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Review: Isle of Wight Festival 2019

Another year at the Isle of Wight Festival is over and now, as always, we’re taking a look back over the weekend’s highlights.

In true Isle of Wight-style, we were greeted with both glorious sunshine and the heaviest of downpours, but what’s a festival without a bit of mud anyway?

The fun began for us on Friday, catching a tribute set from The White Hot Chili Peppers in the Electro Love tent. Sometimes it’s the smaller stages that bring the most joy, and we certainly enjoyed singing along to all the Chili’s greatest hits before heading off to the main arena.

From there, we caught three of my favourite sets from the weekend, Lily Allen, The Courteeners and Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds.

Having seen Noel a couple of times before, I knew we were in for a sing-along treat. From some of my favourite tracks from his early album to the 90s Oasis bangers we all know and love.

With the festival celebrating 50 years since Bob Dylan played in 1969, the Saturday was mostly a day of chilling out, exploring, eating and drinking for me. We adorned ourselves in our finest hippie gear in honour of the ‘Summer of ‘69’ theme and took great pleasure watching everyone walk around in their flared trousers, floral dresses, headscarves and platform boots.

Seeing George Ezra mark his first-ever major summer festival headline performance was a great way to start the evening, while special guest Fatboy Slim kept the Main Stage party going way into the night.

I never thought of myself as a raver before, but after an evening of dancing to Fatboy Slim’s high-tempo, confetti-filled set, I might have changed my mind. It was the perfect ending to what was a pretty chilled day at the Isle of Wight Festival.

I never thought of myself as a raver before, but after an evening of dancing to Fatboy Slim’s high-tempo, confetti-filled set, I might have changed my mind.

After a fun evening, we nursed our hangovers on Sunday morning with some breakfast at the campsite. After a few cold cans of Strongbow and Red Stripe that we pre-ordered fresh from the fridge, we eventually picked ourselves back up and headed back to the stages.

Intending to end the weekend with a bang, we set out to watch as much music as possible that afternoon. Tom Walker, Sigrid, Madness, The Coral, Dermot Kennedy, Biffy Clyro and Keane were on our list and we sang and danced our hearts out to every single one.

The best thing about the Isle of Wight Festival is the eclectic variety of performances. This year we brought along a few family members to enjoy the festival along with our friends, and it couldn’t have been a better combination of old favourites as well as newer acts.

A special highlight was of course Madness. After 40 years at the coal face of modern popular culture, they sang, danced and made merry through an incredible set, including all our favourite hits, ‘Baggy Trousers’, ‘House of Fun’ and ‘Our House’.

Following another successful weekend, The Isle of Wight Festival has announced that next year’s event will take place 11-14 June 2020. Early bird tickets for the 2020 festival are already on sale from their website. Get them while they’re cheap!

Photos: PR provided


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