The Isle of Wight festival returns today after a
32-year break
Q: Isle of Wight as in Hendrix?
A: Jimi played his final performance there in 1970 to about 600,000 people.
Q: Good crowd?
A: The 1970 event was the biggest UK festival ever, way ahead of Live Aid and Glastonbury.
Q: Whose big idea was it?
A: The festival was first held in 1968 as a way of raising money for the Isle of Wight Swimming Pool Association.
Q: A bit amateur?
A: A lot amateur. The budget of (pounds) 750 paid for a couple of low loaders which doubled as a stage, a trench was the toilet, and security was one man and his Alsatian. Tickets were (pounds) 1.25.
Q: The line-up?
A: Acts included Jefferson Airplane, T-Rex, and a young DJ named John Peel.
Q: It went well?
A: 10,000 people turned up. The organisers, the three Foulk brothers and the promoter Rikki Farr, couldn't wait to line up a big name for '69.
Q: Cliff Richard?
A: Bob Dylan. The Foulks sent brother Ray off to the US. He went to Dylan's home, spoke to him on the intercom, and eventually talked him into appearing. Attendance went up to 100,000 and all was peace and love.
Q: The audience was stoned?
A: It is possible some illegal substances were present, but the general atmosphere of the times lent itself to a kind of dopey harmony. It was the summer of love, after all.
Q: Lovely. What happened next?
A: All hell broke loose. The site for the 1970 festival was overlooked by a hill, on which thousands of gatecrashers congregated. In the main festival area the organisers had planned for 200,000 visitors, so when 600,000 turned up the facilities could not cope. To add to the chaos, an unholy alliance of anarchists, Hell's Angels, and White Panthers, arguing that the festival should be free, attacked security guards and ripped up fences.
Q: High spirits?
A: Ugly violence. Ron Foulk pulled the plug, saying what had begun as a beautiful dream had become a monster.
Q: But it is back?
A: Reinvented as a
21st-century celebration of music, covering jazz, samba, and classical as well as rock (see www.iwight.gov.uk). Headline acts include The Charlatans and Ash, and there are children's tickets available at just (pounds) 10.
Q: Children's tickets? What would Jimi say?
A: Voodoo children like a bargain as much as the rest of us.
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