The festival also wants to add an extra night of big acts, run louder later and attract an older audience
16:58, 15 Jan 2026
Boardmasters organisers have detailed their plans for the future - from changes to noise levels to appealing to an older audience.
Those behind the popular festival, which will run from August 5 to 9 at Watergate Bay and Fistral Beach this year, gathered with locals at Boardmasters Bar in Newquay last night (Wednesday, January 14) where they discussed potential changes to their licensing agreement.
The festival’s new licence application was submitted on Monday (January 12) with a 28-day public consultation period now in place.
Organisers explained the application includes requests for two direct changes to noise levels for 2026 along with a request to allow the Thursday of the festival in 2027 the same noise levels as the other headline days.
They also said they hoped to encourage more people over the age of 24 to buy tickets.
One of the Boarmasters directors, Rob Spring, said: “Part of our strategy for Boardmasters is to increase our average age. We don’t want to say goodbye to those young people but like we saw on the Sunday of this year’s festival, we saw a better environment and energy on site by having multi generations coming together to experience music and culture.”
He said the introduction of wellness and arts elements in this year’s festival as well as family camping and a constant look to improving accessibility aim to help up age levels.
Of the changes requested in the latest licence application, event director Rick Latham told the meeting: “The only major changes to that existing licence that we’ve got is the ask about adding the Thursday on as the same as a Friday, Saturday, Sunday.”
He stressed that won’t mean the Thursday night of the festival is a “free for all party", insisting it will have “all the same controls and measures” in place to ensure it is compliant.
“Our second ask is that there is an increase in noise level before 11pm,” he added.
Rick explained: “At 11pm our headliner finishes their slot. Currently that noise level is set at 60DB. We have asked in our application to increase that to 65DB.”
He explained the human ear can “only notice a change in three decibels” stressing a change of five decibels would not be a dramatic change.
“The reason we are applying for that is because the weather and wind at Watergate Bay is really interchangeable,” he said, explaining an increase in decibels will give the event breathing room should it need to raise or lower volume levels as a result of the weather.
The third change the latest licence application has requested is to reduce noise levels gradually at the end of each night, as opposed to making them inaudible at 11pm.
Rick said under its current agreement, the main stage must become inaudible at 11pm when the headline acts finish. This, he said, impacts a number of things on site, including “movement", “behaviour” as well as the artist and customer experience.
He said: “What we are asking for in this premises licence application is that rather than that whole drop-off from full show level to inaudible is that it’s actually over the next couple of hours that it’s decreased to slightly lower levels.
“What we are aiming for is by 1am to have it at that inaudible level.”
During the meeting, one resident stressed their concern around noise lasting well beyond 1am if noise level requirements change beyond 11pm.
Senior operations manager Amy O'Malley said: "We are not necessarily asking for what happens at 11pm to happen at 1am.
"Currently we would be asked to go from 60DB to 45DB at 11pm. Where that is now a 15DB jump, we want to make that a 10DB jump so it is less obvious on site and we can make it a softer jump.”
Another resident questioned whether the addition of music on the Thursday night would alter arrival times beforehand. Organisers confirmed these times would not change.
The team stressed residents can offer feedback both within the current consultancy period but also live during the event in August via a live hotline should they have any issues.
You can submit any queries or concerns to community@boardmasters.com.
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