Isle of Wight Festival 2016: Friday

I've got to go admit I was pleasantly surprised to find that I wasn't the oldest person at the Isle of Wight Festival. Sure, there were plenty of cool kids holding selfie sticks and Snapchatting (?) but there were also loads of families with children and I saw several people that must have qualified for a winter fuel allowance. I might even go so far as saying I felt young, and we did conclude that we could get away with coming to the Festival for at least another 50 years.

The site is a whole lot bigger than I remember from my last visit, which admittedly has been a little while due to nappies and tantrums (not mine).

Saturday and Sunday's main stage lineups are of more interest to us than Friday's was, so we decided to have a formidable wander which was far more pleasant than my experience of Glastonbury when the site was so packed that walking in a straight line was hard work. 

We stumbled across a few little quirks this year, including an elaborate piece of PR by British Airways involving a check in desk with hidden surprises in the marquee behind. Not sure if I missed the point, but my main takeaway was that British people will happily join a queue even if they have no idea what is at the end. Anyway, thanks for the free drink and the inflatable plane.

We arrived just too late for Busted (not sure if that was a relief or a disappointment), caught a bit of Jess Glynne who went down well, watched a bit more than we planned of the Sex Pi**ed Dolls and happily watched Gabrielle Aplin's set.

Around the time I would normally be heading to bed, the Stereophonics appeared for a jolly sing-song (you can tell I never wrote anything for NME...) before Faithless finished the night off with their 'son et lumiere'. It was so good I nearly stayed until the last song - maybe after a couple more nights I will be ready for a wild all nighter?