The 1970 Isle of Wight Pop Festival

[CatorsCinema]

my da was there said the kids made it a shambles .

[bergkamp48]

Photo w/ VW van was taken in Interlaken Switzerland July 1970...got to Amsterdam in time for the riots then the Isle of Wight. Great summer...

[smellmiller]

I was 17 and this was my 1st and best ever festival , we hitched from Leicester to Southampton got the ferry across to Ryde where we were herded like cattle onto coaches with blacked out windows...wow the memories are flooding back , we slept (occasionally) under plastic sheeting and couldn't believe the bands we were seeing , Hendrix, The Who , Free , Ten Years After , The Doors and on & on & on and not forgetting my local band Family

[sobrquet]

@smellmiller Family one of the best.

[STOKEKNOB]

Went with a guy named John Hope. Fantastic weekend. Slept in a paper sack (Honest). £3 for the weekend. Amazing bands, weather & people. Life sort of changed after that experience....... I actually found a photograph of myself in the crowd on a festival archive site & am on the DVD Message to Love, for a couple of secs, which was a brilliant documentary giving some insight into how the festival was staged on a wing and a prayer & how close it was to a total, besides financial, disaster.

[scourf]

Thanks for this man - really captures the time. Great choice of music. I was there and life was never the same afterwards.

[thechamp200100]

We had to go after work on the Friday. Must have arrived about 10.pm. Went straight up the Hill. Could not see the point of moving. Great view and, space. Don't remember it all. I know we went to the beach a lot. Went back in 2009, just to what it looked like without 600,000 people there. It's a masive flat plain over looked by Afton Down ( the hill ). Ask anyone who lives there from 18 to 80 years old. They all know where the last great festival was held. Oh! and the Who were awesome.

[TheKenney81]

@thechamp200100 did you watch the Doors?

[1987koustav]

nico's female fa-tale 

[edovre]

crazy to think this was my first ever festival. had a lot of fun since, but its never been this good.



[Raffaelecass]

17 and game for anything. We set of from the Lake District Tuesday night and got to Southampton early Wednesday.My mate having passed his test the previous week borrowed his dads car.I guess memories fade but I will never forget that week. Stopped at Cirencester on the way back and spent the day in the cop shop because a friend of ours did a great impression of a Goose and the cops thought he was out of his head ....Prob only time we weren't lol.......Happy days indeed.

[TheKenney81]

@Raffaelecass did you manage to see the Doors live?

[msaintpc]

@Raffaelecass Ha ha! That must have been wild!

[ingbrisc2001]

I went with Keith Musson, Rich & Steve Guy & John McRea. Long live us HIPPIES. Mitch Mitchell, ex E`Port, Eng, ex Mexico and now Columbia. e-mail: ingbrisc2001@yahoo.com

[ingbrisc2001]

Great presentation, congrat`s. I agree with dappycow`s & chickmaddi`s comments. I was a 16 year old there, and what a dream to be able to watch my idle JIMI (RIP). We are so fortunate to have been a part of it, something so big, so incredible, so many great acts, so many amazing people, the perfect happening that will never be repeated. God bless the organisers and all who played and attended. It is still so very vivid in my memory. Mitch Mitchell ex E`port, Eng.

[niceonemicky]

LETS GET FUCKING REAL THIS WAS BIGGER THAN WOODSTOCK I WORKED AT THE THREE FESTIVALS ON THE ISLE OF WIGHT AND THIS WAS FUCKING ENORMOUS Its all down to TAX EVASION AND DECLARING BANKRUPTCY ON STAGE, BRITISH RAIL ESTIMATE they ferried over 3 quaters of a million people more than usual, there was private flights and private ferrying. if you got on that fucking hill you saw twice maybe 3 times woodstock, FUCK YOU YANKS ALWAYS BIGGER>

[Msnando09]

Brings back great memories of those 5 days in august for a 15 year old

[niceonemicky]

@Msnando09 I now live in retirement aged 68 band can you imagine my surprise when I talked to one of my neighbors and he related to me that he was there and was 16 years old, his name is BOB MILLER he later became the first drummer of SUPERTRAMP,

[zenpaganwarrior]

Good call on the music. Velvet Underground should have been there!

[cryptical70]

Why play Velvet Underground music to this video? They have nothing to do with the festival.

[Cardinalplonker]

Nice one! I wasn't there but remember reading all about it at the time. I now live about a mile from the field in Afton and my mind wanders back every time I pass it...

[Dappycow]

It was, total heaven. Just wish there was a time machine that could take you back. 600,000 of us, yeah, 600,000 of us went to a little island - only way on it was by boat, and we did it. Music was phenominal, weather fabulous. Wonderful memories. Thanks JD2781 for the pics, I keep pausing it looking for me and my friends :)

[chickmaddi]

@Dappycow Totally agree - it was a magical time to be young and part of it all. For it to remain so vivid in our memories 40 years on, that says it all. Like you, I still search the pics of the crowds sometimes, looking for me and my friends, so far haven't spotted us though! We were camped up on the hill but I often wandered down to the stage area to be nearer to the music, particularly remember going down there late at night to watch Jimmi.

[niceonemicky]

@chickmaddi I was in =my slkeeping bag when Hendrix came on drugged drunk and impervious but I crawled out and enjoyed the Star Spangled Banner, I spent a lot of time in Desolation Row on California Sunshine and I recieved a capsule of Mescaline from a maiden stripped to the waist hidden in the bushes of desoplation row she knew my name and told me my destiny I bowed down to her and was comforted in the brambles.

And the Vietnam Deserters from Sweden on the hill stuffed a pipe of lebanese.

[PhantomDog666]

Nice videos Sundance!

[daveawebber]

another brill vid ..........not sure the music goes to the visuals

[PhantomDog666]

Nice videos Sundance!!