Saturday at the Isle of Wight Festival 2024

Good weather makes an almighty difference to how much I enjoy a festival. Over the years, the Isle of Wight Festival has been blessed with remarkably good weather (apart from 2012, which we don't talk about).

The sunshine and not-excessive heat continued on Saturday, which made for another excellent day.

Saturday afternoon had a definite pop theme to it, including Natalie Imbruglia, S Club, Jessie J and Jake Shears. I have never been a huge fan of pop music, but I am a big fan of a) eclectic line-ups and b) acts that haven't played at the Isle of Wight festival before.

Jessie J played at the Isle of Wight Festival in 2012 and 2018 but the other three acts were making their Seaclose Park debut (well, that's according to my history of the Isle of Wight Festival). Personally, I think they were all good bookings as the Isle of Wight Festival would be much less interesting if it was one demographic listening to a series of similar artists.

These three photos are used with permission of the Isle of Wight Festival 2024, which is why they are rather better than my snaps

Saturday went too soon

The first of two acts that I was particularly keen to see on Saturday was Feeder, which will give you a very good idea of my age and tastes.

Remarkably, this was the sixth time that Feeder have appeared at the Isle of Wight Festival. If you are interested, the previous appearances were 2005, 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2018. Anyone compiling an Isle of Wight pub quiz on bands of the 1990s might like to use this fact in a bonus round.

I enjoyed Feeder's set greatly, although they didn't play my favourite song of theirs - Yesterday Went Too Soon. I'm putting in an early request for this song at their next appearance in around 2027 or 2028.

Feeder showing off their brand new car

Cherry beer at the Kashmir Tent

After Feeder, we took a wander and watched a bit of Keane before heading for the Kashmir Tent, which is mostly local band. I enjoyed both acts that we saw - Ugly Ozo and Mowfy. The former had a Last Dinner Party dress code whilst the latter managed to produce a considerable noise with only a bass guitar and a drum kit (the same setup as Royal Blood). The difference was the addition of a female singer, who had a great voice.

Mowfy made an excellent noise at the Kashmir tent

Before we left the Kashmir Tent it was time for my single pint of the evening. I have a very shallow interest in beer and rarely drink more than one pint. I will happily drink anything as long as it's cold and on special offer in Sainsbury's. This always proved to be a big disappointment to my father who was quite keen on real ale.

On this occasion, I was with two friends who began talking with a serious tone about "easy to drink IPAs" and "robust stouts". My decision to order a cherry flavoured beer was mostly an attempt to wind them up, which did the trick very nicely. Today, I plan to say things like "is Strongbow classed as a real ale?"

As we wandered away from the Kashmir tent, we caught the tail end of Loreen (who I keep mistakenly calling Soreen). She was the winner of Eurovision in 2012 and 2023, and was going down very well. We rather wished we had seen a bit more of the set, but it was great nonetheless.

Pet Shop Boys and a sausage

Next up was something to eat. I went for a sausage and chips, which turned out to be a massive great portion for £9.50 (pretty decent for festival prices I would say). Those who know my eating habits will be stunned to hear that I only ate 60% of it before passing it on to my fellow attendees.

Saturday's headline act was the Pet Shop Boys, who exceeded my expectations. This was their first time at the Isle of Wight Festival, although they did play at the Bestival at Robin Hill in (I think) 2006. 

The Pet Shop Boys are one of those acts that has a lot more hits than you can remember. Despite never really listening to any of their albums, I found I knew almost their entire set list. My enjoyment levels gradually increased and by the end,  I was won over. My fellow attendees said it was their highlight of the festival so far.

During the set, we also completed the traditional trip onto the big wheel. This is well worth it and is still not bad value at £10. I believe the price goes up at busier times.

This was my first trip at night, whereas I had seen it during the day in previous years. My conclusion is that the big wheel is probably at its best at around dusk on a sunny evening, ideally whilst an act is playing their biggest hit on the main stage. The sparkling lights were certainly pretty at night but you could take in the scale of the Isle of Wight Festival much better during daylight.

I'm not so young anymore

The Isle of Wight Festival puts on decent big top headliners that continue after the main stage has finished. In this case it was Suede, another act that I was a fan of in my childhood days of discovering the wonder of music. They last played at the Isle of Wight Festival in 2014. 

This was a battle of stamina for us, and I felt myself torn (to quote one of the day's other artists). Do I stay until the end, which would mean finally getting into bed at around 2.30am or watch some of Suede's set and then get to bed by 2am?

Suede were belting out a great set, full of energy and hits but my legs didn't quite share the same energy. In my defence, we had done a 30 mile bike ride in the morning, and I'm certainly not a triathlete (as you'll have guessed from the diet of sausage and chips).

We made our way home about half way through Suede's set, with the sound of one of the many great bands of the 1990s fading into the distance. My first piece of festival advice is always to pace yourself and I decided to listen to myself.

After all, we've still got Green Day to look forward to.

A late night with Suede at the Isle of Wight Festival