The lineup, the weather, the food – here is everything you need to know about Isle of Wight 2015.
Thursday
We arrived early Thursday morning after spending the night with friends on the island and were faced with the first queue of the day. Having bought student tickets, we had to pick up our wristbands, so after a long, hot walk to the collection station after being misdirected multiple times by festival staff, we had another long, hot walk through security to the campsites. After trying to pitch our tents on the edge of a campsite we were told this was not allowed and borrowed a shopping trolley to move our half-pitched tents to the next field along. After we had finally set up and changed into cooler clothes, we collapsed into camp chairs, sweaty and exhausted, and opened a few beers. Our delegated chef lit our disposable barbeque and cooked us a few delicious steaks and questionable burgers, which we ate in bread rolls. Heaven after a long trek. It was about this time that we realised we had all become sunburnt, and decided we were too tired to walk down to the arena to see Billy Idol and Noasis perform, so stayed sat around our barbeque for the evening.
That night my bag was stolen from beside me while I slept, but luckily they left my camera and phone discarded with my bag a few tents away, and only took my cash. This meant I had to rely on my boyfriend’s wallet to keep me fed for the next few days, but luckily his money had not been taken. The only inconvenience was that I had already remotely wiped my phone and cancelled my debit card by the time they were found. The moral of this story is to always keep your valuables at the foot of your sleeping bag, especially for the first couple of nights when thieves know that you have cash on you and tie your tent zip closed if you are especially worried.
Friday
By Friday morning, things were looking up. On the way to the toilets in the morning I met a lovely Irish girl who noticed the thief taking her bag and chased him down, catching him and getting her bag (with her tickets home in it) back after a swift kick. I had a breakfast of cereal bars and crisps and headed down to the arena to wait for The Black Keys and The Prodigy to perform. After our delicious hog roast lunch and a great performance from The Struts, the weather began to turn on us and half of our group (myself included) ran back to put on more layers while the others stayed. By the time we returned to the arena the half of our group that stayed had become soaked though by the rain and decided to seek shelter elsewhere. By this time, The Black Keys had begun their set. It was unfortunate that the weather had thinned their crowd, but they put on an excellent show and played all their hits, with the rain actually enhancing the performance by catching the stage lights and creating a glow around the stage and audience. There was a short, unexciting DJ set before Prodigy came to the stage, and by this time the cold had penetrated deep into my bones. I stayed for all the songs I recognised, then left in search of a cup of tea. I found one at the Veggie Bus, where I inadvertently watched a marriage proposal. Two cups of tea later, after a wade through the mud that was very fun for me in my wellies and not so fun for the boyfriend in his Converse, we reached our tent. After changing into dry clothes we warmed up almost immediately, although my toes remained cold for half of the night.
Image credit: http://www.isleofwightfestival.com/line-up.aspx
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