The Isle of Wight Festival returned with quite the bang this year, hosting huge acts like Tom Jones, Duran Duran, and Liam Gallagher to name but a few.
Seaclose Park welcomed the first festival-goers on Thursday for this year’s Isle of Wight Festival, with Are You Experienced?, Sophie Ellis Bextor, FOOR, and Scouting For Girls all taking to the Big Top stage.
Thursday
Channeling the harmonious vibes of the 1970 festival, this year’s theme was “Peace, Love and Understanding”, with music lovers dressing in their colourful rainbow best to commemorate coming together on the island for the historic music festival and 2 years away from live music.
Sophie Ellis Bextor took her acclaimed Kitchen Disco to the stage with sparkle, playing her chart hits ‘Groovejet’ and ‘Murder On The Dancefloor’ in addition to surprise covers of Hot Chip’s ‘Over and Over’ and Madonna’s ‘Like A Prayer’.
Switching things up with style, Southampton crew FOOR – who are no strangers to the Isle of Wight having first performed here at Fairweather Festival in 2017 – wowed the crowd with their infectious UK Bass, before indie pop pioneers Scouting For Girls closed the night with a career spanning set including a cheeky cover of Fountains of Wayne’s pop punk classic ‘Stacy’s Mom’.
Friday
Friday marked the first full day of The Isle of Wight Festival, including stellar performances from headliner Liam Gallagher, Tom Jones, Primal Scream, You Me At Six, Becky Hill, Sigma and many more across the festival’s stages.
Fresh indie talent LONA kicked things off on the main stage, followed by You Me At Six who brought mosh pits to Seaclose Park with songs from their UK Number 1 album ‘SUCKAPUNCH’ released earlier this year.
The Isle of Wight Festival regulars Peter Crouch and Abbey Clancy were spotted watching Becky Hill impress the crowd with a string of her pop and house chart smashes before James rocked the stage with their sing-along classics ‘Sit Down’ and ‘Getting Away With It (All Messed Up)’.
Tom Jones confirmed his legendary status as he performed a set filled with classics from the 60s all the way to 2021 with his recent album ‘Surrounded by Time’ (which earlier this year made Jones the oldest male to earn a number one UK album).
Closing The Isle of Wight main stage was Liam Gallagher, who wowed the crowd playing Oasis smashes ‘Rock N Roll Star’ and ‘Cigarettes & Alcohol’ between his solo hits ‘Wall of Glass’ and ‘Shockwave’, before an outstanding encore of ‘Supersonic’, ‘Acquiesce’, ‘Roll With It’ and ‘Live Forever’. Gallagher soon came back down to earth with a crash after stumbling out of his helicopter after returning to the mainland and causing himself a facial injury.
The Big Top stage saw genre spanning sets from Primal Scream, Shed Seven, Sigma, Rats, Lucy Blue, Charlotte Jane and Apollo Junction.
Saturday
Music fans continued celebrations in the sunshine on Saturday – where the main stage saw crowd pleasing performances from headliners David Guetta and Snow Patrol, alongside Sam Fender, James Arthur, All Saints and more – with Kaiser Chiefs, Example, Ella Henderson, and Maximo Park playing on the Big Top.
Donna Parkin was announced as the winner of the ‘peace and love’ themed costume competition, donning a colourful Zippy outfit and crowned at Strawberry Fields. She received an exclusive backstage tour and champagne picnic with a friend.
Roachford, fronted by Andrew Roachford MBE, flexed his prowess as he played to a packed out crowd, and Liverpudlian legends Lightning Seeds followed with their energetic Brit pop rock.
One of the best selling girl groups of all time, All Saints played a set of their biggest hits from ‘Black Coffee’, ‘Never Ever’, ‘I Know Where It’s At’ and ‘Rock Steady’ as their children, including Gene Gallagher and Rachel Appleton, watched from the pit. The group closed the set with an emotional ‘Pure Shores’ dedicated to late Girls Aloud singer Sarah Harding. Before the set they shared warm embraces from Peter Crouch and Abbey Clancy.
Peter was spotted alongside fellow Isle of Wight Festival VIP Ronan Keating watching pop star James Arthur serenade the crowd with his monumental vocal range and chart hits, followed by Newcastle’s budding force Sam Fender with his poignant indie rock and heartfelt lyricism.
With Hollywood legend Courteney Cox watching from the wings, Scottish-Northern Irish icons Snow Patrol united the crowd with an immense set. Seaclose Park sang every word to their hit ‘Run’ so loudly that you could hear it across the whole festival site.
Internationally acclaimed superstar DJ David Guetta showed off his cross-generational appeal merging enigmatic EDM and house, for a thrilling set featuring pyro and remixes of rock classics including Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You’, Guns n Roses ‘Sweet Child O Mine’, and Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Dreams’. The sky lit up with fireworks as the evening drew to a close.
Kaiser Chiefs, Example, Sam Feldt, Maximo Park, The Manor, Ella Henderson, Stone, Dylan John Thomas and Rebecca Hurn all performed on the Big Top.
Sunday
As the end of the Isle of Wight Festival drew near, the party-people of Seaclose Park made the most of the last day of post-coronavirus freedom. With huge acts on hand to close the event, thousands of audience members gathered to watch acts such as The Script, Supergrass and 80s favourite Duran Duran.
Blues favourite Seasick Steve was on hand to provide renditions of classics from his 10 albums – including tracks from the latest album released just last year, Love and Peace.
Later, fans of Irish boyband The Script gathered for the penultimate Main Stage performance of 2021, with singer turned Voice judge Danny O’Donoghue belting crowd-pleasers including For The First Time and The Man Who Can’t Be Moved. Speaking to Wales Online, Danny admitted that a previous drinking session with fellow act Tom Jones left him with heart palpitations in A&E.
Razorlight, newly-reformed Lawson and Maisie Peters all took to the iconic Big Top as Sunday headliner Duran Duran warmed up in the wings.
Fireworks were aplenty as the 80s legends – wearing iconic sharp suits – took to the Main Stage for the close of the event with all-time classics including Rio, Ordinary World, and Girls On Film gaining huge reactions.
Crowds began to leave the Festival site late on Sunday evening and into this morning with hour-long queues forming at some of the Island’s transport hubs. Live entertainment is back – here’s to next year!
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Jesus “cinch” desperate to make sure people no their name! It’s all you read! Why not put the names or description under the pics instead of cinch! We know they do the festival!!
Where can I get my “Cinch” T-Shirt.