A woman has slammed the organisers of the Broadmasters Festival for putting on a “s*** show”, after turning up to find the £1,200 luxury tent she booked did not exist.
Julie Oliver and her teenage children travelled from Guernsey to attend the annual music festival, that takes place in and around the town of Newquay, Cornwall.
She decided to book a luxury bell tent, which was supposed to have beds with “sumptuous duvets and Egyptian cotton sheets”.
However, when she arrived she was told there was no place for her to stay due to a problem with overbooking.
Eventually after a twelve hour wait she was offered an ordinary tent as an alternative to her original choice.
The debacle has left her “absolutely furious” and determined to get a “full refund and compensation” from the festival organisers.
“It’s diabolical and unacceptable,” she told CornwallLive.
“Apparently we were assigned tent number 41 but they gave that to somebody else so we haven’t had anything.”
Julie and her kids, who were attending their first festival, arrived on site at 11.30am on Thursday last week, only to be met by scenes of chaos and disorganisation.
While staff apologised and promised to resolve the issue as soon as possible, the family went off to enjoy some of the acts, returning at 6.30pm.
Unfortunately, there was still no accommodation for them and they ended up having to wait until 11.30pm before being given an ordinary tent with three beds.
“When they finally put this tent together it was clean but most of the bedding was damp and there was just teenagers running around putting up the beds and nobody seems to know what’s going on,” she said.
“Last night there were around 50 people waiting and complaining without tents.
“It’s a s*** show, it really is and it’s just such a shame because it could be so lovely.
“It’s just absolutely pants. I’m just horrified at how disorganised it is.”
She added that a hen party turned up to find their bed sheets were covered in mould and urine.
Broadmasters apologised for the chaos, saying they were aware that a “small number of customers” had been affected and they were working as quickly as possible to resolve the issues.
A spokesperson said: “Customers who have been impacted will, or have already been, offered compensation.
“We’ll conduct a full review after the show to understand what has happened on this occasion, and will of course make any necessary changes ahead of next year.”
The festival started on Thursday and runs until Sunday.
Performers include Liam Gallagher and Florence And The Machine, as well as Little Simz and Cypress Hill.
The event is a combination of live music and surfing/skateboarding competitions in and around the town of Newquay.
The festival was founded in 1981 originally as a surfing competition, but in 2005 it was expanded to include music acts, taking place at Watergate Bay.
The current capacity is roughly 53,000 and the festival is just one of many taking place in the UK over the summer.
