End Girl in full. The Kooks and Loyle Carner sat near the top of the bill, and the second wave added more than 60 acts including Joy Crookes, Jacob Alon, Keo, Hot 8 Brass Band, Rose Gray and Lucy Spraggan.

The programme is spread across named venues rather than one big field. The Watergate Bay arena venues include the Main Stage for headline sets, Mordros for heritage acts and rising names, Unleashed for drum and bass, house and garage, The View for acoustic sets, Keg & Pasty for Cornish bands and comedians in a mocked-up 17th-century pub, Surf Club 81 for underground electronic music, and Banzai Bar for daytime sets. A silent disco ran on the Wednesday and Thursday nights in 2026.

Where is Boardmasters taking place?

Boardmasters takes place in Newquay in Cornwall, in the far south west of England, and the site is split between two locations. Watergate Bay holds the ticketed part and Fistral Beach holds the free part.

Watergate Bay is the main Boardmasters location, at Trebelsue Farm, TR8 4AN. It holds the campsites, the arena and its stages, the food and drink traders and the car parks, and it sits directly above the beach.

Fistral Beach, at Headland Road, TR7 1HY, is where the sport happens. The Boardmasters Open surf contest, the skate ramp, the Talks Tent, the Surf Deck, the beach bar and the shopping village all sit there, and the whole Fistral site is free to attend and open to everyone from Wednesday to Sunday. Watch out for the surf brand outlet stand, it is dangerous for your bank balance.

Cornwall rewards more than a festival weekend, and Newquay sits within an easy drive of the rest of the county. Our England travel guide covers the practical side of moving around the country if you want to build a longer trip around the festival.

How to get to Boardmasters and move between Watergate Bay and Fistral Beach?

Reach Boardmasters by coach, train, plane, car or taxi, then use the festival shuttle bus to move between Watergate Bay and Fistral Beach. The 5 routes described below cover getting to Newquay from abroad, by car, by train and by coach, plus the shuttle that links the two festival sites.

From abroad

Travellers coming from outside the UK have 2 sensible routes: fly into Cornwall Airport Newquay, or fly into a larger airport such as Bristol and continue by road. Cornwall Airport Newquay is minutes from the festival site and serves 21 destinations including London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Newcastle and Dublin, and a taxi from the terminal drops you straight at the festival.

There were no direct flights between Newquay and Brussels when I went, so my friend and I flew into Bristol and took a shuttle taxi. The drive from Bristol to Newquay takes about 2.5 hours without traffic.

Hiring a car at the airport works well if you want to add a road trip along the Cornish coast. Budget for the festival car park on top, because you have to pay to leave a car on site. Compare car hire in Cornwall at both airports before you book the flight.

By car or campervan

Driving to Boardmasters means booking an onsite parking pass in advance, and that pass started at £50 (about €58, $68) for the 2026 edition, with the 2027 pass listed at £52 (about €61, $70). Follow the AA and Boardmasters road signage rather than your sat nav, then follow the signs for Green Gate.

Traffic around Newquay gets heavy during the festival, so the organisers actively discourage driving and encourage car sharing. Parking is within walking distance of the festival site and the beach, and the shuttle buses cover the rest.

Pick-up and drop-off is signed from Green Gate and runs 24 hours, so anyone dropping you off does not need a parking pass. Campervans and other live-in vehicles need their own pitch, listed at £203 (about €236, $275) for 2027, and everyone sleeping in the vehicle still needs a camping ticket. Blue Badge holders get limited accessible parking at Watergate Bay, but there is no parking of any kind at Fistral.

By train

Newquay has its own station, served by Great Western Railway (GWR) from London Paddington, Bristol and Exeter with a change at Par. From Newquay station the festival shuttle takes you to the Watergate Bay site and drops you at Gate 5.

Newquay station is roughly a 10-minute drive from Watergate Bay. GWR sells railcards, Groupsave fares for groups of 3 to 9 and its GWR Rewards scheme, all of which cut the cost of a long journey from the north or the Midlands. For a trip that starts on the continent, Omio prices the trains and coaches across Europe in a single search.

