Isle of Wight Festival 2007

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Isle of Wight Festival 2007
Isle of Wight Festival 2007 logo.png
Isle of Wight Festival stage under construction.jpg
Isle of Wight Festival 2007 stage under construction.
Genre Rock, pop
Dates8–10 June 2007
Location(s) Seaclose Park, Newport, Isle of Wight, UK
Website Official website

The Isle of Wight Festival 2007 was the sixth revival. Isle of Wight Festival on the Seaclose Park site in Newport, Isle of WightIt took place between June 8th and 10th, 2007. Tickets went on sale at 9 a.m. on Thursday, 22 February, and were sold out by Monday, 26 February. It was the first festival since 2003 without an official sponsor.

Contents

The festival's capacity was approximately 60,000 attendees. Local artist Helen Davenport created a 15 ft (4.6 m) tall illuminated wicker and tissue paper statue to commemorate the performance of Jimi Hendrix at the 1970 festival. [1] The venue was next to a campsite in an extensive area of farmland.

The 2007 Festival sold out in a record time, less than five days. The festival was The Rolling Stones' first British festival performance for over thirty years since their performance at the 1976 Knebworth Fair. The festival once again featured the popular Carling Cold beer amnesty, in which people could trade warm beer for cold cans of Carling.

The Red Arrows performed a full-smoke aerial display during the festival weekend. [2]

The festival won the "Best Major Festival" award at the 2007 UK Festival Awards in London in November 2007. This beat off stiff competition from Glastonbury Festival, T in the Park and Reading and Leeds Festivals. This success was followed by promoter, John Giddings, winning the "Outstanding Contribution to UK Festivals" award. In reaction to this, Glastonbury organiser, Michael Eavis, offered to present Giddings with the award personally.

Highlights

Line Up

Main stage

Keane. Keane's stage at the Isle of Wight Festival 2007.JPG
Keane.
James Morrison. James Morrison at the Isle of Wight Festival 2007.JPG
James Morrison.
The Rolling Stones with Amy Winehouse. The Rolling Stones with Amy Winehouse at the Isle of Wight Festival 2007.JPG
The Rolling Stones with Amy Winehouse.

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Strongbow Rooms

Strongbow Rooms is a tent and live music venue which tours many of the festivals in the United Kingdom. It made an appearance at the Isle Of Wight Festival with acts such as Annie Mac, Krafty Kuts and Shitdisco. [3]

The Hipshaker Lounge

The Hipshaker Dance Lounge was open on the Thursday 7 June to entertain early camping ticket holders. It featured acts such as The Bees (band) & The Sails and two tribute bands of The Who and The Beatles respectively. [4]

Bacardi B Live

The Bacardi B-Live opened to campers on Thursday 7 June providing music and refreshments. It featured acts such as DJ Norman Jay. [5]

Features

The Strawberry Fields area contained amongst others, the following attractions and features:

Other attractions included:

Controversy

Pre festival controversy

There was some debate amongst the Isle of Wight Council members about whether to grant the Festival a licence, due to the numerous complaints and objections from local residents, mainly those living in Fairlee Road. Ultimately the Council approved the Festival to a maximum of 60,000 attendees. The Festival's future also came under considerable jeopardy as the Isle of Wight Council tried to enforce the Isle of Wight Act 1970, resulting in a £500,000 penalty on the organisers, Solo. The penalty was reduced however, and John Giddings stated that if the Island residents and councillors continued to create such problems for Solo, then the future of the Festival on the Island would be in doubt. John Giddings initially refused to issue Fairlee Road residents with complimentary weekend tickets, as he had done in previous years; perhaps due to the afore-mentioned objections. However, in May he granted free tickets to the residents, many of whom had already bought tickets, thus ending a controversial debate.

There was also some debate as to whether the RMT would grant a general strike [6] on the Island over the Festival weekend. This would have rendered the Island's bus network virtually obsolete and would have left Festival-goers with logistical problems. However, the strike was cancelled and Southern Vectis bus services operated as normal. [7]

Organisers Solo were accused of being ticket touts by the Island residents as the organisers auctioned 100 tickets to the highest bidder on eBay. Giddings replied to the statement claiming 'I have the right to do what I like, because it's my festival'. He also suggested that if people were against this policy then they should simply not buy tickets in this way. The notion of the organisers being touts represents a simplified accusation by those who made the claim.[ citation needed ].

Post festival controversy

Many of the site security team have been accused of being both heavy-handed and ineffective, to the point where one festival attendee was physically assaulted by security resulting in a broken leg. There are claims of ejection from site without due reason by some festival goers. Others claim that security were not present during the incidents[ spelling? ] where they would have been able to assist, particularly in campsite disturbances and theft.

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References

  1. Jimi Hendrix Sculpture
  2. Isle of Wight Festival 2007
  3. Strongbow Ciderhouse
  4. "Hipshaker". Isle of Wight Festival. Archived from the original on 8 January 2008.
  5. "Bacardi B-Live". Isle of Wight Festival. Archived from the original on 8 January 2008.
  6. "Bus Strike Could Cause Festival Havoc". Isle of Wight Community Press Online. 18 May 2007. Archived from the original on 9 November 2007.
  7. "Double Delight Over Festival". Isle of Wight Community Press Online. 24 May 2007. Archived from the original on 9 November 2007.