At the end of last year, I secured three tickets to the Isle of Wight Festival in the UK for 2012, for myself, my wife and my 9 year old son. It was the one Festival that I'd always wanted to go to, the lineups were always phenomenal and the weather was always very good, not like Glastonbury where it rains and floods every year. The three headliners this year were Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen and Pearl Jam. The three tickets cost me €650 and the Ferries needed to get from Ireland to the UK and the UK to the Isle of Wight cost me over €400. After all of this was booked and paid for, we found out that my wife was pregnant with our second child (we had been trying for over 5 years). This mean that my wife was going to be 7 months pregnant when the festival was going to take place. We thought long and hard about this but decided we were going to go anyway. We bought a new tent and all of the required equipment, we also booked ourselves a space in the family camping area. Up until last week, I was a little worried about the weather forecast, which didn't look good for the Thursday (the festival ran from the evening of the 21st of June to the 24th). We set out at 4:30am last Thursday morning and drove 2.5 hours to get to Wexford in the south of Ireland to catch the 8:45am ferry to Pembroke in Wales in the UK.

The crossing took four hours. We then had to drive 6 hours to Lymouth in the south of England to catch the 8:25pm Ferry over to Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight. We arrived early, just in time to catch the earlier Ferry at 6:45pm which was great as it meant we would not be setting up the tent as it was getting dark. From Ireland all the way to the Isle of wight, we drove through constant torrential rain, my car was sometimes aquaplaning on the motorways. We arrived in Yarmouth and drove 20 minutes to Newport which is where the festival was taking place. A lot of the roads in the town were closed and a lot of diversions were in place.

We were diverted out of the town along a country road that would bring us back into the town next to the venue. This was when we met the end of a huge traffic jam of cars. And this was where we remained for the next four hours. We moved about 20 feet in those fours hours. We didn't know what to do. We knew it was the only way to the festival car parks. There were no announcements on local radio. Occasionally people would get out of their cars and walk to the top of the jam to find out what was happening. When they came back, they told us that the car parks were flooded due to the torrential rain. They had one tractor that was pulling cars into the car park one at a time. There were literally hundreds of cars in front of us on this country lane and they were occupying both sides of the road. We sat in our car with nothing to eat or drink until midnight. As we sat in the dark, a lady came over and knocked on the car window. She lived in the house opposite and was offering us the chance to park our car in her driveway for the four night we were supposed to be there for £25. We jumped at this opportunity. She told us the festival venue was only 15 to 20 minutes down the road.

We parked the car. We had the tent and equipment in a very large canvas case that was on wheels, another large suitcase and a large canvas bag. I had to pull the tent and carry the large canvas bag, which was back breaking. My wife (who is pregnant), took the large suitcase which was also on wheels which she could pull. My son had a little rucksack with his toys in it and had to carry three folded camping chairs in their bags. We set out down the lane and past all of the stationary cars. This was very difficult as there were cars going the same direction on both sides of the road which meant we had to squeeze past them down the middle of the road. We had to do this for about half a mile until we were clear of the cars. We then had to walk another 4.5 miles along a straight road which was closed to cars. This was the longest straightest road ever. Every time we came up a $@!&#, we would hope that when we got to the top, we would see the Festival entrance. Instead it was more straight road as far as the eye could see. Along the way, my son got tired and couldn't carry the camping chairs so myself and my wide had to carry these as well as everything else. Apparently it was raining heavily but I didn't notice I was trying to stay on my feet.

It was close to 2am in the morning when we got there. The 15 to 20 minute walk had turned out to be more like 1.5 hours. When we got to the festival entrance, we saw the condition of the Festival site. There was nothing but mud. Six inches deep and running in rivers in parts. All of the walkways and where the tents were pitched were just mud. We collected out wristbands from ticket office. We had to carry each bag in one by one in the air, putting them on the ground was not an option. As each bag came in, I had to get my son to stand guard at them so myself and my pregnant wife could carry the others. We realised this wasn't going to work and found a shopping cart. the tent and the large canvas bag went into it. I had to walk backwards dragging and pulling the cart through the mud. We asked the staff on duty where the family campsite was and not one of them could tell us where it was and none of them were even aware of a family campsite. I was clutching the mud covered email confirmation in my hand showing it to them and they had no clue. All the campsites were colour coded and none of the staff knew which one we were supposed to be in and it wasn't on any of the documentation that we picked up from the ticket office. We started to move around to see if we could find a space in any of the campsites and there was none.

