18 September 2021
Newsdesk
Friday 17th September marked the first full day of The Isle of Wight Festival, including stellar performances from headliner Liam Gallagher, Tom Jones, Primal Scream, You Me At Six, Becky Hill, Sigma and many more across the festival’s stages.
Channeling the harmonious vibes of the 1970 festival, this year’s theme is “Peace, Love and Understanding”, with music lovers dressing in their colourful rainbow best to commemorate coming together on the island for the historic music festival and two years away from live music.
Those in costume, and those who want to witness a spectacle of colour, should head to Strawberry Fields at 2pm today, where the festival’s best dressed will be crowned. The winner will receive an exclusive backstage tour and champagne picnic.
Fresh indie talent LONA kicked things off on the main stage, followed by You Me At Six who brought mosh pits to Seaclose Park with songs from their UK Number 1 album ‘SUCKAPUNCH’ released earlier this year.
The Isle of Wight Festival regulars Peter Crouch and Abbey Clancy were spotted watching Becky Hill impress the crowd with a string of her pop and house chart smashes, before James rocked the stage with their sing-along classics ‘Sit Down’ and ‘Getting Away With It (All Messed Up)’, alongside tracks from their latest album ‘All The Colours Of You’, including ‘Building Beaches’ and ‘ZERO’.
Tom Jones confirmed his legendary status as he performed a set filled with classics from the 60s all the way to 2021 with his recent album ‘Surrounded by Time’ (which earlier this year made Jones the oldest male to earn a number one UK album).
Closing The Isle of Wight main stage was Liam Gallagher, who wowed the crowd playing Oasis smashes ‘Rock N Roll Star’ and ‘Cigarettes & Alcohol’ between his solo hits ‘Wall of Glass’ and ‘Shockwave’, before an outstanding encore of ‘Supersonic’, ‘Acquiesce’, ‘Roll With It’ and ‘Live Forever’. Oasis' Knebworth 1996 documentary is due to be released in cinemas on 23rd September, with the live album to accompany out 19th November.
The Big Top stage saw genre spanning sets from Primal Scream, Shed Seven, Sigma, Rats, Lucy Blue, Charlotte Jane and Apollo Junction.
Today, festival goers will enjoy sets from headliners David Guetta and Snow Patrol on the main stage alongside Sam Fender, James Arthur, All Saints and The Lightning Seeds, as well as Kaiser Chiefs, Example, Ella Henderson and Maximo Park on the Big Top.
