Friday saw the opening of the festival’s Main Stage and the first full day of music. Kickstarting the proceedings on the Main Stage were Lottery Winners, followed by Amy MacDonald. The Corrs kicked off the evening with a set of singalong moments with songs like ‘Runaway’ and ‘Breathless’ before Sting’s headline set.
Sting pleased crowds as he headlined the Main Stage at Sky presents the Isle of Wight Festival 2025. Swapping the Fields Of Gold for the fields of Seaclose Park, he took to the stage and performed a set filled with hits from his catalogue and longstanding career, including ‘Message In A Bottle’, ‘Roxanne’, and latest single ‘I Wrote Your Name Upon My Heart’. This performance marked his first live performance on the Island since his show in 2008 with the then reformed ” Police”. This headline set forms part of his STING 3.0 World Tour, representing a new dynamic era showcasing selections from his vast catalogue.
On Saturday Welsh rock band Stereophonics returned to the Festival for the first time in nine years, with a headline set packed with fan favourites like ‘Dakota’, ‘Have A Nice Day’ and ‘Maybe Tomorrow’. Over the decades, Stereophonics have remained a potent force on the UK charts, releasing fifteen hit albums, nine of which went to number one. This headline set proved they continue to be one of the best live bands around.
Earlier in the day, and with the sun shining over the festival’s Main Stage, Razorlight’s late afternoon set included fan favourites ‘America’, ‘Golden Touch’ and more, before Busted got the crowd jumping with nostalgic hits ‘Year 3000’, ‘Air Hostess’ and ‘What I Go To School For’. One of the UK’s most successful songwriters Paul Heaton performed before The Script drew a packed crowd with Danny O’Donoghue making his way through the crowd to sing with fans.
Sunday saw multi-talented entertainer, recording artiste, producer, songwriter and actor Justin Timberlake close this year’s Festival in an epic, crowd-pleasing set with hit after hit, including ‘SexyBack’, ‘Cry Me A River’, ‘Rock Your Body’, ‘My Love’ and more.
On stage, he said “I’ve been trying to get to Isle Of Wight for years and years and years and it’s everything I thought it was” and “I’ve got a special place in my heart for the UK, for England, I have so much gratitude for you – welcome to the party. You made a Tennessee boy’s dreams come true”.
Earlier in the day, Björn Again kicked off the festival’s final day on the Main Stage with a set of ABBA’s ever popular greatest hits.
Meanwhile backstage as music fans sizzled in the sunshine at Seaclose, imagine what it was like for the myriad of chefs slaving away in the kitchens catering for some 2000 onsite workers, including 1000 security personnel.
Caterers “Eat To The Beat “, organised by Lyn Pierce provide meals all day for some 2000 support staff at the peak of their operation.
Their food offerings included Isle of Wight meat, Isle of Wight Cheese and Wight Crystal mineral water and the menu had a wide choice for each meal time.
“Eat To The Beat” also provide the riders for the performers’ dressing rooms and the production teams.Headliners are housed in the Premier Inn Hotel, which is closed to the public for the duration of the Festival.
Riders are an interesting feature,with spirits, wines and energy drinks in great demand. Another interesting request is for flowers in their dressing rooms. Isle of Wight Mermaid Gin is placed in every dressing room for artistes to enjoy or take away.
After the Isle of Wight Festival a lot of the catering and hospitality staff will relocate to Glastonbury.
In the Guest Village, Isle of Wight firms were well represented with Calbourne Classics, founded in 1989, showcasing their range of cakes and flapjacks, plus Minghella Artisan ice creams.
Godshill Orchards displayed some of their 17 varieties of cherries plus jams, preserves and honey produced by the bees, which pollinate their fruit trees.
Richard Hodgson started Isle of Wight Cheese in 2006 and has been present at the Festival since 2008. This year four cheeses were on offer including the popular Isle of Wight Blue.
Isle of Wight Tomatoes had a selection of their fruit in various colours and sizes, plus cucumbers and peppers on display.
Mermaid( Isle of Wight Distillery) had their range of spirits available alongside Goddards Brewery with South Island Pale Ale and two lagers.
Wight Whisky attracted interest from visitors from off the Island particularly with their single malt, while The Really Awesome Coffee Company from East Cowes was a popular stop off with long queues at times. However, there was no queue jumping and John Giddings was only too pleased to stay in line for a coffee.
Sky Arts was broadcasting live from the Guest Village and providing coverage of some of the festival performances.
Virgin Radio UK was also broadcasting from Seaclose. Presenter Ben Jones first came to the Festival in 2004 as part of the Absolute Radio set up. Since then, Ben has spent a lot of time on the Island and feels at home here. He also praised the friendliness of the locals. Ben was busy interviewing artistes either before or following their appearance on stage. These included “Busted” and Paul Heaton.
Elsewhere across the Festival site there were stalls and funfair rides including a big wheel. A book signing, by Alan Edwards ,in the Dimbola Marquee, went well with books a sell out and an art installation, once housed at Dimbola, was on display in the Guest Village and proved popular with visiting artistes as it depicts the hands of some of those who have played at previous IW Festivals.
Volunteers from Mountbatten were out in force selling sunflowers and umbrellas/sunshades for the charity, raising much needed funds.
The IW Festival organisers like to support Island charities and this year offered pairs of weekend tickets to 20 local (Isle of Wight) charities for fund raising. Girlguiding IW was one of these charities and organised a Silent Auction with the person offering the highest bid securing the tickets. The winner was Jade who, having been a Rainbow, Brownie and Guide was only too pleased to support Girlguiding IW. Jade said. ” Justin Timberlake was incredible, such a good experience!.”
