Isle of Wight Festival 1990 - The Forgotten Festival

​A few months ago, I was wasting time on Facebook when I stumbled across a poster for the Isle of Wight Festival 1990.

This frazzled my brain slightly, as I had spent a long time telling people that the Isle of Wight Festival took a 32 year break between 1970 and 2002. (Read our history of the Isle of Wight Festival)

I found a few details about the 1990 event - but there is surprisingly little evidence of its existence.

​I recently spoke to the organiser of the Isle of Wight Festival 1990 - Geoff Francis - who filled in the gaps including the lineup, the challenges of putting on the event and why it didn't return for 1991.

Here are some interesting little nuggets from the video and and from the post-interview conversation I had with Geoff:

• The event cost about £10,000, of which about £3000 was spent on booking 13 acts.
• Boy George was the biggest name on the bill, which cost them another £1500.
• It made quite a bit loss, so there was no discussion of a repeat.
• About 1500 people attended, each of whom paid about £13.
• The event was held over one day and was organised in just eight weeks.
• Melody Maker covered the event with a double page spread.
• The event was 100% vegan, as Geoff is a long time campaigner for animals.
• There was quite a bit of local opposition to the event. Geoff told me that someone had gone to Portsmouth and written 'cancelled' on the posters advertising the event.

---

Photos of the Isle of Wight Festival 1990

There are probably more portraits of Julius Caesar than there are photos of the Isle of Wight Festival 1990. Back then, you didn't carry a camera around with you unless you were on holiday. However, Nigel on Facebook has kindly dug some up and said we can share them.

Captain Sensible at the Isle of Wight Festival 1990 (Credit: Nigel Eldridge)

Captain Sensible with some of the crowd at the Isle of Wight Festival 1990