UK heatwave: Boomtown festival-goers warned not to 'get beat by heat'

The Boomtown music festival has returned after being cancelled for two years because of the pandemic, with warnings about the extreme heat.

Up to 66,000 people are expected to attend the four-day dance festival at the Matterley Estate, near Winchester.

Open campfires and stoves have been banned to help prevent grassfires.

With an amber warning in place for extreme heat, organisers have warned festival-goers not to "get beat by the heat".

Organisers said it had made the decision to ban campfires on the advice of the fire service and warned festival-goers to be "extremely vigilant".

"The ground is tinder-dry and alongside our concerns about cooking fires, we are particularly wanting to point out the danger of stray cigarettes," a statement said.

It added that the number of fire performers had been reduced, as had community fire pits in the campsite areas.

In 2016, more than 80 cars were destroyed in a huge fire on the festival site which started when a lit cigarette ignited grass stubble around the parked vehicles.

The event was cancelled because of the pandemic in 2020, and in 2021 a scaled-down version was also pulled because of escalating cases of Covid-19 at the time.

With temperatures in the Winchester area set to hit 33C (91F) on Saturday, organisers urged festival-goers to stay hydrated and use sunscreen.

An amber extreme heat warning is currently force, with temperatures forecast to hit 37C (99F) in some parts of the UK over the next four days.

The Met Office alert for southern and central England and parts of Wales runs from midnight on Thursday until Sunday.

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