Buses to Boardmasters with Big Green Coach

Big Green Coach is the official Boardmasters travel partner and runs coaches straight to the festival gates. Campers choose from more than 90 UK pick-up points for 2027, travelling out on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday and returning on Monday 9 August 2027.

A camping return coach seat is listed at £51 (about €59, $69) for 2027. Day ticket holders travel instead from 13 local day-return points, arriving before the music starts and leaving after the headline set, with seats starting at £20 (about €23, $27) in 2026.

The Watergate Bay and Fistral Beach Boardmasters shuttle bus

The festival shuttle is the quickest way between Newquay town and Watergate Bay, and a wristband covers unlimited trips. The 2026 wristband cost £17 (about €20, $23) for the whole festival, which is a change from the pay-per-trip system I used, when a single was £4 (about €4.70, $5.40) and a return was £6 (about €7, $8).

The shuttle runs a loop between 3 stops: the Watergate Bay music festival site, Newquay train station, and a stop in Newquay town for Fistral Beach. It ran 7am to 10pm on Wednesday and Thursday, 7am to 3am from Friday to Sunday, and 7am to 2pm on Monday in 2026.

The ride itself takes about 20 minutes without traffic, though we hit queues on three of the four trips we made. The shuttle drops you right at the campsite entrance on the Watergate Bay side, but it does not drop you at Fistral. It leaves you in Newquay town, about 1.3 km (0.8 mi) from the beach, which is a 15 to 20 minute walk.

That walk is deliberate, I think, and it spares the town some traffic while bringing trade to local businesses. The route from the drop-off point to Fistral runs through the main shopping street, past supermarkets, coffee bars and clothing shops.

How to get Boardmasters tickets?

Buy Boardmasters tickets from the official site, where the 2027 ticket list is already live with prices and payment plans on every ticket type. SEE Tickets is the official ticketing agent, and Tixel is the only authorised resale platform.

Boardmasters runs a tiered pricing system, which means tickets are cheapest when they first go on sale and climb as the festival gets closer. Signing up to the presale list is the practical way to catch the lowest tier, because presale buyers get exclusive access before the general sale opens. UK Festival Guides reported the 2027 presale opening on 13 August 2026 and the general sale on 14 August 2026, so 2027 tickets are already on their way up the tiers.

Payment plans cover all 2027 ticket types, so you can secure a ticket at the current price with a deposit and clear the balance later. Tickets are personalised: you confirm each name and email through your SEE Tickets account about six weeks before the festival, and the tickets become downloadable two weeks before the opening day. Bookings for under-18s need an emergency contact as well.

My friend and I had a VIP ticket when we went, which gave us a separate VIP area with its own bar and stage. That ticket also covers the VIP campsite, though we stayed in the glamping field instead.

Avoid unauthorised resale sites such as Viagogo, Twickets, TicketSwap and StubHub, along with social media listings. Those platforms do not reissue a barcode in the buyer’s name, so tickets bought that way can be seized at the gate with no refund. Accommodation, guestlist, teen and child tickets cannot be resold at all.

How much do the Boardmasters tickets cost?

Boardmasters 2027 entry tickets cost between £233 and £379 (about €271 to €441, $315 to $513), depending on which campsite you want. Every price below comes from the official 2027 booking page, includes booking fees, and includes a £20 (about €23, $27) litter bond that is refunded when you hand in a full bag of rubbish on site.

Accommodation and upgrades are sold as add-ons to a General Camping ticket, and everyone in the group still needs their own entry ticket. The 2027 add-on prices are listed below.

• Pre-Pitched Camping: a pre-pitched tent standing before you arrive, from £163 (about €190, $221).
• Boutique Camping: a bell tent in the Boutique camping village, from £881 (about €1,026, $1,192).
• Premium Boutique Camping: a tipi, yurt or Emperor tent in that same village, from £2,021 (about €2,353, $2,734).
• Main Arena VIP Area: a VIP area beside the Main Stage with its own bars and toilets, from £102 (about €119, $138).
• Salt & Spray: a shower block with flushing toilets and a mirrors-and-hairdryers zone in general camping, from £95 (about €111, $129).
• Campsite upgrade: a move from General Camping to VIP, Chilled or Family Camping, from £37 (about €43, $50).
• Onsite parking: a parking pass for Wednesday, Thursday or Friday arrival, from £52 (about €61, $70).
• Live-In vehicle pitch: a powered or non-powered pitch for a campervan, from £203 (about €236, $275).

