Festival diaries, day one

We did a bit of shopping this morning and managed to get lunch before heading out. We got some keys cut. It turns out one of them doesn't work, and we headed back to get it redone, but the shop was closed. We walked down the hill towards the bus station. There was a festival bus on the stand as we approached the stop. Should we run or not? We didn't, but we also made the bus and bagged a top deck, front row window seat to observe the approach to Seaclose Park from above.

The festival did get going last night, but we opted to sit in the sun in Ryde. PY's been planning the schedule for much of the last week, and we decided the first act we wanted to see today was The Bootleg Beatles, who were not on stage until 4pm. It's nice to have a shorter day to work my way up to the hours of standing that will be required tomorrow.

It was a beautiful sunny afternoon. All the planning for wet weather was not required for today and, according to the forecast, probably not for the rest of the weekend. We took the (very) long walk from the entrance to the main stage - posing for a picture by the IOW Festival sign -  to the bar, where the credit card discount was not available as Barclaycard had pulled out of sponsoring. Nonetheless, we took a place with a view of the stage just before 3pm and basked in the sun and drank a lager (me) and a fruit cider (PY). His was the better choice by far.

The Bootleg Beatles were a fantastic way to kick off our weekend. Everybody knew all the words to all the songs, and the costume changes between the Beatles' eras were great. "Here Comes the Sun" was a very fitting song for the afternoon. 

After watching a tribute to a legendary band on the Main Stage, it seemed fitting to go and see another legend in the Electro Love tent. We were not the only people with the same idea; there was quite a crowd.  

Fighting your way away from the Main Stage is one of the festival site's downsides: crossing with the people who want a good position for the next act means you are pushed to pinch-points because you must exit via the 'chairs permitted' section. Nonetheless, we did get in the Electro Love tent and watched an excellent Young Elton (albeit from quite far back).

We stayed for Dolly & The Gambler, a fabulous Scottish duo performing many 80s hits but, sadly, no Dolly Parton.  

The walk back towards the main stage is more straightforward, but we decided to skip The Darkness and watch up-and-comers Junodream for our next act. At some point, I wrote down "Dream-rock music about alienation in the 21st century", which I think I took from their website. I don't know what it means either. A lot of our festival experience is retro, but this was all new. And this old fella is probably not their target market, but I loved the whole set.

Then, it was only a quick step back to the Main Stage for Crowded House. I have a very limited knowledge of their back catalogue, "Four Seasons in One Day" and "Weather with You" from the early 1990s being the era I recall. Neil Finn and, amongst others, his sons, Liam and Elroy, performed much more variety than I expected. It was thoroughly lovely and more to singalong to than I imagined.

One of the things we've learnt about festivals is that energy is everything. The Prodigy were the big closing act, but we opted to leave before they got going to conserve some energy for tomorrow. As it was after 8pm, we decided we'd be better off eating on-site before the bus to Ryde. The Greek pittas we got were delicious. As a result of leaving early the bus wasn't busy and we'd time our arrival at the stop perfectly. As soon as we were home Sky Arts went on to catch-up with what we hadn't seen.