Friday Night at the Isle of Wight Festival 2025

We arrived to warm sunshine and a familiar setup at the 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.

Corr, what a crowd

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.

The welcome sight of blue skies at the Isle of Wight Festival 2025

Wandering the smaller stages

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.

We particularly enjoyed Daydreamers on the River Stage

Sting on the Main Stage

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.

Every little song Sting played was magic (Credit: Isle of Wight Festival 2025)

Dean Lewis in the Big Top

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. 

Dean Lewis elicited squeals of excitement in the Big Top

Easy does it

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!

Faithless closing Friday night at the Isle of Wight Festival

Credit: Isle of Wight Festival 2025