LIVE: Isle of Wight Festival 2017

How you experienced Isle Of Wight Festival 2017 depended upon how you chose to intoxicate your soul. Whether you were head-banging to Sheafs, effortlessly belting the words back to Bang Bang Romeo or quietly containing your spilling excitement as David Guetta dropped ‘your’ soundtrack to summer. IOW 2017 managed to offer everyone their own-branded pint of euphoria.

The 2017 edition of IOW boasted one of the more diversely intriguing lineups of this year’s UK festival season. You had hip-hop legends Run DMC blasting their iconic sound of the 90’s from the main stage; over on the Jack Rocks This Feeling stage, The Jackobins were showcasing one of the most sublime vocal ranges IOW had seen, all the while Chrissie Hydne was busy resurrecting The Pretenders in the Big Top.

With colossal names and bands with the upmost hype surrounding them however, it was impossible to avoid clashes. White Room – with their psychedelic-influenced rock-and-roll attitude – effortlessly glided across the Jack Rocks This Feeling stage on Saturday, Paves were doing their thing, head-and-shoulders above the rest at exactly the same time over on the Hard Rock stage. How can you possibly choose which band is more worthy of your investment? What happens if you’ve never had the opportunity to see either before? Seriously though IOW, how can you decide between White Room and Paves?

A trio like no other however, who demanded attention at the tricky time of 17:30 on Saturday evening, was Blinders. The Doncaster group’s performance was a snarling, politically-charged bloodbath – seeing the bands frontman screaming “Build a Berlin Wall” from the crowd while adorning one of those Native American headdresses (that we would despise to be thrust into our faces) as well hollowed out black-painted eyes.

Blinders, wild with frenzy, were only matched in madness by one other group across the weekend at IOW: Friday night Jack Rocks This Feeling headliners, Trampolene. While acts such as Medicine Man and No Hot Ashes played host to a dazzling amount of fans of all ages, Trampolene effortlessly packed out the Jack Rocks This Feeling stage with the young, the old, the veterans of This Feeling and the newbies. Beginning with an eerie off-stage rendition of the infamous ‘Ketamine’ and closing with the same biblical energy – Trampolene raised the bar, allowing the idea to circulate that this band deserve to be headlining bigger stages.

Sticking with the Jack Rocks This Feeling stage – a serious prominent marker for new music at IOW – there were numerous moments of magic that caught themselves in Gigslutz’s kaleidoscope eye.

The slick Arcades, who’s frontman could give Friendly Fires’ Ed Mcfarlane’s snakehips a run for their money, firmly painted themselves as a ‘one-to-watch’, as well as trio False Heads who made the crowd eagerly fret as they watched a guitar be struck off stage, causing a friction of frightened electricity. Manchester’s dantevilles brought a sweet slice of sticky spring to the Jack Rocks This Feeling tent with their melodic riffs and crowd-pleasing tracks such as ‘Graffiti’. Long live The Zone, it was truly alive and kicking at IOW!

Outside of The Zone (apparently there is life) there was only one main act that stole the heart and soul of IOW 2017 – Arcade Fire, take a bow.

The set blurred the archaic (‘No Cars Go’, ‘Neon Bible, ‘Neighbourhood #3 (Power Out)’ with the brand new Arcade Fire (‘Everything Now’) as well as featuring glints of the multi-instrumentalists’ championed Reflektor-era (‘Afterlife’, ‘Here Comes The Nighttime’), making the set list an all-rounder. No danger, yet suspended safety – does this make Arcade Fire boring, or do they know how the correct formula to tease and please a crowd?

As every song approached it’s racing end, there was no sign of a ‘thank you IOW’ or a humble nod in the direction of fans (a diverse contrast to Catfish and the Bottlemen‘s set just an hour earlier.) Instead, Win Butler and co. filled the silence with an ode to former IOW-headliner, David Bowie, as well as claiming that ‘what happens in the U.K effects us in the US’. In this political climate, we need the selflessness of Arcade Fire and the platform they posses to aid us through the dark times. There are not many artists, steeped in praise, rich in history and still building a strong legacy that are not afraid to be outspoken and are committed to the cause, like Arcade Fire.

While the screens went black and the stage lights lit up the elated crowd, making their way through the mountain of plastic cups and polystyrene to enjoy yet another night of merciless fun – we all knew in joint unison that things really do not get better than this right now. The festival bubble is one of the more addictive feelings, increased by seeing a godly band in the flesh.

Isle Of Wight Festival 2017 was nothing less than a spiritual showcasing of the future of music. You can never fully understand the hype unless you boarded the ferry or took the waterbus to the Isle. If you want to re-live moments or discover some bands you never managed to catch across the weekend, then have a peek at DICE FM to see whether anyone from the IOW 2017 lineup is coming to a venue near you extremely soon!

Photography credit: Jon Mo | @jonmophotography

Ella Scott – @ellalascott