The Isle of Wight Festival exists in something of a time capsule. It’s one of the few where you can engage the crowd in an unironic “Woop! Woop!”, and where “Sweet Caroline” blaring from the speakers elicits the same kind of rapturous response as “Freed From Desire” at a World Cup game.
Originally held as a countercultural event between 1968 to 1970 – with performers including Bob Dylan, The Who, Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell and, most famously, Jimi Hendrix – it relaunched in 2002, with organisers keen to maintain a throughline with the festival’s extraordinary rock heritage. Perhaps this is why, much like the fossils embedded in the island’s chalk cliffs, the headliners over the past two decades have been somewhat immovable; a near-interchangeable blancmange of white guys with guitars. Stereophonics have headlined no less than four times, Razorlight and Snow Patrol a more modest three. This year is probably about as much of a “shake up” as it gets, with Scottish singer-songwriter Lewis Capaldi, dance music producer Calvin Harris and goth-rockers The Cure topping the bill.
