Lily Allen out of Isle Of Wight

John Giddings, organiser of The Isle of Wight Festival has confirmed exclusively to eFestivals that Lily Allen won't be on the bill, when asked to confirm if the 'Smile' singer had pulled out he replied, "It's true, they (her people) have said she's not coming, she hasn't delivered her record, and I said I haven't booked a record I've booked an artist, I think the poor girl has got a few problems, unfortunately England, although it produces good girl singer songwriters, they don't seem to be capable of running the course."

Lilly Allen was a personal booking after she met John Giddings in a club and asked him to book her. The festival organiser added, "I find it very disappointing, these artists don't seem to have a responsibility to their audience. Morrissey (in 2005) pulled out two weeks before the festival claiming he was never booked and he told us he didn't have a drummer, I offered him Phil Collins and he still said he wouldn't do it, but Travis replaced him and they were absolutely phenomenal. It's a good job she pulled out now and not the day before, I wish her the best I hope she sorts herself out."

When Giddings was asked if there would be a replacement artist on the bill, he implicated there might not be. Giddings replied, "Not necessarily, I might spend the money instead of on her on making the festival green because we've got a great bill anyway, we've sold out and nobody seems that bothered about her turning up, I'm thinking about it now I'm not rushing into anything yet. I don't think there's pressure on us to do anything about it yet as the festival is still three months away and we've got a number of options available to us and I'd rather do something constructive with the money."

For the first time in its history the telecoms company BT has decided to get involved in the sponsorship of a festival. John Giddings also spoke to eFestivals about their involvement as the primary sponsor, "I'm really pleased about them being involved because they are going to help us with technology on security and they are also going to help us on greening the event. They're going to bring a 'BT Chill Out Zone', and there's going to be a lot of benefits to the audience. My ambition is not to make the event bigger but to make it better, that's the whole point of doing it, I want my audience to go away from the festival thinking it's the best festival in the UK for the audience experience, that's my ambition, and I've already booked the sunshine."

What the benefits will be to the audience are yet to be confirmed. However, although the 50,000 tickets for the three day event are officially sold out, as part of BT's promotional activity, the company will be offering the public a last chance to buy additional tickets for the festival.

Most of the acts for the sold out event have been confirmed, with the Kaiser Chiefs headlining on the Friday, the Sex Pistols topping the bill on the Saturday, and The Police closing the festival on the Sunday. Also confirmed are The Enemy, James, Kate Nash, Iggy And The Stooges, The Zutons, KT Tunstall, Amy MacDonald, Newton Faulkner, Starsailor, Joe Lean And The Jing Jang Jong, The Answer, One Night Only, Blackstone Cherry, Delays and more.

And a new addition this year is the 5,000 capacity circus style Big Top which plays host to bands and DJ's who will be performing throughout the weekend, including Feeder, Sugababes, The Stranglers, The Australian Pink Floyd, and many more.

The dates for the seventh new Isle of Wight festival are confirmed as from Friday 13th - Sunday 15th June 2008.

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