Red Funnel has extended its 20% off deal, if you book via this link or the widget on this page. Your booking is still with Red Funnel, the widget will send you through their website and apply the discount.

The 20 percent off discount was due to end on 30 June 2025, but they've made it valid until 31 July 2025. You can use it for travel until the end of December 2025.

​It is only valid for return journeys. Here's the booking form you need:

The 20% deal is pretty good, but double check that there isn't a better deal out there for you:

• If you use the discount for a foot passenger journey, do a price check on the Red Funnel website as well. The booking system can only cope with one discount at a time, so you might find that it is occasionally cheaper to get the Super Off Peak Day Return from the ticket office. This is a cheap foot passenger fare where two people travel together after 10.55am.
  
  
• If you're visiting the Isle of Wight and are paying for accommodation, check if your holiday park, hotel, cottage, campsite etc will get you a discount. They can sometimes beat a 20% off discount. For example, Away Resorts can sometimes get you 50% or more off the ferry if you stay at one of their four resorts. See more ferry + accommodation bundles here for some of the bigger savings.
  
  
• Tourers, campervan owners and campers should take a look at Red Funnel's ferry + pitch bundles, which are some of the best around. You need to be quite flexible on dates but the discounts are big.
  
  
• Wightlink's fares might work out cheaper, particularly if you qualify for one of its many 'membership discounts'. For example, you can usually get 15-20% off if you've got English Heritage or The AA membership. See our ferry discounts guide for more details. If you own a property on the Isle of Wight, check if Multilink would save you money.

As mentioned previously, we decided to combine the Isle of Wight Festival 2025 with a couple of cycle rides around the Island. 

After the long ride and late finish on Saturday, we decided to temper our ambitions. Plan A had been a tour of the South Wight, including hilly Ventnor, St Boniface Down and St Catherine's Lighthouse. Plan B was a more serene cycle alongside the River Medina to Cowes. This route features in our guide to the Red Squirrel Trail and offered us a shady cycle along with views of the festival on the other side of the river and lunch at the Woodvale in Gurnard.

It proved to be a good choice, as it gave us enough energy to make the most of Sunday night at the Isle of Wight Festival - rather than spending it lying down and groaning under a tree.

The afternoon Main Stage acts included Alison Moyet and Olly Murs but we began with a tour around some of the other stages, including a little time with Nieve Ella in the Big Top.

As the clock ticked towards 6pm, we made a strategic move towards the big wheel - having previously discovered that this was the point at which the price increased from £8 to £10.

We boarded at 5.58pm and enjoyed Texas from the top of the wheel on one of our three loops round, whilst considering how we would spend our £2 saving.

The weather at the Isle of Wight Festival 2025 did an excellent job of adjusting to the mood of the crowd. 

After the heat of the previous two days, things cooled a little, giving everyone a chance to relax a little and enjoy the breeze coming off the Medina.

We wandered away from Texas to enjoy a) The Kut on the River Stage b) Alessi Rose in the Big Top and c) a slice of toffee cake for £3.50. I was crushed to discover they had sold out of Earl Grey tea, but the cake got me through it.

Jess Glynne was up next, who carried a certain amount of intrigue. 

She was first booked to play at the Isle of Wight Festival in 2015 but delayed to 2016 due to surgery.

In 2019, she was booked again but dropped out on the day due to 'exhaustion'. 

Reports at the time suggested she wouldn't be asked back, but she was and put on a terrific show with a backing band and singers.

We ended up close enough to be covered in ticker tape as she worked her way through several of her seven number ones and made the most of the runway stage that had been set up for the evening's headliner.

There are certain moments where I still can't quite fathom that the Isle of Wight is home to a festival that has hosted some of the world's most famous musicians and singers. I grew up playing football, tennis and cricket at Seaclose Park with friends on sunny Sunday evenings and never would have imagined that the site would later host David Bowie, the Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney.

The arrival of Justin Timberlake was another of these memorable moments. I am not really a big fan of pop music, but this felt like it would be the moment of the weekend, and I wanted to make the most of it.

With this in mind, I suggested to my fellow festival-goers that we should make our way towards the front when Jess Glynne had finished.

