By Sam Wise.
Sam Wise shares his family’s experiences at this year’s Isle of Wight Festival.
We were more than excited at booking our tickets for the Isle of Wight festival. The lineup may not have been the strongest, but Green Day at the top of the Sunday bill were enough on their own. My wife is a wheelchair user, and we decided that our best bet was to make it a one day visit, so one of our kids could see one of their very favourite bands.
Booking was refreshingly easy; one accessible ticket, one essential carer, two general access tickets and blue badge parking; we were lulled into believing this was going to be one of those rare good accessibility experiences. Arriving on the day, car park marshals seemed a little surprised by our blue badge ticket, but we did eventually find our way to the correct car park, and headed down to the nearest gate. On arrival, we were asked whether we had our wrist bands. Of course not, we had just arrived. We got varied, rich and colourful advice about where we would have to go to get in. It was ten minutes away, 25 minutes, maybe 45 minutes. This seemed a little excessive; surely wheelchair users would be able to enter at the gate nearest the blue badge parking? Someone suggested we go to the “Accessibility Caravan”, but we were turned back, as apparently it was closed. As far as we were able to tell, that was how we were supposed to get hold of our tickets.
A steward told us not to worry; he would radio to central office, and a buggy would be sent to take us to where we could access our tickets. So we settled down to wait. After about 20 minutes, people started to ask “Are you still waiting?”. After half an hour, we realised that there were people waiting for transportation who had been there when we arrived. We were given a number of lurid tales about why there were no buggies arriving. One had a flat tyre. There was a medical emergency and the ambulance was blocking the road. The police had put a lockdown in place and no traffic could move. As we approached two hours hanging around in direct sun, and finished the last of the water we had brought, we decided it was time to take action.
We were directed to go to “The Co-Op Tent”, which was pointed out to us in the distance. We attempted to head that way but were turned back because we had no wristbands. We were sent completely out of the site to the main road, and back in by another gate. Arriving there, we were told pedestrians weren’t allowed in that way, but when we explained, someone guided us to the Co-op tent. We had imagined that maybe Co-op were handling the ticketing somehow, but in fact, it was simply a grocery shop in a tent. A couple of friendly guys from there, attempting to be helpful, then NEARLY guided us to where we needed to be, but were turned back, because apparently only buses could come in that way. We were sent on down the path, where we ended up in an ever larger, unmarshalled crowd which was queueing for something, but what we could not tell. We waited perhaps half an hour in that queue before it became clear that it was for a checkpoint to get in. By that time we were absolutely surrounded by hundreds of drunk people, and the situation wasn’t safe. We asked for help from the stewards, and were escorted out of the crowd. Did we have our wristbands? Once again, we did not. The friendly steward told me not to worry, he would call central control, and they would send a buggy with a wheelchair ramp.
This was by now a familiar story, so when we were told “They will get to you as soon as they can”, we weren’t filled with much hope. As this was being explained to us, a buggy with a wheelchair ramp arrived…..but not for us. I took matters into my own hands, and asked him if he could take us to where we would get our wristbands, and he was only too happy to do so. Except that no traffic could move. We waited on board as the stewards and marshalls made no attempt to control the now enormous crowd waiting for the entrance. There were vans with artists trying to get to stages stuck behind us, toilet trucks, food deliveries, but nothing was moving.
After a full 3 hours attempting to gain entry, we finally got moving again, AWAY from the entrance for which all these people were waiting, and back to where we had been told only bus passengers could go. This time, the staff told us we needed to go a long distance up the field, and then back down to the other side of the table we were next to. On doing this and presenting our tickets in the Ticketmaster app, we learned that the staff had no idea about any of the accessible tickets. Eventually someone called a manager, who sent us back up further the way we had come to what turned out to be the Box Office. There, at last, after three and a half hours, we received our wristbands. Bear in mind that this portacabin was ten minutes away from where we had initially arrived, and that these tickets had cost in the region of £400 in total, for which we had been treated to a wild goose chase.
Heading back down again to the entrance, I decided to see if I could do what the marshalls could not, and walked down the side of the throng of 1000s as I simply shouted “Mind your backs, wheelchair coming through”. It felt as though this might just have worked for the stuck traffic too, but who am I, a mere amateur, to say? As we arrived at the gate, the stewards were happy to let us through, but attempted to send our under age kids to the back of the queue of 1000s. Fortunately a little bit of stubborn remonstration ended that plan, and we were all able to enter, almost four hours after arriving.
After a pleasant wander, and some high priced but delicious food, we decided to head to the main stage, to get set up on the accessible platform in plenty of time. I went ahead to scout the route, but couldn’t see any signage or any sign of the platform. I asked a member of security, who walked three steps one way, three steps the other, made a show of looking around, and told me he didn’t know. A lengthy exploration through the crowd eventually led me to the platform, to the left of the stage, but with no clear means of reaching it. The security were not making any effort to keep the access routes clear, so I had to pull my Moses and the Red Sea act a second time; I pity anyone attempting to navigate that site who doesn’t have a loudmouth on their team.
Arriving at the platform, we were surprised to find that – despite paying for accessible tickets – there was no space. After 30 minutes or so, the stewards managed to find us a spot, but talking to others, it appeared that they had oversold accessible tickets – given that those with them would obviously want to use the platform. Many people were stuck in a holding area behind the platform, with no view of the stage, their only solace being that at least they were safe from the enormous and rowdy crowd. Every time anyone needed the toilet, they had to ask someone to defend their spot on the platform, as otherwise the stewards would give it away to the understandably tetchy people who were waiting to get on the platform and actually see the stage.
Whilst I’m not giving any credit at all to the Isle of Wight Festival’s woeful organising, I will give plenty to Green Day. Their show was incredible, and Billy Joe Armstrong was absolutely magnetic.
So was it worth it?
Emphatically not. As good as Green Day were, £400 to spend 1/3 of the day unable to get on site, and then for everything else to be such a struggle was not worth it. To be honest, the whole festival felt like it had about 10,000 people too many, and neither we nor our kids, who had to fend for themselves once we were on the accessible platform, felt very safe at any point in our visit. We will not return to the Isle of Wight Festival.
We contacted the organisers of the Isle of Wight Festival for a response. A festival spokesperson said:
“We’re sorry to hear about the issues this customer faced whilst on site on Sunday of the festival. We have a dedicated accessibility team working hard during the festival to ensure customers have the best experience possible.
As with any major event, there can be delays and incidents that occur, but we welcome any feedback from customers which will enable us to improve our accessibility offering in the future.
We aim to read and respond to each message received and have reached out to this customer privately to discuss their experience.”
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