Thursday Thirteen

Today, thousands of crusty revellers descended upon my Island. Their reason? The annual Isle of Wight Music Festival.

Whilst I am not best pleased with the prospect of so very many humans on MY turf, I thought I should give a nod to the festival and the economy it brings to the Island. That was my nod.

Anyway, for those of you who are music fans, here are Thirteen Facts About the Isle of Wight Festival:

1. The Isle of Wight festival is a music festival which takes place annually on the Isle of Wight, England.

2. It was originally held from 1968 to 1970.

3. At the height of the flower-power era, hundreds of thousands of music fans came from all over the world to chill out in the fields of the Isle of Wight

4.They packed onto the Isle of Wight ferry from the mainland for up to five days of live rock, communal living, free love and mind-bending substances (like catnip?).

5. The 1970 event wasn't all 'nip and peace. There were punch-ups, fires broke out and the police had to take action when Hells Angels tried to impose their own brand of law and order.

6. 10,000 people attended the first festival, 150,000 witnessed the second one (when Bob Dylan was also present) and a massive 600,000 flocked over to the West Wight for the third festival in 1970 when Jimmy Hendrix starred.

7. The 1970 event was by far the largest and most famous of these early festivals; indeed it was said at the time to be one of the largest human gatherings in the world.

8. The most notable of over fifty performers were The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, The Doors, Ten years After, Joni Mitchell, Melanie, Donovan, Free, Chicago, Richie Havens, John Sebastian, leonard Cohen, Jethro Tull and Tiny Tim.

9. The event was revived in 2002 at Seaclose park, a recreation ground on the outskirts of Newport, Isle of Wight.

10. Many notable artists have performed since its revival including Ray Davies, Robert Plant, The Proclaimers, David bowie, The Who, R.E.M, Coldplay and Bryan Adams.

11. Ticket price for an adult camping this year is £125 (about $200)

12. This weekend, the line up includes Groove Armada, Amy Winehouse, Paolo Nutini and The Rolling Stones.

13. Now in its sixth year the festival has sold out faster than ever before with 50,000 tickets being snapped up within just one week of being released.

Bonus fact: My human can’t go because she has spent all her money on steak for HRH Yao-Lin, toys for HRH Yao-Lin and booster jabs for, you guessed it, yours truly. Ha!