2009/29

Isle of Wight Festival 1970,

This is a poster for the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival, held over the August 26th-30th Bank Holiday weekend. It lists the principal artists, including Jimi Hendrix who was to die a few weeks later. The poster was printed in a makeshift workshop on the Festival site. At least 600,000 people turned up to the Festival farmland site, but many watched for free from a hill outside the boundary fence, and the resulting recrimination caused the end of festivals on the island at that time.

1 framed poster: paper

MERL OLIB database note – 'Unofficial poster for the third Isle of Wight Festival over the August bank holiday of 1970. It lists the principal artists appearing, including Jimi Hendrix who was to die a few weeks later. The poster was printed in a makeshift workshop on the Festival site. The same workshop printed posters of individual artists appearing at the festival, the image of whom was visible when held up to a light. At least 600,000 people are reckoned to have turned up to the Festival farmland site, with many of them watching for free - much to the organisers' annoyance - from a hill outside the boundary fence and overlooking the main stage. The resulting disarray and recrimination spelled the end of music festivals on the island at the time.', MERL 'Handwritten accession' form (Museum of English Rural Life) – 'Unofficial poster, listing headline acts, printed and distributed on site at the Isle of Wight Festival, August 26-30, 1970. // Printed in black on very thin yellow paper. Conservation treatment was carried out at Berkshire Record Office and the poster was then framed. // ... Purchased as part of the Collecting 20thc Rural Culture project.' // References // DVD of film of the Festival 'Message to Love'.

Isle of Wight [county]

1970 - 1970