IOW Tackles Mud Chaos

This year’s Isle Of Wight Festival is making changes to the site’s access routes and parking in a bid to avoid getting stuck in the mud.

Last year more than 100 four-wheel drive vehicles were drafted in to help drivers leave the site, as heavy rain left the main car park waterlogged.

This had earlier resulted in traffic queues tailing back to the local ferry port at Fishbourne, while boats queued offshore because they were unable to unload any more vehicles on to the island.

“What happened last year was we had a month’s worth of rain in 24 hours and the car parks just became inaccessible – that will never happen again,” IOW promoter John Giddings told BBC News. “To avoid a repeat, there will be twice as much car parking space and there will be proper roads at the entrances and exits.”

The acts on this year’s Isle Of Wight (June 13-16) include The Killers, Bon Jovi, The Stone Roses, Emeli Sande, The Script, Paul Weller, Jake Bugg, and Blondie.