Festival Guide: Isle of Wight Festival 2017

Name: Isle Of Wight Festival

Where: Seaclose Park, Isle Of Wight

When: 8 – 11 June 2017

Headliners: David Guetta, Run DMC, Arcade Fire and Rod Stewart

Also Featuring: Catfish and the Bottlemen, The Shires, Elle Exxe, Bang Bang Romeo, The Amazons, The Shimmer Band, George Ezra and The Blinders

A Brief History: There are not many festivals which have been revived from the ashes due to popular demand. IOW festival is one of them. Originally headlined by Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane and attended by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, the festival only lasted for three years (1968-1970). In 2002, IOW was reborn and rebranded as ‘Rock Island’ before reverting to the Isle of Wight Festival as we know it, in 2003. Since then big-name artists such as David Bowie, Kings Of Leon and Fleetwood Mac (take that, Glastonbury) have all appeared at the festival. This year, Rod Stewart and Arcade Fire are among the many musicians flocking to the IOW to perform at the 2017 celebrations.

How To Get There: Get yourself to one of IOW’s mainland ferry ports and Bobs your uncle. The ports are situated in Southampton, Portsmouth, Lymington and Southsea. All of the ferry ports are “served by good rail and road links”. After getting to any of the listed ports, it’s only a short crossing before you are at the festival, soaking up the sun or being doused in rain.

Memorable Moments: 2016 seen Gigslutz glued to the Jack Rocks and This Feeling Stage. We commented on the serious dedication of the “This Feeling Family” and “everyone turning out in force to support fellow bands”. We thought The Shimmer Band “sound like a glorious combo of the Beta Band, The Verve and the Stone Roses” and caught Hidden Charms “asleep on the backstage sofas”. Read our review here.

Gigslutz Top Tip: If you do not fancy carrying a paper programme with you at IOW this year (especially not if it’s raining) then you can download the official Isle of Wight Festival App. Powered by Second Screen, the app contains the event programme and stage times for the weekend. Get planning which bands you’re seeing by downloading the IOW App from Google Play and the App Store, now!

How to get tickets: Weekend camping tickets are priced at £195 for adults with children going free. For more information click here.

Ella Scott
@ellalascott