Jimi Hendrix, Leonard Cohen, Jay-Z, The Doors, Joni Mitchell and many more. The Isle of Wight Festival, through mud and magic, has managed to attract some of the world’s biggest musicians to an island off the coast of Portsmouth, UK.
From its origins in 1970, via a 32 year government ban and global pandemics, the Isle of Wight Festival has maintained its legendary status through the acts it attracts. It goes without saying that there’s a special allure that comes with the Isle of Wight. It’s a beautiful part of the world that has welcomed weary guests for centuries, whether they’re searching for global music icons or not. But today, how does it continue to not only uphold its status, but add to it? Since 2002, as the festival’s promoter, that’s been the responsibility of John Giddings.
Here, Giddings gives us his insights into the modern music festival, its changing landscape, and how the Isle of Wight Festival secures its headliners.
“There aren’t that many classic rock acts left.”
When asked about the trials and tribulations of securing the big headliners, Giddings believes that booking the iconic acts it’s getting much harder. “There aren’t that many classic rock acts left,” he says. “Streaming is destroying the album. You still need acts of stature who’ve had success with hits. If someone’s just had one album, it’s pretty hard to command an audience for an hour and a half. Putting it all together is like a jigsaw puzzle. Half the audience comes because they enjoy being there and they think it’s going to be a good time and they can have a laugh. The other half are dictated by the headliners and whether they think they’ll be any good.”
“They have to be able to command an audience.”
Toeing the line between classic rock and new age appeal is becoming increasingly harder, thinks Giddings. Whereas in times gone by, when everyone from Genesis and Oasis to Fleetwood Mac were relatively easy to attract (for the right price), now there’s a search to find that perfect headliner. “You have to work out who’s capable of appealing to 50,000 people in the field, even if it’s raining,” says Giddings. “They have to be able to command an audience.”
“I would always want to book Pink Floyd, but you try getting them together,”
Sometimes, finding an act who appeals to 50,000 mud drenched revellers means working with what you’ve got. It also means continuing to wish for the unachievable, thinks Giddings. “We’ve had Oasis individually, but not together. There’s Talking Heads, who I’d love to get if they ever reformed. And then there’s The Smiths. The list is endless.”
“I would always want to book Pink Floyd, but you try getting them together,” he continues. “But we want people who can put on a decent show. Taylor Swift, Madonna and Lady Gaga would be brilliant, and they can all put on a show. I haven’t run out of ideas.”
Sting, The Stereophonics and Justin Timberlake will be headlining this year’s Isle of Wight festival. Sometimes, the Isle of Wight name speaks for itself in securing such names. But you can’t rest on heritage alone. “When I had the (Rolling) Stones, I found out they were bringing their B show, so I paid nearly £100,000 pounds to bring their full show,” Giddings remembers. “I thought…fuck it, if I get killed on Monday morning, at least I bought the Rolling Stones to the Isle of Wight and gave the full show.”
“But I book acts from past, present and future,” he goes on to say. “You don’t want the main stage to have ten indie bands where people watch the same groups all day long. I want people to move around the site and discover all the other things that go on.”
“It’s hard to describe the feeling of satisfaction you get from doing this.”
Even with his decades of knowledge and experience, Giddings admits that running a major festival still has its unique problems. During his tenure, Giddings has navigated summertime floods, a myriad of administration issues and, on one occasion, a potentially disastrous calamity.
“In my first year, I received a phone call saying that someone had been run over in the campsite,” remembers Giddings. “I’m panicking shitless. It transpired that a car had reversed over someone sleeping in the car park, but because it was damp he had sunk into the earth, so the car just ran across him. First of all, he was alive, which was quite good. But the funniest thing about it all was that it was an off duty policeman.”
While he may have averted seriously injuring people of the law, it’s easy to wonder how Giddings still has the drive to put himself through so much stress. So, why do it? “It’s a passion that you want to deliver,” Giddings explains. “It’s hard to describe the feeling of satisfaction you get from doing this. To provide entertainment for other people, in some ways, is a selfish thing. But you want people to walk away thinking ‘this is great’. It doesn’t matter who’s on, they want to trust that you can deliver a new bill.”
“But you can’t just do it for the money,” Giddings goes on to say. “I’ve met people who have thanked me for giving them the best weekend of their lives. It’s moments like that which makes it all enjoyable.”
