I was on the 4pm FastCat from Portsmouth on Friday – it was packed. The queue ran all of the way around the Wightlink offices back up towards the train station. The fullest I’d ever seen it.
Clearly the kids are at the Festival this weekend grooving or whatever those funky things do these days.
We went last year and my memory of it was that it was pretty pedestrian/dull. Sal reminds me that we were only there for a short while and the journey there had been pretty hellish, so perhaps I have a jaded view.
In the shower this morning (yes it was a hot one, not in the middle of a field) I was reflecting on what the festival does for the Island these days … or what it could do.
The impact of the 1970 festival was considerable, both in terms of raising the profile of the Island, but more importantly of the people that stayed on, or soon returned to the Island after the event to spend their lives here. We’ve met quite a few people who are the children of these people, and they are to a person, sound.
This year what will be the impression left on this years visitors? Will they be deciding to change their lives and move to the island?
I’d doubt it.
You only have to look at the photo in the Country Press festival pull-out to see the amazing setting of the 1970 event. Stunning rolling hills – really showing off one of the great things about the Island – world-class scenery and views.
Where’s the festival these days? Stuck in Seaclose Park, on the edge of Newport. Hardly comparable is it?
If the festival is seen as something to enhance the Island – to show-off why it’s an amazing place to live – isn’t it time to shift it to somewhere worthy of celebration?
