How the Isle of Wight Festival gives back to the Island every year

The Isle of Wight Festival may last for one weekend, but its impact is felt across the Island long after the music stops. It is easy to moan about the disruption, but as well as bringing thousands of visitors and Islanders to Seaclose Park, the festival supports charities, community groups, local performers and good causes, while helping to showcase the Island to new audiences.

Support for good causes

This year, the festival sponsored Mountbatten’s Walk The Wight, and continued its local charity ticket ballot, giving Island charities and good causes tickets to use in their own fund-raising.

Recipients included First Act, West Wight Sports & Community Centre, Sandown & Shanklin Independent Lifeboat, Aspire Ryde, Age UK IW, Ventnor Cricket Club, Cowes Fringe, RSPCA IW, KissyPuppy The Sophie Rolf Trust, Medina House School, The WightAid Foundation, Friends of the Animals, and Alzheimer Café IW.

At the festival itself, charities are given space on Charity Row, in Penny Lane, where they can meet festival-goers, raise awareness, and explain the work they do. This year’s organisations included Mountbatten, IW Mencap, St Catherine’s School, Haylands Farm, Wessex Cancer, Action IW & Youth Bay Project, IW Pride, Dimbola, Oxfam, and Natural Enterprise.

Mountbatten enjoyed a record-breaking year at the festival, raising £87,000 through its roaming sunflower merchandise teams, Penny Lane stall holders, and the support of The IOW Festival Banter Group.

Sunflower umbrellas (“sunbrellas”), which doubled as parasols, were carried by many festival-goers, along with crochet fashion made by members of the Mountbatten Knit & Natter group, and sunflower brooches were among the items available in return for suggested donations. Mountbatten community fund-raiser, Harri McNeil, said: “I can’t express how thankful I am to all those who supported Mountbatten over the weekend. Our roaming volunteers and stall-runners worked so very hard.”

Wight Crystal also welcomed the crowds and the hot weather, with strong demand for its spring water and other drinks across the festival weekend. The social enterprise is the trading arm of OSEL Enterprises, an Island charity that provides training, employment, and well-being support for people with learning disabilities, physical disabilities, autism, and mental‑health needs.

A stage for local talent

The festival also gives local musicians the chance to perform in front of large audiences.

The Platform One Stage is programmed and run by Platform One College of Music, providing a route for Island performers and students to appear at one of the country’s best-known music festivals.

Emerging artists are also supported through the Wight Noize competition, which gives the winner the chance to open the main stage. This year’s winner was Fugo Kid, who amazed crowds on Saturday with his set.

The Kashmir Cafe, run by Island volunteers, also continues to support local arts, with profits going to Quay Arts.

Economy boost

The Festival’s wider economic value is also significant.

An IW Council spokesman said the event helps welcome thousands of visitors to the Island, many for the first time, and provides a “massive boost” to the local economy. A study commissioned in 2009 valued its impact at around £12.5 million. Taking inflation into account, the council said that would be equivalent to approximately £16 million today. The spokesman said the figure reflected both direct spending with local businesses and the longer-term benefit of introducing new visitors to the Island.

Visit Isle of Wight chief executive Dominic Wray agreed. He said: “People come for the music, but what they discover is everything else – the beaches, the landscape, the food, the welcome.” He added that the festival remained one of the biggest drivers of first-time visits to the Island, with many returning for holidays after first discovering the Isle of Wight through the event.

A wider view

It is always tempting to moan about some of what the IW Festival delivers – the traffic, the queues, the noise and the sheer scale of it all – but the wider picture is hard to ignore. For many Island charities, performers, businesses and first‑time visitors, the festival is a lifeline and a showcase rolled into one. And long after the celebrities have flown out, the last tent has gone and everything returns to normal, the benefits continue to help those in need across the Island.