Car Blaze Overshadows Boomtown Fair

“Fire scene investigators believe a lit cigarette ignited grass stubble around the parked vehicles, causing the huge blaze,” the BBC reports. The ensuing fire gutted 82 cars. No one was seriously injured.

The Boomtique camping area was evacuated as a precaution, but fire fighters were able to extinguish the flames before they reached the tents. The weather had been very hot and dry on all four festival days. Close to 60,000 people are reported to have visited the eighth edition of the Boomtown Fair music and arts festival, which, as the name suggests, welcomes visitors to an artificial town, including a mayor, different town districts and entire storylines surrounding its history.

The lineup included dozens of acts including Madness, Damian Marley, and Fat Freddy’s Drop. The blaze follows a similar yet even more destructive incident at Portugal’s Andanca festival (Aug. 1-7), where 422 cars were destroyed by a fire.

In Andanca’s case, it is still unclear what triggered the fire. Pollstar has contacted the organizers of Boomtown Fair as well as APS, the insurance company for Andanca, with a request regarding the handling of claims in the aftermath of both fires.