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The ferry journey across from Portsmouth had been epic. Steve had never seen so many people going to the same place in his life. It was late Friday night and he had finished his job a bit earlier than usual, gone home to his parents house where he still lived, picked up his tent, some spare clothes and his trusty guitar and set off for Portsmouth. Now he was on the Isle of Wight ready to explore the festival.
Last year there had been a two day festival and it was rumoured 150,000 people had been there. Bob Dylan had played, so had The Who and it was said that three of the Beatles had been there as festival-goers. This year's festival was held over 5 days at the end of August. Steve had started playing guitar when he was 14, just as The Beatles were becoming popular. However he had always preferred the quieter acoustic music and he had made a bit of money playing around his local pubs, now he was old enough to go in one.
His aim, now he was at the festival, was to hear Joni Mitchell, Donovan, Joan Baez, his favourite, and Leonard Cohen. Mitchell was playing on Saturday, the others on Sunday but first he had to find somewhere to pitch his tent. Eventually he found a small space but the crowds were way beyond anything Steve had ever seen. He later found out the there over 500,000 people there and, in fact, following this festival the Isle of Wight banned future events of this scale.
His mother had been worried about him going. She had seen footage from the festival at Woodstock in America in 1968 and wondered if he would be alright around so many people, He assured her he would but now, looking at all the tents plus the stages he was glad she couldn't see this. He felt perfectly safe but there were a lot of people.
Three days later he was on his way home. Nothing, but nothing, would ever take away his memories from the weekend. Joni Mitchell had been great, despite being interrupted by a man who ran on the stage. Donovan was OK but did an electric set which Steve didn't go a bundle on. Joan Baez was amazing and Leonard Cohen well worth going to see. He also discovered a new song to add to his repertoire and played a few things round his tent to which people came to listen.
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