Age rules at Boardmasters

Boardmasters sets its age rules by ticket type, and the thresholds sit at 6, 13, 16 and 18. The 4 bands below come from the festival’s own terms and conditions.

1. Children aged 0 to 5 do not need a ticket at all.
2. Children aged 6 to 12 need a Child Ticket, linked to an adult ticket at the point of purchase.
3. Teenagers aged 13 to 15 need a Teen Ticket, also linked to an adult ticket.
4. Anyone aged 16 and over needs a full-price admission ticket.

Anyone aged 15 or under has to be accompanied by an adult of 21 or over, and each adult can bring a maximum of 2 children. You have to be 18 or over to buy alcohol, and Boardmasters runs a Challenge 25 policy, so bring a passport, a photo driving licence or a PASS-approved proof of age card. Children and teenagers do not need their own ID as long as they arrive with an adult who has theirs.

Does Boardmasters have wifi?

Boardmasters has free Wi-Fi at a handful of hubs rather than across the whole site, so do not plan on being connected everywhere. The 2026 hubs were at Keg & Pasty and Cliff Top, Cribbar, the Dome Food Area and the Hospitality Lounge.

Mobile reception varies by network and by where you stand on the site. Download your set times, your site map and your tickets before you arrive, and bring a power bank. Vodafone is the festival’s connectivity partner and sells eSIMs and charging on site, which helps if you are visiting from outside the UK.

A few things to know before you go

Five rules catch people out at Boardmasters, and each one is worth checking before you pack. The rules are listed below in the order they bite, starting at the campsite gate.

1. Alcohol allowances are strict. Weekend campers aged 18 or over can bring their own drink into the campsite on first entry only: up to 24 cans of beer, lager, cider or alcopops at 7% alcohol by volume (ABV) or less, or up to 2 bottles of wine decanted out of glass at 12% ABV or less. Spirits, glass and high-strength cans are refused, and day ticket holders cannot bring any alcohol at all.
2. Glass is banned everywhere on site, perfume bottles included. Bladed items, gas canisters, disposable barbecues, gazebos, drones and hammers are refused too, though mallets for tent pegs are fine.
3. Arena rules add a second layer of restrictions. Bags over A4 size, selfie sticks, golf umbrellas, sound systems and any food or drink carried in from the campsite are all turned away, though an empty reusable bottle of 500ml or less gets through.
4. Day tickets do not include campsite access and do not allow re-entry. A 3 Day Non Camping ticket does allow re-entry, as long as you come back before 8pm.
5. Fistral Beach is free and not ticketed. You need nothing beyond turning up to watch the surf contest, the skate sessions or the Talks Tent, and the Fistral businesses stay open through the week.

Searching is a condition of entry, and queues build on Wednesday and Thursday before the gates open. Bring any medication in a clear sealed container or its original packaging, with a copy of the prescription if you can, because loose pills get removed at the gate.

Boardmasters camping and glamping

Boardmasters camping splits into general admission fields, quieter Chilled and Family fields, a VIP campsite and a Boutique glamping village. The general campsites include drinking water, toilets, showers at extra cost, Cribbar Village, 24-hour campsite managers and campsite hubs for information.

We stayed at the Cloud 9 glamping site. I will review that first, then tell you what I noticed about the regular camping fields, because we walked through them every day to reach the arena and the shuttle buses.

Glamping at Boardmasters review

The glamping field sat inside the main campsite behind its own security gate, with a campsite manager on hand for questions. It felt like a different festival from the fields either side of it.

The 6 facilities on the glamping site are listed below.

• lodging reserved in advance rather than first come, first served
• toilets and sinks with proper plumbing
• lounge area with makeup tables and couches
• showers on the glamping field
• WiFi at no extra cost
• food bus serving the field

Glamping ticket holders got a VIP parking pass on top of that. Accommodation ran from pre-erected tents and bell tents to tipis, yurts, shire huts and domes, each with its own in-tent kit.

We had a two-person bell tent. The contents of that tent, on top of the site facilities, are listed below.

