Newquay’s Beyond Boardmasters campaign gets a mixed verdict

Ask ten business owners in Newquay how Boardmasters went this year and you would get ten different answers. Some had the best trading week of their summer. Others watched their regular customers stay away and their tills fall quiet once the sun went down. Newquay BID has now put both pictures side by side, and it says the mixed result is exactly why its new Beyond Boardmasters campaign needs years, not weeks, to work.

A campaign four years in the making

Newquay BID has spent the past four years trying to change what happens to the town during Boardmasters week. The festival pulls in more than 60,000 people, but for a long time that huge number has not translated neatly into extra trade on the high street. Some business owners feel the event does the opposite, putting off the families and regular customers who would normally be filling cafes, shops and restaurants.

Traffic worries, road closures and a sense that Newquay was somewhere to avoid during the week all fed into that. So the BID started working with Boardmasters on ways to link the festival site to the town itself, from discounted shuttle buses to business discounts and activity at Fistral, where the event began.

The businesses that had two different Boardmasters

The BID’s business survey paints a genuinely split picture. Several businesses reported trade up by more than 20% over the week, with others somewhere in the 10 to 20% bracket. But a similar spread ran the other way too, with some reporting falls of more than 20%.

The variation depended on sector, location and time of day, and the survey turned up an important distinction. More people on the street did not always mean more people spending. Some businesses saw considerably higher footfall without the sales to match it.

Evening trade still the weak spot

The clearest pattern in the feedback was what happened after dark. Several hospitality businesses said Newquay felt busy in the daytime but went quiet later in the afternoon and evening, with activity bunching around the daytime events and the main festival site rather than spreading into the town’s bars and restaurants at night.

Not every business had that experience. Some reported strong evening trade and a good response from families. But the night-time economy is the area Newquay BID says it wants to focus on next, creating reasons for people to stay in town for longer after dark.

Families coming back, and the roads finally working

There were clearer wins elsewhere. A number of businesses reported more families and day visitors in Newquay this year, which matters to a campaign built around convincing people the town is not just somewhere to avoid during festival week.

Traffic management drew some of the strongest praise in the whole survey. Respondents described this year’s arrangements as the best they had experienced, with comments calling the flow “the best year yet” and one describing “zero traffic issues for guests and team.” One business simply wrote: “Traffic was great.”

It was not trouble-free for everyone. Some businesses still had issues with road closures, deliveries, staff access and routes to areas outside the town centre, and the BID says parking and shuttle bus arrangements are areas it wants to look at again.

Bringing Boardmasters into the town centre

Part of the campaign was about giving people a reason to head into Newquay itself rather than staying on the festival site. Activity around Killacourt, delivered with Newquay Town Council, was one of the better-received elements, with businesses pointing to the atmosphere, the family presence and the sense that the town was properly part of the event. One respondent said the events on Killacourt “brought people to town” and created a “great atmosphere throughout the town.”

Suggestions for next year included spreading activity further around the town, adding more family events, and building more to do in the evenings.

Mark Warren: “We have to recognise both sides of the feedback”

Mark Warren, Newquay BID Manager, said the feedback needed to be reported honestly rather than smoothed over.

“The feedback is very mixed, and I think it is important that we are completely honest about that,” he said. “Some businesses had a fantastic Boardmasters and saw significant increases in trade. Some reported growth of more than 20%, and there are businesses that will quite rightly say it was an excellent week for them.”

“But equally, some businesses were significantly impacted, with some reporting reductions of more than 20%. The night-time economy in particular appears to have been affected for a number of businesses. We cannot ignore that feedback.”

Mark pointed to the more encouraging signs too, the extra families, the improved traffic, and the stronger sense that Newquay itself was part of the wider event. “That is what this campaign is about,” he said.

A five-year project, not a one-week fix

Newquay Town Council backed the same message. Dan Watkin, its Director of Operations, said the town had shown its ability “to welcome a broad range of audiences” and was now “firmly established as more than a seasonal destination.”

Mark was blunt about the scale of the task ahead. “You cannot change a perception that has developed over many years with one campaign over one week,” he said. “This is the beginning of something that we want to build year on year. We have work to do. We need to look at the night-time economy, how we spread activity around the town, how we encourage people to spend more time here and how we make sure more businesses can benefit.”

Businesses also raised a longer list of concerns for the BID to work through: parking, transport, temporary traders, litter, public toilets and road closures among them. None of it is resolved yet. As Mark put it, “there isn’t one single Boardmasters experience for businesses, and that is why we need to keep working together.”

📷Sunday at Fistral during Boardmasters. Credit: Adam Lievesley