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IQ speaks to the festival director to get her take on 2024 and the state of the sector
By IQ on 27 Sep 2024
IQ has spoken to Caroline Giddings, Isle of Wight Festival director, to get her take on 2024 and the state of the sector.
The UK festival is one of the most iconic names in music history. Resurrected in 2002, it has gone from strength to strength, and in 2024, almost 60,000 fans made the ferry journey to see headliners Green Day, Pet Shop Boys, and The Prodigy alongside a host of top rock and pop artists.
As the festival celebrates its history with a dedicated exhibition, Giddings recapped this year’s event for the September edition of IQ…
IQ: How would you summarise this year’s Isle of Wight festival?
CG: It was another fantastic year for us, thanks to the hard work of the entire team behind the scenes. This year was a particularly proud one as we’ve been working to get Green Day to perform for years, and the excitement on site during Sunday was palpable. From when we open the gates on Thursday until the last camper leaves the site on Monday, our team are working day and night to make sure things run as smoothly and safely as possible.
Taking place on a relatively small island of just over 100,000 residents, we are always aware of the important position that the festival holds for many of those islanders and are thrilled that many thousands of them, of all generations, join us each year. We had an incredibly successful on-sale for our 2025 early-bird tickets the week after the festival, which I always take as a hugely positive sign.
It’s very important to us that people want to come to the Isle of Wight Festival because they trust us to put on an amazing show, long before they know what the lineup is going to be. We work hard to make sure that the intangible ‘Isle of Wight feel’ is at the heart of what we do to build that ongoing loyalty from our customers.
“We were pleased to work with GeoPura to integrate their hydrogen-powered generators into our backstage area”
Were there any new ideas or initiatives that you launched this year?
Like most forward-thinking festivals, we’re always trying to look for new and innovative ways to improve the sustainability of our show. The key challenge for us, and all festivals of any size, is to turn focus onto the core emissions-generating activities that are inherent to what we do. As part of that, this year, we were pleased to work with GeoPura to integrate their hydrogen-powered generators into our backstage area.
Those generators provided power to crew catering and the artist village, through zero-emission electricity thereby removing the need for diesel generators in these areas. We are always striving to improve the customer experience and, this year, we introduced a new area, Steeler’s Wheel, which showcased local DJs and proved to be one of the most popular areas on-site across the weekend.
What were the biggest challenges you and your team had to deal with this year?
Like other events, we come up against escalating costs and a difficult economic background. It’s a delicate balancing act to manage those whilst not skimping on customer delivery. Our goal is always to offer an excellent value ticket, give people a great experience on-site, and deliver a world-class event each year.
“The UK has a fantastic festival circuit – there is something for every musical taste right across the country”
You’ve been involved in launching an Isle of of Wight Festival exhibition, what’s the plan there?
We are grateful to be continuing the legacy of one of the most iconic festivals in rock music history and, while we innovate each year and aim to deliver a cutting-edge experience for fans, our look and feel still echo those landmark 1960s shows. Experience 25 is an exhibition dedicated to the festival’s unique history, and we’re pleased to say it’s open from 19 September until 13 November at the O2’s Innovation Centre in London.
There is a lot of fascinating archive material from the original festivals in 1968, 1969, and 1970, alongside information on how the festival was revived in 2002 by John [Giddings] and how it’s grown into the landmark event it is today.
Much has been said this year about a number of UK festivals closing down, what’s your view of the broader UK festival scene right now?
We’re grateful that, in the current economic climate, we have a loyal fanbase who return to the festival each year. The UK has a fantastic festival circuit – there is something for every musical taste right across the country. The growth has been remarkable over the last few decades, but there’s never a guarantee that growth can be maintained as tastes and fan behaviour change. The best festival teams are well aware of that and spend each year working to ensure that they change and improve to continue appealing to their audience.
Given the huge choice available to fans every weekend of the summer, the most successful festivals need a clear understanding of their identity and an unremitting focus on quality and delivery. As the industry has professionalised, the expectations of our customers have grown year on year, and the challenge for us is to meet and exceed those for each edition.
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