Stereophonics and Supergrass on Saturday Night at the Isle of Wight Festival

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.

There aren't many festivals that offer a trip to a lifeboat station in the morning

Wandering between the Seaclose stages

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.

Saturday delivered more good weather at the Isle of Wight Festival 2025

The Main Stage lineup on Saturday included Razorlight and Busted

The Molotovs were amongst the acts we saw on the River Stage

Heading for the front

By the time Yard Act arrived onstage at the Big Top we had recovered sufficiently that we wanted to get near to the front.  This proved to be a good move, and we greatly enjoyed their raucous (and very loud) set from a very good vantage point.

Yard Act gave it some welly in the Big Top (Credit: Isle of Wight Festival 2025)

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.

Stereophonics headlined the main stage to a big crowd on Saturday night (Credit: Isle of Wight Festival 2025)

A super time with Supergrass

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.

Supergrass performed the entirety of their first album at Isle of Wight Festival 2025