IoW FESTIVAL
The revival “ In 2001 the Isle of Wight Council contacted me and said , ‘ would you like to re-start the Isle of Wight Festival for the Queen ’ s Jubilee ?’ They were contacting people across the music industry but not one person replied to them . I was the only person that said I would go down there for the day and meet them . Originally , I was just going for a laugh , out of nostalgia , and to get a day out of the office ,” he says .
At the time Giddings was working for Live Nation ’ s predecessor Clear Channel , having sold his company to them . He jumped on a ferry and found himself in the Isle of Wight watching local councillors debate whether to reprise the festival . They voted 8 to 7 in favour of reinstating it .
While Giddings says the production team now have an excellent relationship with the local council , it was not always the case : “ At one stage we had a lawsuit against them , that ’ s how I met my wife Caroline , she is a lawyer .” Caroline went on to become the Isle of Wight festival ’ s director ,
In 2002 , with John Giddings acting as a consultant to the council , the first festival took place for one night with headline acts including Robert Plant and The Charlatans . Giddings says around 7,500 tickets were sold but the council lost nearly half a million pounds . At which point the council decided to run for the hills and gave Giddings the rights to the festival . In an effort to persuade top artists to attend the event the following
year the agent carried out a little artistic manipulation .
He says , “ I photoshopped a picture of The Charlatans performing at the first festival and doubled the audience to make it look better and more appealing to artists . The second year I extended the festival to two days and had Paul Weller one night and Bryan Adams the next . I promptly lost half a million pounds .
“ I didn ’ t realise that everyone in the music business was laughing at me at that point , thinking ; ‘ how stupid to recreate a festival on an island you can only get to by boat ’.”
After two loss-making events , it was all or nothing in 2004 . “ The third year we had The Who , David Bowie and Stereophonics and we were off to the races , we sold 35,000 tickets ,” says Giddings .
A class act Over the years the festival has staged performances by some of the biggest artists in the world including Jay Z , Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band , Paul McCartney , Neil Young , The Police , The Sex Pistols , R . E . M and Coldplay .
A particular highlight for Giddings was the show put on by The Rolling Stones in 2007 . “ The Stones were only going to bring their B-stage , so I paid an extra £ 100,000 for them to play three songs in the middle of the park ,” he says .
Jay Z ’ s performance in 2010 was another highlight for Giddings , “ I thought an audience couldn ’ t get more excited ,
IOW founder Ray Foulk and John Giddings ( right )
and then Kanye West walked on and it sent a shiver up my spine , it was extraordinary . I turned to my left and Beyonce was standing there – It doesn ’ t get better than that .”
In 2017 , Live Nation acquired a majority stake in the Isle of Wight Festival via LN-Gaiety , Live Nation ’ s joint venture with Denis Desmond ’ s Gaiety Investments . At the time Desmond said , “ John Giddings and the Solo team have developed the Isle of Wight Festival to be one of the most iconic festival brands in the world .”
Aside from the organisation , attention to detail and quality of the personnel and artists involved , Giddings says the success of the Isle of Wight Festival is partly a result of its world-renowned name and the heritage that goes with it . “ I wouldn ’ t want to start a festival that didn ’ t have a name or something solid to build it up from ,” he says .
Despite its international reputation and ability to attract crowds of between 50,000 to 60,000 ticket buyers each year , Giddings says he takes nothing for granted , “ It has never been plain sailing but that is part of the fun of doing it .”
l The interview with John Giddings at the Access All Areas Conference on 5 December at Indigo at The O2 will be available to watch and / or listen to as part of the AAA Backstage Podcast series available via YouTube , and all the main streaming platforms including Amazon , Apple and Spotify . accessaa . co . uk 33