Then the canvas bag with my clothes and my wife's fell off the shopping cart into the mud. The mud went straight through and into everything inside. Right there we knew we didn't have a change of clothes anymore and only had the mud covered clothes we were wearing, which were covered from my chin to my toes. I told my wife to and son to stand with the bags and I went off to try and found somewhere we could pitch our tent. with every step, the mud was trying to suck the wellington boots off my feet, it was exhausting. After 20 minutes, I could not find anywhere that we could pitch the tent, it was hopeless. I returned to my wife and son. I looked at my son who was standing there staring at me wide-eyed, clutching his green lantern action figure that was covered in mud and looked at my exhausted wife. Both having not eaten in over 12 hours. I felt like crying. I told them that the campsites were full, people had even pitched tents in the mud. She said that whatever decision I made right now, she would support it. I said that we are leaving.

We turned around, ate some lousy fast food from a vendor and we dragged all of our bags back out of the festival site and back up the long road to where the car was parked. We brought the shopping cart with us which made things a lot easier going back. It was after 3am when we got to the car. We cleaned ourselves off as best as we could with wet wipes and some clothes from out bag that weren't as bad as the ones we were wearing. All the Hotels and guesthouses on the island were booked up because of the festival. We drove back to the Ferry at Yarmouth to catch the 4:30am sailing back to the UK mainland. We had to sit and wait in the car for an hour. and boarded the ferry. I can't imagine what people thought of us when they saw us but we were too tired to care. When we got back to the mainland I drove for a while and let my wife sleep until she made me pull over so she could drive and I could sleep. We were going to stop at the first Hotel we found but then we realised we had no change of clothes so we decided to keep going to Pembroke and get the Ferry back to Ireland and then drive home. It was 10pm on Friday night when we got back.

So, after spending over a €1000 we didn't see one band and endured what was for me the worst experience of my life. It later transpired that the organisers of the festival were not prepared for the rain even though it had been forecasted well in advance. There was no Glastonbury festival this year so the Isle of Wight had been overbooked. This was going to be out only Holiday this year and my son's first time camping and should have been an unforgettable experience.

I probably won't get any money back and my wife keeps telling me to let it go.

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2012 Fender American Standard Stratocaster
2013 Fender Pure Vintage 65 Stratocaster
2003 Gibson ES-355
2015 Gibson Les Paul Traditional
2002 Gretsch Duo Jet
1980 Rickenbacker 360/12 Fireglo
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Oh man im really sorry you had such a terrible experience, bad enough at any time but with a youngster and your pregnant wife along for the trip it must have been horrendous.

I vowed never to go to the Leeds festival again after it changed to being "organised" by festivals republic which for me was a shambles but it was nothing like you had to endure and i only live 50 miles away so didnt have the LONG drive at either end of it.

These peeps always claim the weather is to blame and in some respects thats true and they have no control over it but they do have control over how many tickets they sell etc.

Strikes me its a licence to print money and fleece folks sometimes.

By the way whats that E shaped thingy dont even think its on the keyboard !

I really feel for you especially with your son and pregnant wife being there. The woman who owned the house is really bad for taking money but living a lot way away. I followed the story on sky news and the aerial shots from the helicopter really showed the extent of the conditions.

I don't think you should let it go and definitely send this to the organisers and wait for a responce. Even if they don't refund the tickets an apology would go some go some way to make it better

I hope you all recover and congrats on your baby in waiting

Man it makes me angry just reading your story

Tom

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Fender MIM 1995 Standard Stratocaster
Fender USA 2012 Deluxe Telecaster

That sounds pretty unforgetable to me. Congrats on the baby to be. Happy you made it home in 1 piece.

I understand how the loss of the cash spent and the awful experience of your trek there and back must make you feel but I have to agree with the missus. Let it go and start planning on how to make the best out of the rest of your summer.

I feel for ya man... I'd be steaming too.

