organisers may be forced to cancel the Isle of Wight Festival

Isle of Wight Festival 2016

Thursday 9th to Sunday 12th June 2016
Seaclose Park, Newport, Isle of Wight, PO30 2DN, England MAP
£195 with camping

Daily capacity: 90,000

Organisers of the Isle of Wight Festival which happens annually at Newport's Seaclose Park in early June have threatened to cancel the event from next year unless fee changes are agreed with the council.

The festival re-launched in 2002 as a big 1 day concert called Rock Island, before becoming the 3 day 'Isle of Wight Festival', in 2004. Isle of Wight council have disclosed that organisers Solo Promoters have asked them to waive their £55,000 charge for the usage of Seaclose Park in order to make the festival more viable. The current council arrangement for Seaclose Park is due to expire in 2019, but the council fear the promoters will decide that they are unable to stage the festival next year.

A report published the Isle of Wight Council states, "Unless Solo can reduce its costs and increase ticket sales, there is a real risk that the event might be cancelled."

The council are therefore considering reducing its fee by £42,000 to £13,000 in exchange for giving Solo more responsibility for security and other duties.

Solo currently pay £55,000 a year for the hire of Seaclose Park, and a council meeting next week, Thursday 13th October will consider reducing the fee by the cost of the duties which is equivalent in value to the fee reduction. Though the revised terms will not apply if ticket sales exceed half of the capacity of the event, or 45,000, excluding day tickets.

This year over 58,000 festival goers came to be entertained by a line-up including headliners Queen and Adam Lambert and is thought to generate around £10 million a year to the local economy.

Isle of Wight council leader Cllr Jonathan Bacon, told the Southern Daily Echo, (here), "The Isle of Wight Festival is a world-renowned event that has benefited the Island hugely since its reintroduction and subsequently has been a successful development by Solo.

"It has attracted numerous world-famous performers to the Island over the past 14 years, as well as hundreds of thousands of visitors.

"But it is vital we continue to work closely in partnership with Solo to ensure that the festival continues to thrive and develop, and to continue to bring economic and many other benefits to the Island."

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