Sam Fender, Foals and Gorillaz were just some of the acts who performed in front of over 50,000 festival-starved revellers as Boardmasters made its long-awaited return for the first time since 2018. NME said that the 2021 event “oozes togetherness and inspires a genuine camaraderie amongst the legions of music fans who walk in as strangers but leave as friends” while Earmilk wrote that it was “the UK’s blissful beach haven for music”.

James Blunt headlined in 2005 when it was named the ‘Nokia Unleashed Music Festival’. It was the start of something special and few would have imagined just how big it would get, with Boardmasters now established as one of the UK’s biggest festivals, attracting the likes of Ed Sheeran (2012), Snoop Dog (2014), Fatboy Slim (2011), Calvin Harris, Cypress Hill (both 2009), Faithless (2015), Chase & Status, Kaiser Chiefs (both 2016) and so many more.

Long before the influx of world music stars, though, Boardmasters was already earning worldwide acclaim as a surfing hotspot on the World Surfing League circuit, with super stars like Kelly Slater, Hodei Collazo and Billy Stairmand arriving to compete at Fistral. It was a defining time for Boardmasters as it quickly established itself as a key venue on the world surfing calendar.

Including Tom Carroll (1983), Martin Potter (1984 & 1987), Tom Curren (1985, 1986 and 1991), Mark ‘Occy’ Occhilupo (1992), Layne Beachley (1999), Renato Galvao (2004), Marc Lacomare (2010) and Hodei Collazo (2015) among many others. There are other household names who’ve competed at Boardmasters only to miss out on glory, perhaps the most well-known being 12-time world champion Kelly Slater. The American surfing legend competed over several years at Fistral but this was one competition on the WSL tour that eluded him.

Who knows, the next Kelly Slater might be tearing it up at this year’s Boardmasters, but whatever the outcome it promises to be an awesome few days of action, from the waves to the fields of Watergate Bay.