Wind and rain brings chaos to festival start

10:28pm Thursday 21st June 2012 in News

Wind and rain brings chaos to festival start Wind and rain brings chaos to festival start

HEAVY downpours and high winds have led to a chaotic start to the Isle of Wight festival.

Hundreds of festival goers have been trapped in traffic jams on the island and those within the site have been soaked and caked in mud.

Organisers also closed the Big Top temporarily tonight amid fears about high winds.

Meanwhile there have been long traffic delays for people in ports and hundreds of people have been stranded on ferries.

Three Wightlink ferries with a total of 600 people on board have been waiting in the Solent for several hours.

The ferry firm said it was unable to unload cars in Fishbourne because of congestion.

A Wightlink spokeswoman said: “They are fine, and there are crew and food on board. We can’t do anything else with them until we can get into port to unload.”

About 65,000 festival goers are expected to attend the festival at Seaclose Park in Newport.

But all day and all evening massive traffic jams have been building up after the main car park became flooded.

Organisers were forced to create an overflow car park.

And before a note had even sounded on stage, revellers were coated in mud as they put up tents in heavy showers.

Washing-up bowls were used as impromptu shelters as a month’s average rainfall for June fell overnight. Police have drafted in extra patrols late tonight. Special 4x4 vehicles are towing cars into the festival car parks.

Comments(13)

IronLady2010 says...
11:30pm Thu 21 Jun 12

After listening to the news tonight, I wish all the festival goers the best of luck and send my thoughts to the locals who have to put up with the chaos!

This is going to be a wash out this year, shame!

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Mewling Quim says...
12:07am Fri 22 Jun 12

Good!

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rich the stitch says...
7:08am Fri 22 Jun 12

Ha ha. A bit of rain and it all grinds to a halt, certainly no Glastonbury. IOW festival, half ar$ed festival full of half ar$ed festival goers.

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thinklikealocal says...
8:06am Fri 22 Jun 12

The organisors should come under some close scrutiny for this. Quote "my team are busy laying tracks (across the mud), the site had standing water on it on Monday. Anyone with half a brain should have known the situation was unlikely to improve due to ground being waterlogged and forecast. I'm afraid its about profit and nothing else. As for the festival itself, fabulous memories of great times in the last few years.

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bigfella777 says...
8:23am Fri 22 Jun 12

I dont see how the organisers can get away with it the chaos that they have caused.
Why anybody would pay £100 to travel 3 miles in 10 hours to watch Bruce Springsteen in a swamp is beyond me.

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bazzeroz says...
9:09am Fri 22 Jun 12

I should think plenty of fore thought would have told the organizers that with Wimbledon around the corner and the unpredictable UK weather this was going to be a wash out any way. Move the festival from I.o.W. to, Spain! Oh! and wasn't it a wash out last year as well? Doh! same time of year should tell them something.

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rich the stitch says...
9:40am Fri 22 Jun 12

bigfella777 wrote:
I dont see how the organisers can get away with it the chaos that they have caused. Why anybody would pay £100 to travel 3 miles in 10 hours to watch Bruce Springsteen in a swamp is beyond me.
They do have more than 1 act. Obviously someone who's never been to a festival, you should get out more.

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bigfella777 says...
10:07am Fri 22 Jun 12

rich the stitch wrote:
bigfella777 wrote:
I dont see how the organisers can get away with it the chaos that they have caused. Why anybody would pay £100 to travel 3 miles in 10 hours to watch Bruce Springsteen in a swamp is beyond me.
They do have more than 1 act. Obviously someone who's never been to a festival, you should get out more.
Dont need to, its only music,I have got a cd player.

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Poppy22 says...
10:09am Fri 22 Jun 12

Wondered why the weather had changed for the worse - Ascot and the IOW festival, that's why! About time festival organisers came up with a way of coping with the English weather and having in place the right plans for bad weather (eg suitable car parking).

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Higginz says...
11:13am Fri 22 Jun 12

bigfella777 wrote:
rich the stitch wrote:
bigfella777 wrote: I dont see how the organisers can get away with it the chaos that they have caused. Why anybody would pay £100 to travel 3 miles in 10 hours to watch Bruce Springsteen in a swamp is beyond me.
They do have more than 1 act. Obviously someone who's never been to a festival, you should get out more.
Dont need to, its only music,I have got a cd player.
That's like comparing watching p0rn to having s3x.

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Murray mint says...
12:30pm Fri 22 Jun 12

Such a shame that weather has spoilt or is spoiling the enjoyment of festival goers and residents alike. Nobody should be pointing fingers at anybody, it's June for Gods sake! Its Supposed to be summer, chill!

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Swissowned says...
2:38pm Fri 22 Jun 12

Higginz wrote:
bigfella777 wrote:
rich the stitch wrote:
bigfella777 wrote: I dont see how the organisers can get away with it the chaos that they have caused. Why anybody would pay £100 to travel 3 miles in 10 hours to watch Bruce Springsteen in a swamp is beyond me.
They do have more than 1 act. Obviously someone who's never been to a festival, you should get out more.
Dont need to, its only music,I have got a cd player.
That's like comparing watching p0rn to having s3x.
Quality! The funniest post (and comeback) I've read on the DE comments in ages. So true! :-)

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Bahons says...
8:31am Sun 24 Jun 12

Why would anyone choose to spend their freetime living in the middle of a field with thousands of strangers?

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