There’s a
unique romance about the IOW festival. Maybe it’s following in the footsteps of
iconic acts like Jim Hendrix, The Doors, the Who and David Bowie or the excitement
of having to get on a ferry/hovercraft to get there! The sheer numbers (up to
90,000 daily attendance) means that for 3.5 days in June IOW IS the festival!
The 2017 main
stage headliners included Rod Stewart, Run-DMC, Arcade Fire and David Guetta.
These acts were all amazing but go there just for the main stage and you miss
out big-time. The Big Top stage hosted bands such as The Amazons and The
Sherlocks who played to packed out audiences. The Amazons is a stand-out band
on any stage. Hot property off the back of their debut album they looked like
they been playing massive stages for ever. An absolute favourite performance of
the entire festival. Catch these guys this summer. Not only is the music huge
but they are totally down to earth and were well and truly over-excited to have
played the same stage as The Undertones on the final afternoon of the festival!
The first
thing anyone new to festivals needs to know is that it’s not possible to see everything
and invariably if you really want to see certain bands they’ll be sure to be
scheduled on different stages at the same time! Luckily some bands played
several sets on different stages across the festival and it’s fascinating to
see how they deal with the different size stages and audiences.
One of the
best places to be was the Jack Rocks This Feeling Stage. It would have been
extra easy to not move from there for the entire festival. It’s no
under-statement to say that the Jack Daniels/This Feeling partnership has
totally rejuvenated the music scene promoting new music and giving musicians
the opportunity to develop and grow as they play across multiple
venues/festivals in the UK. Make no
mistake these are the future main stage headliners.
Outstanding
performances across the Jack Rocks/This Feeling and Hard Rock stages included:
The Blinders, Paves, White Room, The Novatones, The Wholls, Bang Bang Romeo, SHEAFS,
Trampolene, Himalayas, The RPMs, The Jackobins, The Shimmer Band and Jordan
Allen. Without exception these bands had the time of their lives at IOW and to
witness the scale of happiness both on the stage and off proves without doubt
that there’s massive talent in the industry some of which could be playing IOW
for many years to come. Mikey Jonns is
the brains behind This Feeling making exciting new music accessible to the
public and providing musicians with the opportunity to get out and play. If you
love music then look out for This Feeling gigs local to you.
Other
outstanding bands were Wild Front (Big Top and Hard Rock stages) who are
whipping up industry excitement wherever they appear; Judas (Big Top and Hard
Rock stages) who I predict will be huge and from the main stage Nothing But
Thieves and Catfish and the Bottlemen.
Watching
Catfish and the Bottlemen develop over the last couple of years has been
astounding. From venues with tens of people watching to arenas and festivals
with many thousands of people. Incredible performance on the main stage and a ‘must
see’ band over the summer of 2017.
A few manic
days and IOW Festival 17 was over. Back across the water and the island is
handed back to the locals. Until next time!