EXPERIENCE THE FESTIVAL EXHIBITION OPENS IN NEWPORT

An exhibition entitled ‘Experience the Isle of Wight Festival’ was launched at 64 High Street, Newport on Saturday. In his welcoming speech, Dr Brian Hinton MBE, Director of Dimbola, praised the efforts of Jo Macauley in putting the collection of photographs and memorabilia together. Festival Director John Giddings concurred saying ‘she did all the work’. He said the exhibition originally was an idea a few years ago using the Dimbola archive. Dinbola has already hosted the show and this was the 2nd year in its present venue. John mentioned the festival advertised the Island worldwide and the exhibition could well visit London and beyond. Referring to the early years, which are now included in the collection, he remembered walking from Newport to Afton in 1970 although he missed the first 2 festivals which were held at Godshill and Wootton respectively. That was the cue for Ray Foulk, one of the organisers of the original festivals, to give his own recollections. Ray stressed that John’s achievements had eclipsed the early efforts but the music is different now and the audience is different and it is wonderfully organised now. It was a pilgrimage then and the music was led by artists who had something to say. Asked if he would be prepared to launch a festival in today’s world he thought he possibly would still take it on even with the difficult conditions. As for convincing Bob Dylan to headline the 1969 Festival that really was an incredible scoop, he conceded. When you peruse the festival posters over the years you realise what a stellar list of performers – Fleetwood Mac, The Who, Queen, Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young – have made the pilgrimage here. This exhibition continues until the end of July with weekend openings for the festival period.