• a canvas door with an entrance doormat
• 2 single beds with cotton linen, duvets and pillows
• a ground sheet and flooring
• 2 beach chairs
• a small table and a bedside table
• a small vanity mirror
• a battery operated hanging room light
• a battery operated lantern
• 2 bath towels

That bell tent was a long way from anything I had slept in at a festival before. I had tried glamping once before this trip and it was different again, but I loved having a bit of comfort at a festival. I stayed in regular tents at festivals for years, and chocolate knows I have got too old for that. Age is a valid excuse, right? :D

When we arrived we threw our suitcase inside and went straight to Fistral Beach. The free WiFi mattered more than I expected, because my data was not always working the way it should have. And the toilets. Well, I would book the glamping for the toilets alone.

Boardmasters has since renamed and expanded this side of the campsite. Pre-Pitched Camping now covers tents from 1 to 8 people, Boutique Camping covers bell tents, and Premium Boutique Camping covers tipis, yurts and Emperor tents. Both Boutique tiers share a village with hot showers, flushing toilets, a chill lounge, a bar, food traders, 24-hour reception and a spa with saunas, hot tubs and cold plunge pools.

Glamping vs VIP camping at Boardmasters

VIP camping and glamping differed on one point when I visited: at the VIP campsite you pitched your own tent, and at the glamping site the tent was already up. Everything else about the two fields felt comparable.

All VIP ticket holders could use the VIP campsite, and you could hold a VIP festival ticket and still book glamping on top. That is still roughly how it works, with VIP Camping listed at £90 (about €105, $122) more than a standard five-day camping ticket in 2026. VIP Camping now covers a reserved pitch, flexible arrival from Wednesday, access to the Hospitality Lounge in the arena, complimentary Salt & Spray access, flushing toilets and showers, a dedicated bar and food traders, and 24-hour reception.

My friend and I were hosted by Visa at the festival, since I was there on assignment for them, and we had both the VIP festival experience and a spot on the glamping site.

Regular camping at Boardmasters

Regular camping at Boardmasters needs no reservation, because pitches are first come, first served. Arriving early is the way to choose your spot, and the 8 general admission fields fill from Wednesday.

Ordering a tent package is a good middle option. Someone sets up a tent for you before you arrive, including a sleeping bag and a therm rest, which is now sold as Pre-Pitched Camping.

The regular campsites have plenty of toilets, though the ones I saw were all Toi Tois. Showers cost £3 (about €3.50, $4) in the year I visited and drew long queues every time we walked past, so prepare yourself mentally for either the queue or a weekend without one. Boardmasters now sells the Salt & Spray add-on for general campers who want hot showers, flushing toilets and a mirrors zone without moving campsite.

Cribbar Village sits inside the campsite with rides, food stands and its own bars, and it is not the usual festival chip run. Boardmasters puts real weight behind Cornish food, and you can eat pasties and other Cornish dishes at the Cornish market. DJs play there at night, so bear that in mind when you pick a pitch.

Drinking water comes free from taps across the campsite, and free water points are marked on the app map. Bring a reusable bottle and top it up rather than buying water all weekend.

We only walked through the regular campsite on our way to the shuttle bus and the arena, and I was glad we were not staying there. Festival days are loud and busy enough, so having somewhere quiet to retreat to made the weekend easier.

Campsites near Boardmasters

Permanent campsites near Watergate Bay give you an alternative if you want quiet and proper facilities rather than a festival field. Privately owned sites run year-round within a short drive of Watergate Bay, with their own showers and marked pitches, and they take bookings independently of the festival. Whole flats and houses on Vrbo are the option for anyone who would rather skip a tent altogether.

Camping is not allowed on Fistral Beach itself, so surfers who want to stay near the contest need a site in or around Newquay town. From there the festival shuttle gets you to Watergate Bay, and Fistral is walkable.

Chilled Camping is the on-site answer to the same problem. It is for ages 16 and over, sits further from the arena, keeps noise down after 11pm, caps groups at 6 people, and adds a chill lounge and morning yoga. The Family Chilled field sits inside it, with shaded hangout areas and quiet hours from 11pm, and it is for families only.

The Boardmasters Open surf competition and skate ramp

The Boardmasters Open at Fistral Beach is the largest surf competition in the UK, and watching it costs nothing. It runs all day from Wednesday to Sunday, with timings that shift according to the swell and the tide.

