The Isle of Wight Festival is over for another year and despite the event lacking the usual massive headline acts, thousands of festival-goers enjoyed what turned out to be a drier weekend than expected.
It was noticeably quieter on the Island than usual but that didn’t stop the Main Arena and Big Top from being packed out each night as the likes of Noel Gallagher, George Ezra, Biffy Clyro, Lily Allen, Madness, Rick Astley, Keane and last minute booking Yungblud performed across the 4-day festival.
After the rain on Thursday, which led to a fairly soggy Seaclose Park and surrounding fields, piles of wood chippings appeared overnight enabling the festival revellers to move around more easily. With sunshine and a stiff breeze off the river most of the site dried out to welcome thousands more visitors on Friday.
Funfair rides, the VUE wheel and other entertainments including The Beatles Experience proved popular before the stage performances began. Headlining on the main stage on Friday night was Noel Gallagher with a back catalogue of Oasis songs featuring heavily. Ably assisted by his High-Flying Birds, Noel ended his set by paying tribute to the Beatles with a rendition of ‘All You Need Is Love’ which was written by Lennon and McCartney in 1967.
Lily Allen took the main stage and paid tribute to those who lost their lives in the Grenfell Tower tragedy. She ended up calling using a 4-word expletive to describe a group of people who failed to observe a 1-minute silence.
A mixture of sunshine and showers greeted festival-goers on Saturday. In the afternoon a competition for those wearing clothes in the style of 1969 was held. Hundreds were seen in various styles for the ‘Peace and Love 1969’ theme.
James drew an appreciative audience for their early evening slot on Saturday, with an impromptu dance performance on stage by TV presenter Fiona Bruce. Other celebrities spotted around the festival site include Colin Firth and Ben Fogle.
George Ezra headlined on the main stage despite sustaining an ankle injury whilst out on a run the day before. With the main arena very full and rain keeping off his performance ended with fireworks, which thrilled the audience.
Everyone thought that Sunday would be a wet day but following early morning rain the day stayed dry for most of the time with some warm sunshine from time to time. Madness filled the tea-time slot on the main stage. A packed arena with closed gates at times showed just how popular Madness are with all ages of festivalgoers. Their usual up-beat tempos had the crowd on the move and the whole of the festival site came alive when the crowds moved on to their next choice of performers. It was just a sea of movement across the site.
Sunday brought controversy as Jess Glynne failed to appear on stage. First it was said that she was ‘exhausted’, but the ‘Thursday’ singer has since confirmed she was weak and full of anxiety. National newspapers report today (Tuesday) that the star was partying with the Spice Girls until the early hours of Sunday morning. Either way the festival’s evening schedule was changed with Biffy Clyro performing a longer set. They ended the festival with renditions of most of their well-known hits.
Over the 4 days of the Isle of Wight Festival local charities had stands in ‘Penny Lane’. These ranged from Mencap (Haylands Farm, Dimbola) and St. Catherine’s School to Girlguiding IW. Every evening the Girlguiding members appeared with what seemed an endless supply of marshmallows.
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Report by Alan and Suzanne Whitewood (with additions). Photos by Chris Cornford.
was an amazing weekend as ever. this year would like to say a big thank you to the buses at the end of the night. we travel in from st helens and when we bought the bus tickets where told the times of the bus to get home and it run like clockwork so thank you and see you next yar.