IOW Blesses The Weather

After much time and money improving the site’s access routes and parking to avoid a repeat of last year’s soggy conditions, Isle Of Wight chief John Giddings discovered he needn’t have bothered as the festival enjoyed “a mini heatwave.”

Earlier reports that IOW was one of the festivals to suffer slow sales turned out to be wide of the mark as Giddings reported attendance of 50,000 per day.

“We were so lucky,” he said, particularly compared to last year, when parts of the festival site were a quagmire.
It had soaked up a month’s worth of rain in the 24 hours before the event opened.

UK weather forecasts indicate this summer’s festival season may be another one for wellies.

At the beginning of last year there was media speculation that Isle Of Wight was up for sale, with Giddings laughing off a Sunday Telegraph story saying he wanted £12 million (then $18.8 million) for it.

He said he’d put 12 years of his life into rebuilding the festival – which reportedly makes £2 million per year – and said any interested party would need to come up with a much better offer.

The acts enjoying the weather off the UK’s south coast June 13-16 included The Killers, Stone Roses, Bon Jovi, Paul Weller, Emeli Sande, Bonnie Raitt, The Script, and Paloma Faith.