The 2026 contest ran as a YETI Pro at Qualifying Series (QS) 4000 level for men and women, plus a YETI Longboard Pro at Longboard Qualifying Series (LQS) 1000 level. That QS 4,000 status puts the Open among the top 3 QS events in Europe and makes it the highest-qualifying QS event in the UK, so British surfers can build a world ranking at home on the way to the LA 2028 Olympics.

The skate ramp sits alongside it and runs men’s, women’s and junior competitions from Wednesday to Sunday, plus workshops for children. Watch the surf from a purpose-built viewing deck, browse the traders, sit in on a talk at the Talks Tent between noon and 4pm, or stay for the Surf Deck in the evening.

Two water-safety rules matter at Fistral and Watergate Bay. Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) lifeguards patrol daily from 10am to 6pm, so swim between the red and yellow flags. Tides on the north Cornish coast move fast and pull hard, so check the conditions, never swim alone or in the dark, and never swim after drinking.

Food and drink at Boardmasters

Food at Boardmasters spreads across the arena and the campsite, and Cornish producers get real space rather than a token stall. The Dome Food Area, Cribbar Village in the campsite and the Keg & Pasty pub cover most of what you need, and the Cornish market is where the local dishes are.

Prices span the usual festival range, so you can eat cheaply or spend properly depending on the stall. Boardmasters runs cashless, so every bar, food trader and shop takes card and contactless only, including Apple Pay and Google Pay, and there are no cash machines on site.

Free water points sit across both the arena and the campsite and are marked on the app map. Bring an empty reusable bottle of 500ml or less, because that is the only container the arena lets through, and no food or drink can be carried from the campsite into the arena.

What to bring to Boardmasters?

Bring warm clothes, rainproof shoes, a contactless card and a charged power bank to Boardmasters, on top of your camping gear. The 4 items are listed below in the order I would pack them.

1. Warm clothes. Summer festivals suggest tank tops and sunglasses, but this is Cornwall, and Cornwall is not known for its heat. Daily temperatures rarely went above 16°C (61°F) while we were there, so alongside comfortable trousers and t-shirts I brought walking socks that kept my feet cool when it was warm and warm when it cooled down, a fleece hoodie, a fleece vest and a wind-resistant rain coat.
2. Rainproof shoes. Because: England :D I took a pair of old trainers that could handle rain and mud. The campsites are farmland and the arena is a big patch of grass, so the ground is damp morning and evening even when it has not rained, and it did rain. You are on your feet most of the day, so proper shoes save your back and knees from all that dancing.
3. Contactless card. Boardmasters is a cashless festival, so a card is the only way to pay for anything on site. For those of us coming from outside the UK that meant no currency exchange, and for everyone it meant no coins to carry and no notes stuck together with beer.
4. Charged power bank and a reusable water bottle. Signal is patchy, the free Wi-Fi only reaches a few hubs, and your phone holds your ticket, your set times and your map. A 500ml or smaller bottle gets you through the arena gate and fills for free at the water points.

Wrap up: my Boardmasters experience

Boardmasters worked for me because it stayed relaxed, and that is the thing I would tell anyone weighing it up. My trip was my eighth in as many weeks, so I went in worried about how tired I would be by the evening sets. I had a great time anyway.

Not worrying about cash or camping gear helped, and so did sleeping in a proper bed every night. Boardmasters has a good feel to it beyond those comforts. The main arena never felt crowded, everyone was calm, and there were plenty of picnic tables and quiet corners to sit down and eat something.

I sound boring now, do I not? :D What I mean is that it is a relaxed festival where you can jump into the crowd and party, which we did, or step back and watch without people running into you, which we also did.

I had expected far more visibly drunk people and was surprised at how normal most of the crowd stayed as the day turned into night. Boardmasters limits how much alcohol you can carry onto the campsite and you have to be 18 to buy it on site, and I think both rules show in the atmosphere. I do not drink, and my friend and I mostly went for tea and coffee, so we did not really test the bar prices. When my friend wanted to buy cigarettes at the festival, though, she had to show her international passport. Her Belgian ID was not enough, and she is well over 18 :-D

The crowd does shift depending on where you stand, which I had read beforehand and found to be true. The audience skewed older at the Surfers Village and at stages like Keg and Pasty and the VIP stage, while the party tents held more teenagers. We were not the youngest people there, and definitely not the oldest.

