It’s festival season and there’s excitement around Republic HQ! We all share a love of music and because we’re a diverse bunch, you can guarantee we’ll cover off most of the biggest fests of the summer. The latest to tick off the list was the Isle of Wight. When the opportunity came to report from the island for Republic, we could hardly say no!
We’d both done festivals before (Glastonbury….amazing) so we knew we had to go prepared. Tents, sleeping bags, waterproofs, wellies, loo roll, hand sanitiser and refreshing beverages (!) were all packed well in advance. The only thing standing between us and a weekend of awesome music, crazy festival fashion and the unexpected was a six hour journey from Leeds, taking on trains, cabs, the tube, ferries and water taxis.
As we got closer to London on the first leg, news reached us that the festival was under serious threat from the Great British summer. Car parks were flooded, stages were being closed for safety reason and tents were being swallowed up by lakes of m*d. Not good! People were even going home before the first tunes were played (get a grip!).
When we finally got onto the festival site, the mud was everywhere. Luckily, the organisers had opened up some greener fields and we quickly unleashed the pop-up tents then trudged to the main stage to watch our first band of the weekend – Elbow. They’re festival veterans and knew how to get the crowd (about 25,000 people) going. By the time they’d gone through their anthems, we knew the weekend was going to be a good one. They’d set the festival vibe and for the next three days this was reality! Next up was a change of pace and Groove Armada who smashed The Big Top with an unbelievable DJ set. After a long day traveling and wading through oceans of mud, we headed back to the tent still buzzing from two epic performances and plotting what we’d be getting up to over the next few days.
If Friday was a belter, Saturday was even better. We spent loads of time walking through the site, talking to as many people as we could about their festival fashion and taking pics of our favorite outfits. Everyone looked amazing and made a real effort. Festivals really are the perfect place to let loose and be yourself and we were really inspired by everyone we saw taking risks with fashion. If you’re confident enough, you can pull off any look (yes we’re talking about you, the guy in silver wellies, leather jacket and gold chains!).
In between the twitter updates and style pics, we managed to take a ride on the big wheel with views over the whole festival, watch Jessie J, Professor Green and Biffy Clyro tear it up and Magnetic Man performing one of the sets of the weekend. As darkness fell and the rain began to come down again, we headed to the silent disco before going over to the beach bar to dance into the early hours in the pouring rain…
We woke up on Sunday morning with slightly sore heads but, worse than that, a completely soaked tent! The rain was still coming down and all our stuff was wet through. The only thing for it was to get a quick wash and head straight back out for more tweets and style pics. As we entered the main arena, the sun finally came out for the first time during the weekend. We took the opportunity to head to the Big Top stage and check out our friends The Milk’s set. We were really impressed with the guys when they came to Republic HQ a few weeks before for an acoustic session so were looking forward to seeing them on the big stage. They absolutely smashed it! Easily one of the best performances of the weekend and the crowd were bouncing – not an easy thing to achieve on the Sunday morning of a festival! We’re really proud of the guys and can’t wait to catch up with them again when they’re back in Leeds. Check out www.thisisthemilk.com for more info.
The rest of Sunday was taken up by epic performances from The Vaccines, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds and the legendary Bruce Springsteen. We did find time for a cheeky bit of Hip Hop Karaoake (bombing on Warren G’s Regulate!) and to party to the sounds of aging Isle of Wight reggae legend Derek Sandy who got everyone on their feet dancing until the sun set.
As we packed up on Monday morning (pop up tents are MUCH harder to put down), we reflected on a weekend that we’ll never forget. We met loads of awesome people, saw some really inspirational fashion and listened to great music. Despite the mud and rain, we love festivals more than ever and will definitely be coming back to the Isle of Wight soon!
Jonathan and Charlotte xx
