Beach Break Live

Held on a gorgeous beach with great music and entertainment (including the fancy dress finale), join 10000 student revellers to celebrate the end of exams and the start of summer. The festival has now outgrown its residency in Polzeath and upped sticks to a surfing paradise in North Cornwall, meaning that this year there’ll be a bigger beach, more surfing folk and (probably) more sunshine. Obviously don’t hold us to that though.

The underlying student sentiment means this bash is super cheap, especially snipped for the lazy, academically influenced amongst us: £84 for the entire weekend ticket is a steal. And it doesn’t stop there. The reasonable pricing structures are also echoed at the bar with a range of booze and munch, often locally sourced, suited to the student budget.

St. Albans lads Friendly Fires headline alongside Mercury winning Dizzee Rascal, The Zutons, Mystery Jets and Ladyhawke. The Noisettes’ storming comeback earns them a high support slot. Esser, Dan Black, Red Light Company and Ebony Bones firmly represent the vogue-ish pop rave trend. But The Whip and Radioactive Man bring a certain vintage sheen to proceedings, proving that students aren’t the uncultured vultures society tends to label them as.

So mud isn’t an issue (annoyingly abundant grains of grating sand might be) but the draw is the different stages and areas – 5 in total – which is for such a teeny capacity is impressive. If you’re disillusioned with vacuous main stage action then float to The Forest of Kernow (otherwise known as the Main Dance Marquee), the Quarry, Club Tropicana or Chai Wallah (aka. the ambient, relaxation area). You’ll be pleased to hear the Quarry is actually an epic natural ampitheatre, perfectly apt for containing a hoard of student ravers, then.

Travel there: The festival organises Park and Ride facilities to minimise congestion and Coach Travel (making no profit from either service) to reduce Beach Break’s carbon footprint. They also assert lift-sharing literally makes you a better person. We’re literally not too sure about this (watch out for weirdos) but would recommend shoving a bunch of mates into the back of an old banger for a rather unconventional road trip.