The World Cup may have started today, but for a few of us a much more important event is happening this weekend – The Isle of Wight Festival!

In case you didn’t know, summer means festivals in the UK with everyone breaking out their wellies (because it always rains) and traipsing through the mud (because it always rains) to camp, listen to music and have an amazing (wet) weekend away from the city.

This weekend sees the sleepy Isle of Wight welcome music lovers of all shapes, sizes and ages for one of the country’s biggest events. This year’s event features some of the world’s hottest artists including P!nk, Jay-Z, Crowded House, The Strokes and Florence and the Machine.

We thought we would share some Isle of Wight Festival facts with you, just in case you need some talking points around the campfire (not that open fires are allowed, but you get what we mean).

• The festival has been running for 12 years, starting in 1968. And no, our math is not off, after the 1970 festival there was a 32 year hiatus until 2002.


• The 1970 event had an audience estimated at 600 000 people which makes it bigger than Woodstock and at that time, one of the largest human gatherings in the world.


• That very same record caused the festival to go on its hiatus when Parliament passed the “Isle of Wight Act” preventing gatherings of more than 5,000 people on the island without a special licence.


• Officially, there is no connection between today’s festival and those between 1968 and 1970!

Hopefully that will give you enough to talk about in between sets.

If you are heading to the festival this weekend, we’d love to see some of your photos! Please add them to our Facebook page to share the love!