Isle of Wight Festival

This year's Isle of Wight Festival took place in Newport and this year defied the weather forecast with sunshine breaking though for much of the weekend. The event sold out with 55,000 tickets being snapped up within days of going on sale.

Legendary rock band The Police closed the festival on the Sunday night.

Enjoying the music in the sunshine

The Isle of Wight was the only UK Festival show for the trio who are currently on their top-grossing and top-selling worldwide tour.

Meanwhile veteran punks, the Sex Pistols headed the Saturday night line-up with classic hits including, Anarchy in the UK and God Save the Queen.

Friday night was headlined by the Kaiser Chiefs. The Leeds outfit have been one of the most successful British bands of the last few years with monster hits including Ruby and I Predict A Riot.

Scouting for Girls also made their Isle of Wight Festival debut. Frontman Roy Stride said: "[The Isle of Wight Festival] put on the most amazing line-up of bands. We're just as excited - backstage is really dull to be honest - out there is where the party is at!"

Delays' Aaron and Greg backstage

Southampton band Delays who made their third appearance in Newport were also thrilled to be part of the festival: "It's pretty insane getting flashbacks to family holidays in various places all over the Isle of Wight!"

Festival organiser John Giddings said: "We've had some of the best performances ever. The future is to make it better, not bigger, really. I'm honestly sure that people want more intimate events - there are a lot of festivals around so you have to be careful about who you book and make it a good experience."

A new addition for this year was a 5,000 capacity Big Top circus-style tent. Welsh rockers Feeder played the tent on the Sunday. Britain’s sassiest and most successful Girl Group, Sugababes played under canvass on the Saturday.

Also making the trip across the Solent were stars like Amy MacDonald, Starsailor, Newton Faulkner, The Answer, One Night Only, Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong, Blackstone Cherry.

Kosmic Debris

Local attractions

The Isle of Wight Festival also provides a showcase for local bands from the Island. Kosmic Debris and Proximity Effect both played on the main stage.

Meanwhile the Bandstand, hosted by local music college, Platform One, had over 50 local acts playing throughout the weekend.

Green festival

When Lily Allen dropped out of this year's Isle of Wight Festival organiser and promoter John Giddings vowed to use the money to 'green' the festival instead of signing another act.

As a result, the festival will be funding Isle of Wight conservation projects including research into bee habitats and a repopulating the indigenous Black Poplar trees. There will also be research work carried out into how the environmental impact of future festivals can be lessened.

Historic festival

Last year the Sunday night headline slot went to the Rolling Stones who played their first UK festival in 30 years to close the event at Seaclose Park in Newport.

The festival was revived in 2002 after a 30 year pause and other headliners have included REM, The Who and Coldplay.

The Isle Of Wight Festival was voted Best Major Festival at the 2007 UK Festival Awards while the organiser, Solo's John Giddings picked up the award for Outstanding Contribution to UK festivals.

The three original Isle of Wight Festivals achieved legendary status in music with the Who, the Doors, Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix playing at the festival which drew crowds estimated to be around the half million mark in the late 60s and 1970.

Isle of Wight Festival - 13, 14 and 15 June 2008.