Isle of Wight Festival wins battle to retain site licence
Isle of Wight festival promoter Solo has won a battle to prevent the event’s licence from being withdrawn, allowing it to remain at its current location.
The future of the festival taking place on its current site was placed in some doubt after aerospace firm GKN claimed it lost £50,000 because of traffic chaos around the event this year. Councillors met today to make a decision on the claim.
Solo boss John Giddings has just tweeted, however, that the Isle of Wight Council ruled unanimously in favour of the festival, adding “2013 – game on!!”
Prolonged rain in June made going to and from this year’s Isle of Wight Festival difficult and caused massive queues of cars around the event.
Thousands of people found themselves stuck in gridlocked traffic for up to 10 hours after the rain turned roads leading to the event’s site into mud baths.
The Isle of Wight Council heard yesterday that GKN suffered losses when one of its production plants was affected by the disruption.
The Dail Echo suggested that the Police took some responsibility in fron of the review panel, saying that the disruption caused by the heavy rain could not have been anticipated, but lessons have been learned.
Source: NME