This split the party, with one friend agreeing to join me and another deciding to head back and watch from a distance.

And so, as The Tennessee Kids arrived on the stage ahead of Justin Timberlake, we found ourselves only a few metres from the front, shoulder to shoulder with superfans.

The show was epic, even for a non-fan, with a stage-filling band, runway dance-moves, frequent puffs of smoke and a fireworks finale. It was also LOUD, with the bass notes causing the ground to shake under our feet.

As the fireworks continued and Primal Scream played over the festival's traditional credits, we walked home after another sensational evening at Seaclose.

Thanks to all who made it happen.

Our final gallery from Isle of Wight Festival 2025, featuring Alison Moyet, Bjorn Again, Ella Eyre, Jessica Biel watching Justin Timberlake, Midge Ure, Olly Murs, Remember Monday, Texas and The Lilacs.

All images are copyright of Isle of Wight Festival 2025 and are used with permission.

Read our Sunday blog here.

I have a terrible habit of simultaneously overestimating my stamina levels and underestimating how long something will take.

For this reason, we arrived at the Isle of Wight Festival far later than planned on Saturday with legs that felt like jelly.

My fellow festival-goers and I had decided to have a paddleboard and bike ride around the East Wight in the morning, before heading to Seaclose Park in the afternoon.

It was an idyllic trip, but it was a hot day and we couldn't resist detouring via several spots including Bembridge Lifeboat Station, The Dell Cafe in Appley, an ice cream hut in St Helens and Culver Down.

And so, we spent the first couple of hours on Saturday night, wandering in something of a daze between the smaller stages at Seaclose Park - rather than barging our way to the front of the Main Stage for acts including Razorlight, Busted, Paul Heaton featuring Rianne Downey and The Script.

Instead, we enjoyed the Kashmir Cafe, the River Stage (we saw The Molotovs among others) Intoxicated Tea Rooms and a fancy bar run by Sky offering free Wifi and (by the looks of it) hair treatments.

​We briefly considered a ride on the dodgems, but concluded that we had spent enough time on the move that day. We also caught a bit of English Teacher's set in the Big Top.

Next up was the Stereophonics, returning to the Isle of Wight Festival after previous appearances in 2004, 2009 and 2016.

Getting near the front was not a realistic option in this case, as it was a huge crowd who were singing along and enjoying Have A Nice Day and other humdingers. We were happy Just Looking.

We were enjoying Stereophonics but made a strategic move to slowly head towards the Big Top before they had finished so that we could arrive a few minutes before Supergrass were due on stage.

I had seen Supergrass a couple of decades earlier, but have become a bigger fan in recent years and fancied a good view.

We timed it perfectly and found ourselves three rows back as Supergrass arrived to play their way through I Should Coco in its entirety, plus some of their singles including Moving and Pumpin' On Your Stereo.

Supergrass had been given the 2340 to 0100 slot, which runs about an hour later than the Main Stage. Needless to say, our stamina levels were diminishing rapidly but there was no way we were going to leave early.

We applauded until the last notes of Pumpin' On Your Stereo before walking home after a day that felt like three-in-one.

A few highlights from Saturday night at the Isle of Wight Festival, featuring Arthur Hill, Busted, Emmanuel Kelly, Mae Muller, Paul Heaton, Razorlight, Stereophonics, The Script and Yard Act. Read the full blog here.

All images are used with permission from Isle of Wight Festival 2025.

I always feel a pleasant sense of familiarity when Friday at the Isle of Wight Festival comes around. 

Everything is in the same place as last year and the machine is working smoothly. The entry gates move quickly compared to many events I've been to, the music runs to time and is well mixed, the funfair rides are in the same location as last year and the queues for the toilets are a reasonable length. 

These are things we take for granted but I've been to festivals on the mainland where the organisation hasn't reached this level. On one occasion at a mainland festival, I separated from my friends to look for a toilet and wandered with permission into a different area. When I returned, the same security guard said I couldn't go back in and I was marooned. I felt like Tom Hanks in The Terminal. 

Such disasters feel much less likely at Seaclose Park, which is hosting its 23rd Isle of Wight Festival. You can read the full history here, which also includes the three (or perhaps four) Isle of Wight Festivals that took place before the 2002 relaunch.