The location is the part that is hard to beat. The Cornish coast is genuinely lovely, there are several viewpoints right on the festival site, and I would happily go back and add a road trip to the trip.

Boardmasters FAQ

Six questions come up again and again about Boardmasters, and short answers to each are below.

When is Boardmasters 2027?

Boardmasters 2027 runs from Wednesday 4 August to Sunday 8 August 2027 at Watergate Bay, with campers leaving on Monday 9 August.

How much are Boardmasters 2027 tickets?

Boardmasters 2027 entry tickets start at £233 (about €271, $315) for 3 Day Non Camping and £259 (about €301, $350) for General Camping, rising to £379 (about €441, $513) for VIP Camping. All camping prices include a refundable £20 (about €23, $27) litter bond.

Does Boardmasters sell day tickets?

Boardmasters sells a 3 Day Non Camping ticket that covers Friday, Saturday and Sunday in the Main Arena, with re-entry allowed before 8pm and no campsite access. Single day tickets have been sold in past years, so check the official site once the 2027 line-up lands.

How do you get from Watergate Bay to Fistral Beach?

Take the festival shuttle bus, which loops between the Watergate Bay site, Newquay train station and a stop in Newquay town. From that town stop, Fistral Beach is about 1.3 km (0.8 mi) away, a 15 to 20 minute walk.

Can under-16s go to Boardmasters?

Under-16s can go to Boardmasters with an adult aged 21 or over, and each adult can bring a maximum of 2 children. Children aged 0 to 5 go free, 6 to 12 year olds need a Child Ticket, and 13 to 15 year olds need a Teen Ticket.

Is the Boardmasters surf competition free?

The Boardmasters Open is free to attend, along with the skate ramp, the Talks Tent and the shopping village at Fistral Beach. All of it is open to everyone from Wednesday to Sunday with no ticket required.

For the current line-up waves, ticket tiers and site rules, check the Boardmasters Festival Newquay website and its travel information page before you book anything.

WonderfulWanderings Pro Tips

The 5 tips below come from my own 4 days at Boardmasters and from re-checking the festival’s current rules and prices against its own pages.

1. Buy the shuttle wristband and still leave slack for traffic. One wristband covered unlimited trips at £17 (about €20, $23) for the whole 2026 festival, against the £4 single and £6 return I paid, and the Watergate Bay to Newquay hop takes 20 minutes when the road is clear. It was not clear on 3 of the 4 rides we took.
2. Pack for 16°C and wet grass, in August. The daily high rarely went above 16°C (61°F) while we were there, and the campsites sit on farmland where the ground is damp morning and evening even on days it has not rained. Walking socks, a fleece hoodie, a fleece vest and old trainers earned their place in my bag ahead of anything summery.
3. Sort the shower question before you arrive rather than after. Queues formed at the general campsite showers every time we walked past, and they cost £3 in the year I went. The Salt & Spray add-on now buys hot showers and flushing toilets without moving campsite, and the glamping village includes them.
4. Download everything onto the phone before you get there. Free Wi-Fi reaches a handful of hubs rather than the whole site and mobile reception varies by network and by where you stand, so save your ticket, your set times and the map in advance and carry a power bank.
5. Go to Fistral even without a festival ticket. The Boardmasters Open, the skate ramp, the Talks Tent and the shopping village run Wednesday to Sunday, free and unticketed, so the surf half of Boardmasters costs nothing.

About the author. This guide is written and maintained by the Wonderful Wanderings editorial team. Wonderful Wanderings was founded in 2012 by Sofie Couwenbergh, and the first-hand notes in this post come from her trip to Boardmasters at Watergate Bay and Fistral Beach in Newquay, Cornwall, where she stayed in the Cloud 9 glamping field on a VIP festival ticket. The team covers UK festivals for independent travellers, including the tickets, camping and glamping options, coach and shuttle travel and packing choices worth sorting in advance, and updates this page when Boardmasters changes its dates, prices and rules.