Home after another full on festival. Getting old - knackered ha! Despite a rather pessimistic weather forecast at the beginning of last week it actually turned out to be a fair weather festival - hot and sunny. It makes such a difference of course. The festival was pretty much a sell out again.
The IOW Festival has been in the same ownership/control for years and John Giddings has done a sound commercial job. Every year adjustments and improvements are made to reflect lessons learned. This year they banned the pesky stadium flags that were getting ever more numerous and bigger and got in the way of the stage view. They also placed a restriction on where you can set up chairs - no chairs in the front third of the arena closest to the stage now. Probably another good decision. Years ago taking chairs was a bit uncool. Now thousands take them - and many try to set up camp so to speak - to mark their territory and create personal space with rings of chairs. This is not in the spirit of the shared "love" ethos that is the traditional festival mentality and is not practical either. It is an observation - not a criticism necessarily but the commercial reality of the IOW Festival is it has become middle aged, middle England middle of the road. Festival purists might say it is a bit too organised - possibly a bit sanitized (literally - the bogs have never been better - and we now get sinks and vanity mirrors ha!) but the effect is to make it an easy festival to navigate given its size. Keeping the chairs further back increases capacity towards the front and gets a thumbs up from me.
The IOW boasts 15 stages but it is no Glasto - it is dominated by the main arena and the Big Top. The organisers see the challenge of building a line up that has something for a wide cross section in order to maximize ticket sales in a crowded market. Like Glasto I would argue the IOW is no longer a rock festival. It certainly isn't grungy.
So as for the line up it is a personal thing of course - and as the mood takes you. On the Friday Crowded House were consummate - it was a bit of a leap to the Streets and The Prodigy were a bit of a leap too far. Jo and I loved Johnny Marr in the Big Top. A class act. Saturday they put together a themed line up of Blossoms, Keane and The Pet Shop Boys. The sun was out. Everyone knew the songs. Really enjoyable. Sunday was a bit of a miss for me. McFly, S Club 7 and Green Day. Thank goodness for Simple Minds. On Green Day the arena was full and the crowd loved them. We felt the urge to leave part way through. I just don't get them at all. Like one continuous track with awful vocals - ha !
Other highlights was real ale in the Kashmir and fun in The Hipshaker.
Because I live on the Island I have never camped but getting home each evening is a bit of a challenge because of alcohol consumption. This year my sailing boat was still in Odessa Yard which is in the centre of Newport and adjacent to the festival site, so my friend Jo and and I had pre drinks on her before walking in and then returned each evening and slept on her. Early each morning I drove home for creature comforts and food and then returned late morning for a repeat. It was a good solution and added something.
To the next IOW Festival. It has to be. It is on our doorstep.
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