As previously reported an exhibition depicting 25 Years of the IW Festival has now opened in Newport High Street. There will be a chance this week to remember your Festival stories when story gathering takes place on Wednesday and Thursday.
An exhibition entitled “Experience the Isle of Wight Festival” was launched on Saturday at 64 High Street, Newport.
In his welcoming speech Dr Brian Hinton MBE Director of Dimbola praised the efforts of Jo Macauley in putting the collection of photographs and memorabilia together.
Festival Director John Giddings concurred saying, “ She did all the work”. He said the exhibition originally was an idea a few years ago using the Dimbola archive.
Dinbola has already hosted the show and this was the second year in its present venue.
John mentioned the festival advertised the Island worldwide and the exhibition could well visit London and beyond.
Referring to the early years, which are now included in the collection, he remembered walking from Newport to Afton in 1970 although he missed the first two festivals which were held at Godshill and Wootton respectively
That was the cue for Ray Foulk, one of the organisers of the original festivals, to give his own recollections.
Ray stressed that John’s achievements had eclipsed the early efforts but the music is different now and the audience is different and it is wonderfully organised now.
It was a pilgrimage then and the music was led by artistes who had something to say. Asked if he would be prepared to launch a festival in today’s World he thought he possibly would still take it on even with the difficult conditions.
As for convincing Bob Dylan to headline the 1969 Festival that really was an incredible scoop he conceded
When you peruse the festival posters over the years you realise what a stellar list of performers- Fleetwood Mac, Who, Queen, Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young for example- have made the pilgrimage here.
This exhibition continues until the end of July with weekend openings for the festival period.
Festival Research:
Dr Patrick Glen from Leeds University will be visiting Experience 25 the Isle of Wight Festival exhibition to gather your stories from the 1968 to 1970 Festivals! Experience 25 celebrates the earlier Festivals and the new Isle of Wight Festivals from 2002 onwards – 25 this year!
He will have a desk within the front space of Experience 25 at 64 High Street, Newport on Wednesday 12th and Thursday 13th June and would love to hear your stories of attending the earlier Festivals from 1968 to 1970.
Dr Patrick Glen is an Historian and Lecturer in Cultural Industries at the University of Leeds. He is the author of several publications on the post-1945 history of popular culture in Britain— mostly concerning how popular music both shaped and responded to politics, society and wider culture. Currently Patrick is the principal investigator on the Pop Festivals, British Politics, Culture and Society, 1968-1976 project. Of course, this means he has been drawn to the Isle of Wight to better understand the festivals that took place on the island in 1968, 1969 and 1970.
Patrick is convinced the festivals at Godshill, Wootton and Afton Down are vital to understanding the history of post-War Britain—and today’s ‘culture wars’—but hitherto remain underexplored in academic histories. Patrick wants to ensure that the festivals on the Isle of Wight receive sufficient attention from historians and perhaps even the wider public. To do so, however, he needs the help of people who were there!
Patrick said, “Researching pop festivals of the 1960s and 1970s has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career so far. As a music fan (and, for that matter, a musician) as well as having undertaken around four years of archival research into pop music festivals of the time across Britain, I understand that beyond the hype and controversies that surround music festivals there are the experiences of the people who were there. The more I research the Isle of Wight Festivals and particular the 1970s festival, the more I want to get to grips with the stories and memories. I approach these stories with an open mind and if you were there, I want to hear from you!”
And EUROS 2024…..
Meanwhile for the Festival site at Seaclose Park Barclaycard presents the Isle of Wight Festival has announced that That Peter Crouch Podcast Live will open the festival earlier than ever before to celebrate England’s EUROs group stage match against Denmark, taking place on the opening day of the festival, Thursday 20th June. The Big Top Field will open at 4.30pm for some pre-match podcast build up, before kick off at 5pm, followed by a post-match podcast debrief with Crouchy and the team.
With the festival taking place in the middle of EURO 2024, the UK’s most listened to sports podcast will bring football banter, insightful discussions and music from the RPJ Band to the festival, led by host Peter Couch. It’s the perfect way to kick off the festival weekend.
Once the podcast wraps, the RPJ Band will perform, followed by Norwegian singer/songwriter Dagny and finally, iconic pop/rock band Scouting For Girls will close the Big Top on Thursday night. The England game will also be shown outdoors on a big screen in Electric Ladyland.