26 August
1970 · music
The Isle of Wight Festival opened — and got completely out of hand
Something like six hundred thousand people turned up to a site meant for a fraction of that, the fences came down, and the promoters were ruined. Jimi Hendrix played what turned out to be one of his last performances; he died less than three weeks later.
Parliament effectively put a stop to it afterwards, and the festival did not return in that form for more than thirty years. Everyone who was there says it was chaos, and none of them regret going.
“What is the biggest crowd you have ever been in the middle of?”