free water Water Shortage (hoping for no fatalities)

[Natalie B]

No Free Water at any of the festival areas apart from at the main entrance and on the campsites, except where it was blocked off by non pre pitched tents in the in the kip and go area.

Far too crowded, food and drink too expensive.  No available shaded area.

Really poor for the day time, but Thursday night was really good from sundown onwards.

 

I think, with the lack of free water available, they are asking for a dehydration fatality which will raise a lot of media attention and probably make it the last IOW festival.  I really expect Live Nation and John Giddings to have been a little more mindful of this, but I guess the festival £Pound counts for more thought processes than human life.

[JacquelineS]

I am staying at the Pink Moon campsite so water and toilet facilities is not an issue. But for the main site there are only two toilets areas and the lines are unreal. If I was camping in the public campgrounds I would be complaining for sure. Most festivals these days that water is a commodity that should be free and the plastic bottles that water comes in are a major pollutant. Other than that I am enjoying the Isle if Wight I have just one other complaint and I will start a new thread so as to not “dilute” this one. 

[Smeble]

Did they not have the taps in the arena this year? Or was it not working? There’s normally a few stainless steel troughs with multiple taps after the search area to fill up water bottles. There’s normally one at the entrance to the medical area.

Why would you expect there to be shaded areas? It’s an outdoor event. 

as for food and drink being expensive, it’s a festival, it’s not going to be cheap.What were the beer prices. £5-£5.50 a pint is pretty much going rate at commercial festivals.

when I saw it had sold out I wondered how busy it would be, it looked absolutely rammed on TV on Friday. Not selling out has its benefits.

[Frazerbob]

“Hoping for no fatalities”.....you’d get a job writing headlines for The Sun. Hope you enjoyed the last ever IOW Festival! 

 

[maelzoid]

Yes, this is a little extreme. While I certainly agree that they should provide more water facilities, death from dehydration is extremely rare and usually takes about 10 days. In fact, death from over-hydration is far more common.

[AMBEV]

Last festival?  What have you been smoking? ??

There was free water in the main arena. There were stand pipes in the camp sites.  

What more do you want?  FFS nothing is free. Free plastic bottles of Evian handed out by the 1000’s, then you’d be moaning about plastic!!

[Natalie B]

Well ok.  I've learnt my lesson.

I struggled with lack of water in the arenas.

At 45 years old I came, on my own, to my first 'camping' festival.

I had major surgery last year and this was supposed to be life affirming for me.  By 15:00 Friday I felt in hell.

I did enjoy Thursday night.

I really do not feel it was good value for money. £500 it cost me and i don't drink alcohol.

 

good night

 

[jimbo68]

We took our own water in to the main arena & security never question how many we took in, £500 Jeez it only cost us £360 total  for two full weekend with camping tickets , car park ticket & ferry crossing for us both with car.

[AMBEV]

Cost me and the Mrs £900 between us. Travel. Pink moon. Smashed every day and eating good meals twice a day. 

What the hell did you spend £500 on?

 

[Funkyfairy!]

On ‎6‎/‎26‎/‎2018 at 3:29 PM, Natalie B said:

Well ok.  I've learnt my lesson.

I struggled with lack of water in the arenas.

At 45 years old I came, on my own, to my first 'camping' festival.

I had major surgery last year and this was supposed to be life affirming for me.  By 15:00 Friday I felt in hell.

I did enjoy Thursday night.

I really do not feel it was good value for money. £500 it cost me and i don't drink alcohol.

 

good night

 

I wasn;t there so can;t comment on IOW specifically but have been festivalling for 25 years - sorry to hear you had a bad time and left early. Could you not buy water - ideally yes water would be free but surely there were tons of stalls selling bottles (I know more plastic) or could you ask where the nearest water point was to fill your own bottle

Big festivals and camping are hard work for sure,and not how they seem on TV,  maybe after your major surgery it may have been too much for you, especially by yourself. They can be lonely places at time, and maybe if you were expecting it to be life affirming then the expectations may have been a little too high.

Really hope you're feeling better now - why did you feel in 'hell' apart from the search for water?

[Barnabylike]

I agree there defiantly was not enough water points and toilet facilities. it seemed like isle of wight were trying to cut cost anyway they could. usually when I go to a festival I carry around a collapsible water bottle attached to my belt and I fill it up whenever I can at the water points but for isle of wight I ended up just buying water from the bar area. I didn't quite spend as much as you, excluding travel and tickets I spent about £150 during the whole weekend, £20 a day on food except on Thursday when I didn't buy anything, about £10 a day on water and the rest on alcohol in the arena.