New to Festivals (food requirements)

[GeorgiaG95]

Hey Guys, 

 

so I’ve never been camping or to a festival before and next week I’m going to the Isle of Wight festival for the full four days! 
camping wise I think I’ve got everything but my main concern is that I’ve got a few dietary restrictions and so am not sure what the rule is on what and where you can bring food in to?! And if there’s a little shop near by? If anyone could help that would be amazing? 
thank you!!! 

[incident]

3 hours ago, GeorgiaG95 said:

Hey Guys, 

 

so I’ve never been camping or to a festival before and next week I’m going to the Isle of Wight festival for the full four days! 
camping wise I think I’ve got everything but my main concern is that I’ve got a few dietary restrictions and so am not sure what the rule is on what and where you can bring food in to?! And if there’s a little shop near by? If anyone could help that would be amazing? 
thank you!!! 

In broad terms that would apply to just about every festival - between the various on site traders between most of the common dietary restrictions - vegetarian, vegan, gluten free, lactose intolerant, nut allergies, etc should all be covered though sometimes not always every specific combination of those. If you need something more unusual than that I'd be less confident of finding it on site.

Regarding taking food in - you should be able to take food into the campsites (no glass allowed, so decant any jars/bottles into plastic containers), and IOW will have a co-op on site with a range of basic items at normalish prices. Not sure about restrictions taking stuff into the Arena, my guess is that snack type items would be fine but there may be restrictions around liquid.

In the worst case scenario, the site is very close to Newport with shuttle buses available so it should be possible use a shop/cafe/pub/restaurant there.

[David Cook]

HI, You can bring food and drink in to the campsite, So long as it is not in glass bottles or containers. You normally can't take anything in to the main arena except for water. There is something on the website that says you can write to them to get a permission letter to bring food in to the main arena for certain dietary requirements

If you have special medical needs (e.g. if you are diabetic or coeliac) and need to bring in prohibited items to the Festival, we can provide you with a letter of authority. Please email us on isleofwightfestival@solo.uk.com.

I have Diabetes and did this. It took a few days to get a reply, But i now have a headed letter saying i have permission to bring in medication, Needles/EpiPen's, Fast acting Carbs, Gluten Free food, blood monitoring equipment and Breathing apparatus. (it seems to be a standard letter)

In terms of food on site, There is a co-op shop in the camping area where you can buy lots of things you can buy in most co-op shops, which hopefully would cover you, non-dairy milk etc, The food around the festival and in the Arena is also very good and varied and you should be able to find something to eat from the food trucks unless you have very complex dietary issues. it's a 20-30 minute walk or a 5 minute bus ride in to Newport where there are full size supermarkets, and restaurants too.

The the official info of what you can and cant bring in is here Info - Isle of Wight Festival