A new three-day weekend festival, planning to honour the history-making Isle of Wight Festival of 1970, has been postponed until 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic and social distancing restrictions.
The event, which was planned for September 4, 5 and 6, was to feature an 'all-star' lineup, led by the Moodies' John Lodge.
Tickets already sold will be valid for the rescheduled festival which will now take place in 2021 over the September 3, 4 and 5 weekend at the iconic 1970 site – East Afton Farm.
Chief organisers Chris Hewitt and Andy Sharrocks decided against an early postponement in the hope that social distancing and other restrictions prompted by Covid-19 would have receded sufficiently to allow 'EXPERIENCE 1970' to go ahead this September.
The organisers said:
“Sadly, although there has been progress in relaxing the restrictions, we have to accept we could not stage the event we had planned for this year,” said Chris. “To ensure the safety of everyone at the event and, indeed, all our hosts on the Isle of Wight, we cannot take the risk of staging the event this year.
“But we have been in touch with all the artists and they are fully behind our decision to stage EXPERIENCE 1970 in 2021. They all want to play next year. The 1970 festival is a massive landmark in rock music history and must be marked...and we will mark it next year in style.
“Our number one priority is health and safety and we feel this is the right decision. The Coronavirus outbreak has been fast moving from day to day and we wanted to wait in case circumstances allowed us to proceed. Now our aim is to use the extra time to create an even better annniversary event in 2021.
“All tickets already sold are valid for the 2021 dates and we are determined to stage one hell of a party with EXPERIENCE 1970.”
John Lodge will bring his 10,000 Light Years band to the festival alongside fellow 1970 veterans Groundhogs and Ten Years After. Folk-rock fans can look forward to the return of Jacqui McShee’s Pentangle, another 1970 original.
Plainsong, featuring 1970 veterans Iain Matthews and Andy Roberts, will be back as is Hawkwind’s Nik Turner and Isle of Wight legends Arthur Brown and Dick (Pretty Things) Taylor.
In addition, a host of fine tribute bands will pay homage to other star names on the original bill, including Are You Experienced (Hendrix); Total Who (The Who); Free at Last (Free); Sinner Boy (Rory Gallagher); Dayglo Pirates (Jethro Tull) and Noddy’s Puncture (Emerson, Lake and Palmer).
Organiser, Chris, said:
“We have some great names on the bill and we want to do these fine bands justice with a great stage and a brilliant sound system that will be evocative of the original festival back in 1970,”
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