At the end of the sixties, the Isle of Wight inadvertantly hosted two seminal rock festivals which became definitive of the age, both in the scale of the events, as crowds of 250,000 + poured in from all over Europe to see the music elite of the time, and in how each descended into chaos and insanitary squalor which augured the end of an era.
Although the highlights included Dylan's return to performing, and The Who laying claim to their status as the greatest live band on earth, the final festival of 1970 also proved to be Hendrix's swansong*.
The fact that the events happened at all was remarkable, run by local amateurs with no knowledge of the logistics or economics necessary to manage anything on that scale. The notoriously conservative folk of the island were divided about the invasion, and were either appalled that it was allowed to happen in their back yard, or amused by the hippy invasion (which quickly became a target for sight-seeing, like a sprawling unwashed freak-show) and set out to profiteer from a number of improvised entrepreneurial ventures like selling food to the inadequately catered-for participants at grossly inflated prices.
I mention this because I have some knowledge of this having researched the events.The one constant in the newspapers and police reports of the time is the ability of the islanders to moan and make out how much they'd suffered from the whole sordid episode.
Hence my amusement to read that times change, but folk don't.
The recent spate of authority-approved festivals on the Island are safely anodyne in comparison with the originals, yet have managed to
generate controversy.
Apparently, folding chairs have been BANNED!
I mean, how else are you supposed to watch the Foo Fighters if not comfortably seated with a good pipe on the go? And a flask of tea. Why not bring your own sandwiches whilst your at it?
Typically, one islander complained:
"I'm absolutely furious. It's 175 quid down the drain. [The organisers] need to treat the public with respect."£175 for a folding chair? And was he really only intending to use it the once?
It's amusing to think that the locals not only feel safe enough to attend, but are still taking the opportunity to mither about it.
*Hendrix played two other gigs: jamming at Ronnie Scott's and appearing in an equally chaotic island festival in Germany, but it was the IoW that offered the last en masse opportunity to view the guitar legend.