I was also pleased to see that the Isle of Wight Festival appeared to be as busy as always. I don't have exact attendance figures yet, but it can't be far from previous years where there have been 55,000 paying guests, plus artists, traders and other support staff.

This is another thing I don't take for granted - that the festival will return every year. Many great festivals have come and gone in the Isle of Wight festival's time. A couple of poorly attended years can spell the end for a big event like this - so kudos to those who have steered it through a recession, a cost-of-living crisis, the muddy horrors of 2012, Covid and Morrissey.

Anyway, onto the music.

As we arrived, the Corrs were just starting their set. According to my notes, the Isle of Wight Festival has featured Sharon Corr in 2009 and 2015, plus Andrea Corr in 2011 and the full band in 2016. Feel free to corr-ect me if you think I'm wrong (as I suspect I may be).

We enjoyed a few minutes before having an explore to check everything was as it should be.

Cirque de la Quirk, the Kashmir Cafe and then Sting were the next stops on our itinerary.

The Kashmir Cafe is a nice little spot that raises money for an Isle of Wight arts centre, with local artists plus other acts. It is also the place to go if you want real ale from an Isle of Wight brewery (£6.90 a pint, in case anyone is interested). I had a pint of Tennyson's whilst my compatriots both had a pint of Islander.

We watched a Devon-artist called Samantics, who worked alone with a ukelele, loops and lyrics about online arguments to produce a quirky noise. 

​Daydreamers was up next for us on The River Stage. I hadn't heard of them before, but we thought they were very good and their songs each had a distinctive feel to them, which is not easy to achieve with a first-time listen.

The bassist wore a black glove, which was either a clever piece of stage costume or an attempt to play despite an injury. Either way, they sounded great.

Sting was next up - billed as the headliner, but playing at 8.30pm, ahead of Faithless. This is a manoeuvre that I seem to think happened in 2019 with George Ezra billed as the headliner but Fatboy Slim performing last.

I'd seen The Police at the Isle of Wight Festival in 2008 but hadn't seen Sting perform as a solo artist. 

In the event, he performed several Police songs, so we got the best of both worlds. Highlights included Every Breath You Take, Roxanne and Message In A Bottle.

The show was a straightforward three-piece band rather than one with pyrotechnics, ticker tape, choirs and floating inflatables - but he has enough big hits to carry it off. As I surveyed the crowd, I noticed Sting had certainly drawn the older demographic amongst the Isle of Wight Festival's wide age range - but that is perhaps not surprising considering that Sting is, remarkably, 73 years old.

As the set ended, we walked towards the Big Top, with a brief stop to see a couple of songs from former-Kasabian singer Tom Meighan.

Many of the younger members of the crowd could be found watching Dean Lewis, whose set started just as Sting's ended.

I had only heard a couple of songs, but a friend had raved about him so we headed over, with a short detour to a burger stall (£9 for a cheeseburger and chips, for anyone keeping notes).

We were impressed with Dean Lewis, who elicited high pitched screams of excitement from the crowd three seconds after each song had begun. 

The performance was energetic and creative with a mix of piano ballads, acoustic and electric guitars and a violin, which added a lot to the songs. 

At one point, he took off his acoustic guitar mid-song and threw it about 10 metres to someone at the side of the stage. Knowing how emotionally attached I am to my acoustic guitar, I liked to imagine they had practiced this manoeuvre over the last few months so they could pull it off without destroying it each night. 

I have learnt over the years that pacing yourself is key to festival success. I've never been a big drinker, but I did previously feel that I needed to attend from the first note to the last note to avoid missing a festival highlight. 

I've relaxed a little over the years and decided that Sunday's version of me would appreciate getting back to bed sooner rather than later on Friday. 

We wandered over to see a few minutes of Faithless as we meandered towards the exit. Serendipitously, they were playing Insomnia as we headed out and we were treated to a selection of enthusiastic dance moves from those towards the back of the crowd. A man with the Lego logo tattooed onto the back of his head was competing for attention with a woman in a pink dress who was giving it more energy than I would have been capable of at any time of day.

