Pre-order the paperback now / Coming July 1st 2025!
The definitive insider account of one of the greatest music festivals of all time—now available in paperback.
In 1969, the Isle of Wight Festival famously ‘stole Bob Dylan from Woodstock’ and set a new standard for rock and pop festivals in the UK. In 1970, it became one of the world’s greatest music gatherings, attracting artists and fans from across the musical spectrum. The line-up, a roll call of musical legends, included Jimi Hendrix, Joan Baez, The Who, Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Procol Harum, and many more. This was Britain’s ‘Woodstock’, held on a tiny island off the south coast. It would also be Hendrix’s last major performance.
Pivotal in many ways, the 1970 Festival spanned five days and nights, with an audience widely reported to have reached 600,000—on an island with a population of just 120,000. The staging of such a monumental event was far from smooth. It became a rollercoaster ride for the young Foulk brothers, who navigated its course through relentless political resistance from local groups and extremist counterculture militants demanding a free festival.
Facing sabotage, death threats and ideological confrontations, Ray Foulk gives a full and frank account, drawing on key texts from all sides of the divide. For many, the event was a magical, life-changing experience—an encapsulation of sixties idealism, political yearning, and the hedonism of sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll. For others, it marked the beginning of the end, the fading of a utopian dream. Dubbed The Last Great Event, the 1970 Festival remains one of the most controversial and mythologised in music history.
This new edition includes a fresh chapter on the festival’s revival under John Giddings, exploring its lasting legacy in British music culture.
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