Fire Island Blog

The last few years of the IOW Festival have seen an alternative gathering springing up on the other side of the River Medina. This year about 50 to 60 people were camping by the water’s edge, soaking up the sun and the vibe for free. Some had campervans and converted buses, some just bought tents and sleeping bags. There were people of all ages and from all walks of life (just like any “real” festival) and all had come to share in a little bit of the festival magic.

I popped along for a few hours on the Saturday afternoon and caught up with some friends who were camping there. Dunc and Za were there with their two girls and their ‘94 LDV minibus conversion. Wibbs and Tania with 11 month old Rudi and their beautiful Merc 800 series van. Everyone was chilling out when I got there, collecting fire wood, chatting, listening to the non-stop stream of bands as they took to the stage.

The setting was perfect. Although a little too far to really see what was happening on stage, the sound was fantastic. With the site only a few hundreds away across the river, the music pumped out all day long, the wind carrying the sound over the water to us.

Kudos to Jeff for the inspired makeshift hammock. Three perfectly positioned trees just cried out to be used to hang an old fishing net found in the Carribean years before.

There was even room for a little World Cup action as one of our posse had the England v Paraguy on his little solar polared TV set. If I remember rightly The Proclaimers came on just after the match finished and hearing thousands of people singing along to “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” was a definite highlight for me.

Later, on the Sunday evening I blagged a wristband from a friend who was running a market stall at the festival. I managed to catch Lou Reed’s lacklustre performance. Come on Mr. Reed, I don’t care how big a superstar you think you are, you can’t really appear at a festival and not play any of your hits.

The rest of the evening was a bit of a blur, bumping into friends and drinking in the Pussy Parlure, one of the last remaining 1920s Belgian Spiegeltents. In years past Spiegeltents were used as travelling dance halls and cabaret bars, some even say mobile brothels. They are huge decorate wooden halls, full of mirrors and transported in two 14 ton containers. I want one.

As I floated out of the Pussy Parlure towards home I caught a last snippet of Coldplay as they treated the crowd to a cover of Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day”. I’d seen both sides of the festival, from both sides of the River Medina and had a blast. Chris Martin even recognised the break-away festival goers, dedicating a tune to “all those on the other side of the river”.

Living in the same road as the permanent exhibition celebrating the 1970 IOW festival, walking past the Jimi Hendrix statue every day, working on realising the dream of creating Fantasy Festivals, and just generally loving live music and festivals, it’s fair to say I was looking forward to this year’s IOW festival.

Not just the headline bands like the Foo Fighters and Coldplay, but the whole festival experience.

That might seem a bit obvious, but actually it’s a turn-around for me, as I’ve been a bit of a festival snob towards the re-invented IOW festival and it’s only just won me over.

To me, the re-incarnation (it came back in 2002 after a 30 year gap) had seemed a bit one-dimensional and too much like a council-run event. For someone who fell in love with the chaos that is Glastonbury festival it definitely paled in comparison with the now legendary original festivals of ‘68, ‘69, ‘70) and all that they represented (there’s tons of history out there, including the film ‘Message to Love’ just ask Google…)

But letting go of what was and could be, and taking it for what it actually is (just some great bands coming to play on my doorstep) I was pleasantly surprised.

OK, (still harping back to Glastonbury here) there was none of the sense that you were entering a foreign land with no rules, you couldn’t exactly lose yourself for days on end with all the alternative entertainment and there was hardly an old hippy in sight. All in all the ‘people watching’ was a bit tame.

But the music was great. Coldplay’s set was fantastic, the sun shone all weekend, I didn’t see any ugly scenes (except the bogs) and there was a sea of smiling faces all around.

There was more to do than just sit at the main stage this year. ‘The band stand’ was a platform for Island bands (’Bastilla’ on sunday afternoon were superb) and the Bacardi and Strongbow tents were packed for some great DJ sets.

To top it all off, Monday brought more sunshine and a nice clean 2-3ft wave at Compton (perfect day for longboarding) to wash away the festival dust and re-charge the batteries. So even for someone who thought that maybe his ‘festival days’ were behind him….. It’s times like these you learn to live again