We left the site and began the walk back home, already looking forward to Saturday night.

Welcome back, Isle of Wight Festival!

Here are a few highlights from Friday night at the Isle of Wight Festival 2025, featuring: Amble, Amy McDonald, Crystal Tides, Denise van Outen, Faithless, Lottery Winners, Sting, The Corrs, The Lathums and Twin Atlantic. Read the full blog here.

All images are copyright of Isle of Wight Festival 2025 and are used with permission.

If you're on Wightlink's mailing list then take a look to see if you've received an email with the title "Pass it on: 35% off ferry travel".

This is one of the biggest discounts we've seen from Wightlink recently, but it's only available if you've been sent a unique code.

This code is aimed at 'a loved one living on the mainland'.

I've often made the point that this group can fall between the cracks when it comes to getting cheaper ferry travel with Wightlink.

"Why's that?" I hear you ask in a polite tone.

Well, people who are paying for accommodation on the Isle of Wight can usually get a good discount via their holiday park, hotel, campsite or self-catering cottage. We've compiled a list of seven of the best ferry + accommodation bundles. If you stay at a Parkdean Resorts holiday, you can sometimes get 50 - 70% off the standard fare. Similarly massive discounts are offered by Away Resorts at their four Isle of Wight holiday resorts and by Warner Leisure Hotels. Lots of smaller accommodation providers also do good discounts if you book direct or give them a call.

Meanwhile, people who live on the Isle of Wight can sometimes get a return ferry with a car and passengers for about £80 via Wightlink's Multilink scheme. There are some restrictions to this and a requirement to pre-pay for at least five return journeys, and complete them within a year. There are other options for residents to help make the ferry cheaper. 

The group who can sometimes end up missing out on discounts are friends and family who want to stay with people they know on the Isle of Wight. They don't qualify for residents' deals and they don't qualify for discounts from accommodation providers. Their best bet is to look at our main guide to discount Isle of Wight ferry travel. That includes things like a 10% discount on Red Funnel that is valid all year.

Red Funnel's provision for friends and family is its Big Book of Savings, which is released five times a year and often includes fixed priced day discounted returns and discounts of about 15 - 25% off other journeys.

We can't share the code as each one is unique and can only be used once. Sorry about that.

If you're planning a visit to the Isle of Wight and know someone who lives there, your best bet is to get in touch with them and sweet talk them until they give you the code. Think of yourself as a Tom-Cruise-in-Mission-Impossible character who has been given a limited time to retrieve a code to avoid the catastrophe of booking a ferry without using a discount code.

Good news, Isle of Wight fans.

You can get 20% off Red Funnel ferry travel if you book during June 2025 via the booking widget on this page. 

Red Funnel usually offer 10% off via our booking form, but they've temporarily doubled it. Hooray.

You need to book by 30 June 2025 and travel before 31 December 2025. It's valid for all dates, including the Isle of Wight Festival weekend.

​Here's the widget you need to use:

Yes, for some people but not everyone. Some exceptions to consider:

• If you are paying for accommodation at one of the big name holiday parks then you will almost certainly get a bigger discount from them. See these ferry pages from Away Resorts or Parkdean Resorts. Big hotel chain Warner Leisure also do a similar deal. We have a page all about ferry + accommodation bundles.
  
  
• Regular visitors can match the 20% off with a Red Funnel Travelcard. It doesn't expire but you have to top up £1000 in advance to get the best discount. It's worth considering if you travel regularly, but keep in mind that you could be earning interest on that money instead (£1000 could earn you about £40 a year with current interest rates).
  
  
• People with an Isle of Wight address may save money with Wightlink's Multilink deal. You pay a minimum of about £400 upfront for five return journeys. The snag is that there are a limited number of Multilink spaces on each ferry, so you need to book early or avoid peak times. Read the full Multilink guide.
  
  
• The 20% off deal doesn't apply if you are travelling as a foot passenger and are already getting a different discount. For example, it won't work if you are booking a Super Off Peak Day Return. In this instance, you'd be better just to turn up at the ferry and pay at the counter.
  
  
• Other discounts may appear in the coming days - so you might want to check our main guide to cheap ferry travel.