Revellers at Boardmasters Festival must have wondered if they were seeing straight when a ‘mini tornado’ blasted tents high into the sky.
The freak weather event saw camping equipment unceremoniously blown off the ground and hundreds of metres away – with one even appearing to hit a music fan in the face.
Steven Peddle, 32, filmed the staggering gust at around midday on Saturday, as tents were whipped up by wind in a small circle not far from the main stage.
People watched on in shock as the tents circled in the air, in the most unlikely of settings, on an otherwise calm and hot day.
In the footage, the cameraman can be heard saying ‘holy sh**’, before adding ‘a guy just got hit by a tent… that is savage.’
Steven, a power line builder from Devon, explained: ‘I am down here with a friend that is performing at the festival and saw it starting, with not many people around noticing.
‘There was no wind at all, just very hot, and then you could see it building up and spiralling with dust.
‘Then it started ripping tents up and headed toward the main arena.’
The weather event comes as a prolonged heatwave makes way for thunderstorms and warnings of flash flooding in the UK.
It is unclear if anyone was seriously hurt in the incident, which seems more reminiscent of scenes from the American midwest than a Cornwall festival.
Stephen continued: ‘I’m not sure if there was any damage to the main tents but I saw at least 10 tents ripped up and sent over 100 metres in the air.
‘They were being thrown across the camp site, with one coming down and wrapping around the guy walking.’
There were also problems with travel home from the event, with roads around Newquay and the local train station said to be extremely busy.
The festival combines live music, surfing and skateboarding and was headlined by George Ezra, Disclosure and Kings of Leon this year.
Boardmasters said it had no further information when contacted by Metro.co.uk for comment.
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