Cornwall’s biggest musical weekender sprung back for its best year yet.
It sometimes feels like the odds are stacked against Boardmasters. After being forced to cancel their 2019 bash at the last minute due to A Ridiculously Big Thunderstorm, the Newquay-based festival was then forced to postpone their 2020 edition due to… Well, Certain Global Events.
Nevertheless, they belted themselves back into action in 2021 – and now that the dust has settled on this year’s edition, we’re willing and able to give you the full lowdown of the Sunday highlights from Boardmasters 2022.
JC Stewart
We’ve got no idea why Irish sadboi troubadour JC Stewart isn’t a superstar. And, after about twenty seconds of the below video, neither will you.
On the Main Stage of Boardmasters 2022, JC Stewart delivered a note-perfect set of some of the best under-the-radar indie-pop gems to come out of Ireland in years. If you’re not familiar with him, then you’re missing a trick – and if you haven’t caught him live yet, make sure you get around to it before you have to do so in an arena.
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Joy Crookes
If a combination of smooth soul vocals, massive pop choruses, and the kind of live band that’ll make Nile Rodgers jealous sounds like it’s ‘up your street’, then you would’ve loved Joy Crookes’ set at Boardmasters 2022.
The rising star delivered a note-perfect, charisma-laden show on the Main Stage, providing a veritable plethora of vibes to a crowd that showed no trace of the three-day-hangovers that they were doubtless battling on the Sunday afternoon of a sun-soaked festival. What a bunch of troopers, eh?
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The Wombats
They’ve long since established themselves as bonafide indie legends; but over the last few years, The Wombats have also carved out a handy niche for themselves as one of the best live bands in the country.
To say they understood the assignment would be vastly understating things. Dear reader, this was Indie Disco Live. They’ve got enough bangers to fill a wholesale butchers’ window, and they wheeled them all out in quick succession in their teatime slot at Boardmasters 2022.
Kill The Director? Check. Let’s Dance To Joy Division? Check. Oh, and Greek Tragedy, Turn, and Moving To New York? Check, check, and check.
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Tom Grennan
We really want to hate Tom Grennan. After all, how can one man be that talented and that good-looking? Bastard.
But we can’t. Because he seems genuinely flippin’ lovely. And, on the Sunday evening of Boardmasters, he also delivered the kind of polished and pruned festival set that makes you think he’ll be headlining stages like this within the next few years.
Old-school indie disco classics like Found What I’ve Been Looking For and Sober were paired with brand-new bangers like Little Bit Of Love and Remind Me to create the kind of festival set that inspires every teenager in attendance to pick up a guitar and give it a go for themselves.
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Kings Of Leon
And then, it was time for the legends. American roots-rockers Kings Of Leon aren’t only responsible for some of the biggest stadium rock hits of the 00s, but also for the kind of varied, multi-faceted, and consistently anthemic back catalogue that was tailor-made to close festival main stages across the world.
If you didn’t leave their set with a sore throat, then you weren’t doing it properly; and, if you didn’t leave the Sunday of Boardmasters 2022 with an undying urge to come back and do it all again next year, then we don’t know why.
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