Seaclose Park
The Isle of Wight Festival in it’s current form, is held at Seaclose Park on the Isle of Wight. The Isle of Wight is famous for it’s Festival History. Before the festival restarted as it is today, it was held three times at different locations around the Island. The first Isle of Wight Festival was held in 1968 at Godshill and featured Jefferson Airplane, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown and Tyrannosaurus Rex. The second took place in Ryde in 1969 and was the year that Bob Dylan refused Woodstock in order to play the Isle of Wight. In 1970 the Isle of Wight Festival became the biggest the World had ever seen, with 600,000 people attending Afton Down to see some of the biggest bands in the World. Bands on the line-up that year included The Doors, The Who, Joni Mitchell, Jimi Hendrix, Joan Baez and Jethro Tull.
Although it is not linked with the original festival, the current Isle of Wight Festival has continued to bring massive acts to the Island. Since we started photographing it we have seen so many great live performances there including Blur, Fleetwood Mac, The Stone Roses, The Black Keys and Fat Boy Slim.
We photograph at the Isle of Wight Festival for Kashmir Cafe, a stage run by a great team in aid of The Quay Arts Centre. Kashmir Cafe host a variety of bands and singer-songwriters from the Isle of Wight like The Ohmz and Weatherkings as well as from further afield. The music is eclectic with almost all genres represented. The set-up gives us great opportunities to get really close to the action even when the tent is packed to capacity during acts such as Dodgy and Wheatus. Chris also provides Kashmir Cafe with all of their beautiful branding.
