Qype: Isle of Wight Festival in Newport

Newport - Arts & Entertainment - Festivals & Fairs - Arts & Entertainment - Events

Went to IOW 2007 and it was better than this year's festival. Having said that, this year was enjoyable enough. Really enjoyed Zutons, The Enemy, The Kooks, Jolene and the Jing Jang Jongs, Feeder and James. Iggy Pop was a revelation and hillarious to boot. Can't quite make up my mind about Sex Pistols. Ian Brown was shockingly bad. Pathetic.
We lucked out with the weather and the food stalls (if you look hard enough you can find some non-mainstream really tasty grub - had some fabulous jerk chicken from a little stall tucked away next to the Ray Ban tent) but we were incredibly unclucky with our 'neighbours' back at the campsite.
Next to us was a gang of about 15 people who can only be described as disgusting / horrifying. They had no respect for anything or anyone. They went 'on the rob' on day one and came back with a haul of other people's camping stuff, like folding chairs, wheelbarrows etc, and were constantly going round to other people asking 'have you got a beer for me then' or 'give us a fag mate, i know you got some' even though they had plenty of their own. On the first night one of them 'had a shit', as they delightfully put it, next to the tent. The next day, he scooped it up with a bat and flung it away from 'their area' with no regard to who or what it hit or where it landed. As long as it was away from them. The next day one of them slung a half eaten hamburger in the same way and it hit my friend in the face. They demanded one of us hand over our torch, even though we were using it, because 'he needed it' and when we declined, he threatened to take down our tents. I could go on and on. They were horrible and could have spoiled the whole weekend for us if we hadn't fought hard to ignore them and enjoy ourselves.
This year there seemed to be a 'nastier' element that last year. More cups and cans and plastic bottles being thrown around, more people being loud and disrespectful and doing what they wanted and to hell with everyone else, more yobbish behaviour.
This sounds really negative now! The festival was fab in lots and lots of ways and there were tens of thousands of people there having a really good time without making anyone elses life a misery! We saw some hilarious fancy dress outfits and costumes and witnessed some very 'special' dance moves and overall it was great.
Still. if i go next year, i'm going to be far more careful where i pitch my tent!

Check out my review of Isle of Wight Festival - I am Tommowinnie - on Qype