I have always been a big supporter of the IOW Festival and have been to most of them since the John Giddings revival.
Nothing stands still and John Giddings and his team have responded thoughtfully to their target audience and economic realities in a market where there is now a lot of competition from other music festivals. Stating the obvious the overheads of setting up and running a festival must be enormous and the IOW Festival has seen the need to go after the punters who have the money to spend. They can't be blamed for that. The alternative is contraction or failure.
While the IOW Festival has never been as edgy, grungy and diverse as Glastonbury - but as Glastonbury even - the IOW has been moving away from being edgy and grungy. The demographic target has moved away from energetic idealistic youngsters, out and out music fans and old hippies. The demographic target is now middle aged, middle England who have plucked up courage to brave the toilets and the crowds to attend/get their bucket list live festival experience. They have the money to spend. As a consequence the IOW festival has been sanitised - the facilities upgraded and is more a picnic in the park - middle of the road - rather than a full blown real live and let live music festival. 3 or 4 days existing with a cold water stand pipe, wet wipes, pot noodles and booze is no longer for the vast majority.There is more emphasis on families too.
Does any of this matter. Well possibly. If you are clinging on to what festivals used to be you might feel a sense of loss - a sense of lost authenticity. You might feel the line ups lack a bit of edge but that is a matter of opinion although the Sunday line up was very bland and commercial in my view.
However the main change which seemed to really come to the fore at this years IOW is the demand by an increasing number of festival goers for their own personal space and comfort. There has been a year on year increase in the number of people bringing chairs. 2 or 3 years ago the IOW made a rule that chairs could not be used in the front 1/4 / 1/3 of the main arena - there is a designated line (in theory). The reasons for doing this I presume was for safety (crowd movement) and volume (crowd numbers - chairs take up so much space) reasons. There will always be a large element who want to get closer to the stage (it is a totally different atmosphere and experience) for particular acts and it is standing room only when bands are playing. Many come in and go out. This is one of the lovely things I have always felt about festivals - how people can do that and at the same time be nice about it - live and let live - move around - interact - a buzz - often a laugh.
So what happened this year particularly that was different.
Well chairs seemed to totally dominate from the chair line back. More cynically chairs and blankets (and even tables) were being used to achieve a land grab - to make it impossible for other festival goers to move into their space. This was achieved by forming chair circles - at times maybe 20 chairs big. People deliberately set up chair barriers. This was not an isolated phenomenon - sadly - outrageously - it has become commonplace. Worse still, people were territorial - resenting - or worse - anyone who dare disturb their set up or god forbid step on their rug inadvertently or not ! This is not good festival behavior.
Consequently the limited number of paths (I refer to as motorways) couldn't cope at the end of the main stadium acts because everyone trying to leave had to use them - unlike normally when the crowd would dissipate through the field. Later each day this got even worse because shortage of space meant people were setting up chairs on the paths. People were also using chairs and blankets in the non chair area towards the front.
This became a real issue during the festival on social media and certainly subsequently. Half those commenting referred to "chair wankers" or words to that effect, many complained of inadequate stewarding and were coming at the chair issue from a safety point of view, a lot defended the use of chairs saying the IOW is marketed as a family friendly festival and chairs were needed - and many added the caveat that they were not selfish. A lot bemoaned that the use of chairs especially to form barriers was not music festival behavior - ie it was not the beach or picnic in the park. Some denied the issue and took a get over it stance.
My take :
- its a good idea to ban chairs in the front 3rd of the main arena. They get in the way.
- its also mad allowing chairs in the Big Top, Hip Hop and Kashmir tents.
- proper stewarding should stop chairs and blankets being set down on the main paths.
- the really contentious issue is the upper 2/3rds of the main arena - the massive proliferation of chair use and particularly the way chairs and rugs are being used to claim exaggerated(greedy) territory and build barriers. This is both potentially dangerous but mainly it anti social and regrettable. There were a lot of irritated and frustrated people at this years festival and left unchecked will detract massively from what the festival should be as attitudes harden (as they are online). So I 100% back limits being placed on chair use and particularly how they are being used. What those limits should be and how they would be enforced is harder to decide.
- On enforcement there is a role for stewards but in practice it has to come from people doing the right thing. The organisers have to issue clear directives particularly in advance of the festival opening.
- On the chairs themselves - I would say no chair circles permitted in the main arena and rows of chairs limited to say 4 or 5. The sad thing is nobody wants rules at festivals but the new breed of festival goers seem to have a different attitude and probably will need to be told how to behave reasonably.