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...I for one, sure would appreciate the return of intelligent conversation, spirit of assistance and the simple yet effective ignoring of those who can't seem to hang with that...
Best regards,
rob

I would have a go at the organizers,and the media as well. Yeah they can claim "Act of God" but you can ask for an act of good faith.
Congrats on the growing family.
Cheers,
John.E

Sounds a lot like a concert at Max Yasgur's farm in New York in 1969 called Woodstock. Rain and 500,000 people in a space intended for 200,000. Lots of horror stories there too in spite of the historic afterglow. Woodstock wasn't all it was cracked up to be either. But then again tickets to Woodstock weren't but $24 USD for all 3 days. Times (and prices) have changed.

One thing is for sure. Your son will never forget it and will learn a lot about handling adversity in the mature way you handled yourself and in making the decision to bug out for the good of the family instead of taking the selfish tack of hanging in for the concert no matter what.

that sucks man, we made it there ok, we were driving down on the thursday morning, got the 5 am ferry from Portsmouth, drove around the isle of wight for a bit, and then queued for 3 hours, which now seems like nothing. basically the cars were getting stuck when driving in, and the festival organiser had not thought that after 2-3 months of constant rain the fesival site might be muddy, and you might need the metal road things.....

luckily my friend, who's now called Cindy Mcrae, got us in without being stuck. we struggled to find a dry spot at 2pm, i'd hate to think what it would be like @ 2am, especially when pregnant.. the festival site was pretty had to traverse with all the mud, so going home, might have been a sensible option.

we also had to be towed out on the monday by a tractor.

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Vox VT40+

Hi rob: for those of us that missed it for whatever reason, care to tell us how the festival itself went down? Anything good?

Personally, the mud thang just ain't for me. The only festival I ever do is London Calling in Hyde Park - where there isn't any mud to speak of and anyhow you go home to sleep in your own bed at night. That's festival-going the civilised way!

Paul Simon this year, a couple of weeks from now. I'm crossing my fingers for clear skies...

Cheers - C

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it was pretty good once you went F%$% it, and took the british summer for what it is. Pearl Jam, and Springsteen were awesome Tom Petty seemed ok, but as much as i have tried I just can't get into him. Black stone cherry and spector were awesome too.

My only gripe (other than the good old British 'summer') was the lack of ale. there was one ale in one bar available, and it was average at best.

as for the weather/car park issues, my friend put it best, "Michael Eavis wouldn't stand for this." for those who don't knowMichael Eavis organises Gastonbury, which is renowned for the mud. the Isle of Wight was on a whole new level of muddyness tbh

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Fender Blacktop Stratocaster HH Sonic Blue

Fender american special telecaster Olympic White

Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar Surf Green

Vox VT40+

On this note Im very tempted on this, my dad is there for Bruce the night before which I'm gutted I can't go to because of another gig that night, which I have to miss the last day of another festival to go to But might see if he wants to come to the Sunday as well.

This summer has been a nightmare, I had to miss Bruce once already to see something else, these guys need to organise their shows out

Hey, Snowjoe: if you make it along to Paul Simon gissa shout. I'll be there with one or two other Forum users and some other nice people too. And plenty of good food and drink, weather be damned.

Plenty to share: the more the merrier.

If you're coming feel free to PM me and we'll swap phone numbers...

And to Rob: got any photos? Especially of the mud. torresfan might like to see what he missed - for better or for worse.

Cheers - C

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no photos i'm afraid, i forgot to charge the battery in my old digital camera, and my cheapo festival phone has a rubbish camera, 0.1mp if i remember. i'm still waiting on my friends to post theirs so i can steal em.

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Fender Blacktop Stratocaster HH Sonic Blue

Fender american special telecaster Olympic White

Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar Surf Green

Vox VT40+

Okely dokely.

I just found this online. Hee-hee - torresfan must be kicking himself he didn't stick around for this pleasure!



Cheers - C

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dammit they found a dry patch....

seriously though when hunting for a camping spot it went along the lines of high ground>dry ground>standing water not visible.

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Fender Blacktop Stratocaster HH Sonic Blue

Fender american special telecaster Olympic White

Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar Surf Green

Vox VT40+