something for everyone in the sunshine at Fairweather Festival

Fairweather Festival 2018

Friday 31st August to Saturday 1st September 2018
Sandown Airport, Scotchells Brook Lane, Sandown, Isle of Wight, PO36 0JP, England MAP
£40 for a weekend ticket

Daily capacity: 5,000

In a year that has seen many small festivals have to close their doors it is always nice to see others trying to make it work. If that festival happens to be on your doorstep then it is reasonable to see what it has to offer. The last few weeks have not been the festival goers friend weather wise, but Fairweather Festival, now in its second year, managed to live up to its name as the site basked in a warm, if slightly autumnal air.

This small scale festival (only 5,000 capacity) runs across two days and has no camping, although it is right next to a private campsite. It is based on the outskirts of Sandown on the Isle of Wight on the grounds of the local private airport. Having heard good things about it last year, we had high hopes as we head in on the Friday evening. First impressions were certainly good, being an airport, there was plenty of flat open ground to use, and is the site is well set out with plenty of room between the two stages, and a large fairground area. For a fairly small site, there were plenty of bars, with three main ones, plus one on the VIP area, and a dedicated Brothers cider bar (one of the festivals sponsors).

The line-up is definitely one to draw in the younger generation with the second Den stage given over to DJs and MCs. The main stage, named the Mary Ellis stage in memory of a local woman who died this year and achieved fame as a pilot in the Second World War, has a wider range of music, although the influence of rap and dance music is felt here. This influence was particularly noticeable on the first evening, where almost all the acts had at least one foot in this camp. After an underwhelming set from Clippa Sound, who while musically tight, just didn't have the energy to sell the music, we had a DJ set from Fatman Scoop, who from the outset made his presence known - although doing very little live mixing, instead he let a computer take the strain while he spent most of his time at the front of the stage interacting with the crowd. He was clearly aware of the young children in the crowd and would make attempts to avoid swearing, or at least warn the parents of anything upcoming, amusingly though, he would then get carried away and let half a dozen past his lips without seeming to notice. Language aside he was certainly a favourite with the crowd, especially when he encouraged a stage invasion from some of the more enthusiastic revellers.

Fatman Scoop

If Fatman Scoop was a masterclass in how to work a crowd but not so much of a DJ, the next performer was almost the complete reverse. While DJ:CJ was certainly adept at mixing, his rapport with the crowd was barely there.

Fridays performance was finished off with performances from two MCs. First up was Professor Green who really put some energy in the crowd. Although most of the crowd used this energy to dance and sing along, sadly a small area of the crowd let itself down instead. Our first indication of a problem was when Professor Green stopped the show to call out a group who had started a brawl. Having given them an earful from the stage, the show started again. It was a shame as it's was a black spot on what was a really good set.

Unfortunately the fighting wasn't an isolated incident, and sporadic fights kept breaking out. Being caught up in a further crowd brawl while waiting for the headline act was not what we generally see at festivals, so I really hope that is not something this festival falls foul of going forward. It was also disappointing to see how much litter was filling up the arena when there were plenty of bins available. The audience at this festival is fairly young, and it's a shame that this lack of care for the site bodes poorly for the next generation of festival goers.

Example & DJ Wire

Final act of tonight were Example and DJ Wire, who put on and energetic and professional performance. The smaller stage runs for a further act but having been put out of sorts by the attitude of the crowd, we head out now with mixed feelings of what tomorrow will bring.

Saturday sees another day of good weather and so we headed back to the site interested to see whether the general atmosphere is any different. Arriving early afternoon, we were confused to find a different act to the group we were expecting, although Liam Burke’s folk/pop performance was a pleasant surprise and one of the highlights of the afternoon, as was Lucid (the band we expected to see) who arrived afterwards, theirs a mix of original material and covers of artists as diverse as Fleetwood Mac, Rag 'n' Bone Man, and Pink Floyd. As the afternoon wore on we managed to decode why the shuffle had occurred - as two billed acts had failed to materialise. One act - X Factor winner Matt Terry was announced on the stage, but the other, The Tailormade, were missing in action without explanation. It's a shame that the festival failed to explain, either from the stage or on social media. If you had come along to specifically see this act then it would have been disappointing to be left with no explanation as to their absence.

Another disappointment, was the lack of communication about the attempt to break the world record for odd sock wearers - plenty was made of it in the run up, however on site there was no mention made. While the event took place at the Den, there was no mention made to encourage people to go from the main stage - we had our odd socks ready, but completely missed it, as did many odd sock wearers around us. One final oddity was a decision to increase drinks prices overnight. Moving a pint from £4.50 to £5. We were told this was because the bars didn't have enough change on site, which seems a bit of a poor show, and showed a bit of poor preparation by the bar operators.

On the positive side the music today really was top class. As well as Liam Burke and Lucid, a blowaway set from The South performing hit after hit from the days when they were still Beautiful. And the crowd, although a lot smaller than yesterday were far more relaxed and friendly. Dappy was another surprise, as I've never been a great fan of his music, but he put on a good show. The only criticism was that as soon as he started to get into the swing of it, he seemed to cut his set dead, one minute interacting with the crowd then just walking off stage with barely a goodbye. Given that most acts were given 45-60 minutes, his performance time was less than 30 minutes, and noticeably short.

Expecting another DJ set from Rhythm of the 90s we were happily surprised by a vey upbeat and professional band performing all the big 90’s dance hits, they were followed by the notional headline act - Razorlight. Back on the road with their first new material in almost a decade, and an almost total line-up change, its more apparent than ever that this is the Johnny Borrell show. Not that this is a bad thing, as now happily shorn of some of the arrogance that seemed to dog the bands early years, instead you have a tight, and fun rock band. Whether performing classics such as America, or new tracks from the forthcoming album Olympus Sleeping, Johnny seems happy in his skin and has the spark that first caught people's eye when they first started out.

Razorlight

Bringing the main arena to a close was the Friends of Foor show, a performance from Foor with guest appearances from, predictably, their friends. While it was well received by the crowd, and certainly fairly energetic and strong, it really wasn't our thing, so we decided to call the it a night.

First impressions for Fairweather Festival have been good. Yes there are niggles, but nothing worse than most festivals in their early years and certainly not insurmountable, overall we are impressed with what the organisers are building. It's definitely one we look forward to seeing grow in years to come, as it definitely has a place in the Isle of Wight's varied festival calendar.