Arrests at Festivals
Freedom of Information (FOI) Act request ref: 01/FOI/25/008012/D
Version Date: 16/09/2025
The Performance & Analysis Department have provided the following information.
Data Processing:
Crimes recorded on crime information system – NICHE
Qliksense Report: Detainee Management
Arrest Data tab
Filtered by arrest date: January 1st 2020 to December 31st 2024
Beat:
Newquay Fistral/Pentire
Newquay/St Columb Minor
St Minver Highlands
Talaton
St Minver Lowlands
Then
Boardmasters
Beat:
Newquay Fistral/Pentire
Newquay/St Columb Minor
Arrest Dates: 10-14 August 2022, 9-13 Ausgust 2023 and 7-11 August 2024
And: 7-9 and 15-17 August 2022. 6-8 and 14-16 August 2023 and 4-6 and 12-14 August 2024
Beautiful Days
Beat: Talaton
Arrest Dates: 19-21 August 2022, 18-20 August 2023 and 16-18 August 2024
And: 16-18 and 21-24 August 2022, 15-17 and 21-23 August 2023 and 13-15 and 19-21 August 2024
Rock Oyster
Beat:
St Minver Highlands
St Minver Lowlands
Arrest Dates: 29-31 July 2022, 27-30 Juy 2023 and 25-28 July 2024
And: 26-28 July 2022, 1-3 August 2022, 24-26 July 2023, 31 July to 2 August 2023, 22-24 July 2024 and 29-30 July 2024
Data Limitations:
Arrest address is not available in the Detainee Management report.
Data is based on the beat in which the festival(s) occurred.
Whilst data is limited to the beat (where the festival occurred) the arrest may not be in relation to the festival at all.
It is important to note, an individual may be arrested for more than one offence. In which case, there is one custody reference with more than one offence attached where applicable.
The number of arrests made at the following music festivals in 2022, 2023, and 2024, broken down by arresting offence:
Boardmasters Festival
Beautiful Days Festival
Rock Oyster Festival
Where possible, please use Home Office offence classifications for consistency across police forces.
For each year (2022, 2023, and 2024), please provide data for the duration of the festival, including any days before/after if arrests are recorded in connection with the event.
Please provide this information in Excel or CSV format, listing the festival name, year, and arresting offence.
If providing data for all years exceeds the cost/time limit, please prioritise the most recent data (e.g., just 2023 and 2024).
Boardmasters
| Year | Arrests |
| 2022 | 13 |
| 2023 | 20 |
| 2024 | 28 |
| Total | 61 |
There were an additional 50 arrests in the 3 days leading up to and the 3 days after the festival within the same beat codes. These have been reviewed but it is not clear whether they are in connection with the festival so have not been included in the figures or table below.
The following table shows the number and type of offences.
It is important to note that a single arrest may have more than one offence attached, so the number of arrests may differ from the number of offences.
| Arrest Offence | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | Total |
| Assault / ill-treat / neglect / abandon a child / young person to cause unnecessary suffering / injury (recordable) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Assault a female 13 and over by penetration with part of body / a thing - SOA 2003 (recordable) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Assault a person thereby occasioning them actual bodily harm (recordable) | 0 | 4 | 1 | 5 |
| Assault by beating (recordable) | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| Assault by beating of an emergency worker (recordable) | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Breach a non-molestation order - Family Law Act 1996 (recordable) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Breach of a Domestic Violence Protection Notice (DVPN) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| BREACH OF PRE-CHARGE BAIL | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Burglary dwelling - with intent to steal (recordable) | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Common assault (recordable) | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Common assault of an emergency worker (recordable) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Criminal damage to property valued under £5000 (recordable) | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Drive a motor vehicle otherwise than in accordance with a licence - endorsable offence | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Drive motor vehicle when alcohol level above limit (recordable) | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| Drive motor vehicle with a proportion of a specified controlled drug above the specified limit (recordable) | 2 | 3 | 3 | 8 |
| Drunk in charge of a child under the age of seven years (recordable) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Exposure - SOA 2003 (recordable) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Intentional strangulation (recordable) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Make off without making payment (recordable) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Possess a controlled drug of Class A - Cocaine (recordable) | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| Possess a controlled drug of Class A - Heroin (recordable) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Possess a controlled drug of Class A - Other (recordable) | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Possess a controlled drug of Class B - Amphetamine (recordable) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Possess a controlled drug of Class B - Cannabis / Cannabis Resin (recordable) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Possess knife blade / sharp pointed article in a public place - Criminal Justice Act 1988 (recordable) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Possess with intent to supply a controlled drug of Class A - Cocaine (recordable) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Possess with intent to supply a controlled drug of Class A - Other (recordable) | 3 | 4 | 0 | 7 |
| Possess with intent to supply a controlled drug of Class C - Anabolic Steroids (recordable) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Racially / religiously aggravated fear / provocation of violence by words / writing (recordable) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Rape a woman 16 years of age or over - SOA 2003 (recordable) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Send communication threatening death or serious harm (recordable) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Sexual assault on a female (recordable) | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Theft from a shop (recordable) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Theft from the person of another (recordable) | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| Threat to damage / destroy property (recordable) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Use a motor vehicle on a road / public place without third party insurance | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Use threatening / abusive words / behaviour likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress (recordable) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| WARRANT | 0 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| Wound / inflict grievous bodily harm without intent (recordable) | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Total | 13 | 34 | 36 | 83 |
Beautiful Days
| Year | Arrests |
| 2022 | 0 |
| 2023 | 2 |
| 2024 | 0 |
| Total | 2 |
Additional arrests have been included for Beautiful Days.
The following table shows the number and type of offences.
| Arrest Offence | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | Total |
| Criminal damage to property valued under £5000 (recordable) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Offender 18 or over engage in non penetrative sexual activity with girl 13 to 15 - SOA 2003 (recordable) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Total | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
Rock Oyster
| Year | Arrests |
| 2022 | 0 |
| 2023 | 1 |
| 2024 | 0 |
| Total | 1 |
Please note there were no arrests found in the 3 days leading up to and after the festivals of 2022, 2023 and 2024, in the beat codes comprising the Rock Oyster festival.
The following table shows the number and type of offences.
| Arrest Offence | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | Total |
| Drive whilst unfit through drink (recordable) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Total | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |