Last year, I had umm-ed and ahh-ed about the Isle of Wight Festival, but by the time I decided I really did want to go, it’d sold out. I wasn’t going to make the same mistake this year… especially as the first acts announced were the Friday night co-headliners: Placebo and The Prodigy.
To say I was already looking forward to June was an understatement. First up, the IoW festival, then a huge Foo Fighters’ show the following weekend at Hyde Park. The rest of the IoW line-up was confirmed over many weeks, however, I was particularly happy on the day that the Saturday and Sunday night headliners were announced… it was the Foo Fighters and Coldplay respectively. Cue much bouncing off the walls on my part.
My enthusing about the festival enticed Jean, a postgrad in my lab, and her housemates to book their tickets. She was also kind enough to borrow a large four-person tent from her aunt.
Ten days or so before the festival, things weren’t looking too good. Constant rain and unseasonably low temperatures weren’t what I had been hoping for, and I was checking the long-term forecast on a daily basis. Gradually it started to brighten up, and I became slightly more hopeful that my first festival experience wouldn’t be a complete washout. I’m not really one for the great outdoors at the best of times. I feared if I were cold and wet for four days, I would be completely insufferable. As it turned out, our biggest concern would be sunburn.
Thursday 8th June
In the hope of securing a decent pitch, we had collectively decided to head over to the island on the Thursday. The plan was for me to meet the others in Ryde, as I had the Fastcat crossing included in my ticket, whereas they had opted instead for the hovercraft.
The Fastcat docks at the far end of a pier… I think it was only the amount of crap I was carrying (heavy bag almost bursting at the seams, enough alcohol for four nights, and various pieces of tent) that made it seem like a very long pier. I lazily waited for the train to take me to the shore end, and wasn’t sure what reaction this would get me from the others. I felt better when Rachel, one of Jean’s housemates (and the only one of us to have been to the IoW festival before), told me how walking the length of the pier fully laden had nearly killed her last year. I felt like less of a slacker.
Double decker busses were lined up to take people to the festival site. Ours was open top, the sun was shining and we were already chilled out. It was a good way to travel.
As we entered the site, we were tagged with weekend camping wristbands. These were glittery and gold, the consensus was that they were pretty damn cool. Rachel knew the site, and was dismayed that many of the fields were already full. Another field was opened as we walked past it, and we decided that having our choice of pitch was preferable to fighting for space closer to the arena. Jean and I managed to erect the four person tent with a minimum of fuss, but the hot sun made it heavy going, and I would have killed for a nice cold Coke.
At this point, there were four of us with two tents, but this would later become eight people in four tents. Our little camp completed, we sat and watched with smug self-satisfaction as others struggled: first to find space, and to put up their tents.
Later, we wandered down to the Strawberry Fields, which was party central. Lots of bars, as well as stalls selling everything you could want at a music festival. I had to ask Jean to sub me some cash, after I was told that the cash machines were “still on the Ferry.”
Late into the evening, people were still arriving, and we felt thankful that we had been able to set up camp in daylight. I was amused at the range of crap that people carried, and what it said about them. I came to the conclusion that the most accurate measure of degeneracy seemed to be the camping equipment to alcohol ratio. I didn’t envy the neighbours-to-be of the man I saw struggling under the weight of three crates of beer and a groundsheet.
All the excitement of the day, combined with 90 minutes of sleep the night before, were catching up with me. I drank a glass of Bailey’s and ran a quick spider inspection before taking out my sleeping bag and crashing out around 10 pm. I felt like a wuss, but less so after we were woken by our chemically-enhanced neighbours at 5 am.
I’ll rant about them later.