The Isle of Wight Festival Review

Fleetwood Mac closed The Isle of Wight Festival in spectacular style last night with a 2 hour set which featured long time classics ‘Go Your Own Way’, ‘The Chain’, ‘Dreams’ and a finale of ‘Don’t Stop’. Earlier that day, the likes of Paolo Nutini, Ash, The View and First Aid Kit delivered stand out performances to the delight of the 50,000 strong crowd as they entered the final day of the festival.

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Saturday night headliners Blur reigned supreme the night before, packing in hit after hit alongside new material from ‘The Magic Whip’ to an ecstatic crowd, including a heroic ‘Parklife’ which saw guest Phil Daniels join them on stage.

Fleetwood Mac. Callum Baker | callumbakerphoto.com

Earlier that evening, Pharrell Williams was joined on stage for ‘Happy’ by WellChild’s ‘Young Hero’ Award 2015 winner Dylan Bleach (who he met backstage beforehand) – along with a group of children including Alex James from Blur’s kids – as well as paying tribute to Jimi Hendrix with a surprise performance of ‘Star Spangled Banner / Hey Joe’, getting the crowds to all point to the sky; but he wasn’t the only one to be celebrating Hendrix this weekend.

To mark 45 years since the legendary musician performed at the festival in 1970 (his last ever UK performance), the Main Stage (re-named ‘The Electric Church’ for the occasion) was transformed into a sea of look-a-likes as tens of thousands of revellers donned Jimi Hendrix masks in a world record attempt.

Paolo Nutini. Dylan Roberts | www.Dylanroberts.co.uk

The Isle of Wight Festival promoter was given permission and the blessing from the Jimi Hendrix Estate to have Jimi’s image made into masks and sold to revellers for £1 each, with all proceeds going to children’s charity Well Child. The grand total is still being counted but so far £5,000 has been raised since yesterday morning.

Pharrell and Jimi Hendrix, along with Keith Moon, were both the subjects of an exclusive music and art collaboration for Nordoff Robbins Music Therapy on site yesterday. Esteemed artist Pure Evil created unique portraits of these incredible musicians exclusively for the charity to celebrate its 40th anniversary.

Other live music highlights on Saturday included the smoother than smooth Jessie Ware, high energy sets from Ella Eyre and Kool and the Gang, plus James Bay, Foxes and James.

TheCharlatans. Dylan Roberts | www.Dylanroberts.co.uk

On Friday night, headliners The Prodigy delivered a wonderfully deranged onslaught on the senses with volume and energy to spare. Groove Armada followed suit over on the Big Top stage, bringing the afterparty to end all afterparties.

From across the pond we had blues-infused rock perfection from The Black Keys, whilst Counting Crows brought nostalgia in the bucket load. Flying the flag for the UK, we also had You Me At Six and Kodaline providing the festival anthems.

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