The promoter of the Isle of Wight Festival said he is “blessed” to continue hosting the “extraordinary” music event 21 years on.

John Giddings, who reinstated the Festival in 2002 during the Queen’s Golden Jubilee, compared the Isle of Wight to the Woodstock Festival in New York.

“I’m just really blessed. I never would have started a festival if it wasn’t the Isle of Wight because I was here in 1970, and it was an iconic name, it was the Woodstock of Europe,” Giddings told the PA news agency. 

“If you had told me 21 years ago that I would be standing here today, I wouldn’t have believed you.

Isle of Wight County Press: Crowd enjoying OneRepublic at Isle of Wight Festival 2023Crowd enjoying OneRepublic at Isle of Wight Festival 2023 (Image: Pamela Parker)

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“With 55,000 people coming to the island, 31 degrees weather, it’s extraordinary.”

Giddings reinstated the Festival after a ban was imposed to stop gatherings of more than 5,000 people overnight.

The ban lasted 32 years, but to open the Festival to the masses, he convinced Paul Weller to be the headline act, which saw the number of people attending the event expand ever since.

Giddings confessed: “The first year was a one-day event with The Charlatans and Robert Plant with 7,500 people, so I photoshopped the picture to show it to Paul Weller for the next year so that it looked like we had 15,000 people.”

Isle of Wight County Press: Isle of Wight Festival boss John GiddingsIsle of Wight Festival boss John Giddings (Image: Isle of Wight County Press)

Weller, along with Bryan Adams, went on to headline the Festival in year two, and by the third year David Bowie and The Who were the Main Stage performers.

Giddings said there were around 35,000 people Festival-goers that year, and “it’s gone upwards ever since”.

“It was really interesting because the Island had only seen tribute bands for 32 years, so it was only when we started building the stage that [people] realised that something real was coming,” he said.

“I’m in the music business, so luckily, I know lots of these bands, and I think they trusted me in the beginning to pay them, which is the most important thing.”

Giddings described the headline acts at this year’s Festival as “the biggest show ever.”

Aside from the star-studded line-up, Festival-goers can also enjoy a drone show every evening which depicts the Isle of Wight and the Needles.

“We’ve actually got a drone show at the end of the night each night. We sent it up last night, and people said, ‘Wow’,” he said.

With the success of this year’s Festival, Giddings urges Festival-goers to “book your tickets early” in time for next year.

He said: “Buy a ticket early for next year because since we’ve sold out, I’ve been engulfed with emails, sob stories about people who haven’t got tickets.”