Lessons will be learned, says promoter of mud-hit festival
The promoter of the Isle of Wight Festival has apologised for the chaos caused by heavy rains at the start of the event and promised that lessons would be learned in future.
But John Giddings said that he had been amazed by the resilience of the 55,000-strong crowd which overcame the mud to enjoy the concerts headlined by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Pearl Jam and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.
The festival was affected by a deluge which saw gridlocked drivers forced to sleep in their cars as the car parks at Seaclose Park, Newport, had become flooded and inaccessible with mud. The queues caused ferry companies to suspend their services and about 600 people were stranded on ferries on the Solent.