It grieves me festivals are not political – Isle of Wight Festival co-founder

The co-founder of the Isle of Wight Festival, Ray Foulk, has said it “grieves” him that festivals now are not as political as they were in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Foulk, who set up the music event alongside his brothers Ron and Bill, is having the workspace he used as curator recreated for an exhibition celebrating 25 editions of the festival.

He told the PA news agency: “The festival, with the likes of Bob Dylan and (Jimi) Hendrix and Joni Mitchell and people, it was a pilgrimage for the counter-culture, and the songs and the artists were singing about trying to make a better world.

“It was very political in that sense. Nowadays, it’s not that, it’s entertainment rather than a pilgrimage for people thinking about how to make a better world.”

The music event first took place in 1968, with festivals in 1969 and 1970 before it was stopped, returning in 2002 for the late Queen Elizabeth II’s golden jubilee, and each year since, apart from in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic.

“Festivals are beautifully organised now,” Foulk said.

“I mean, our thing was fairly well organised in many ways, but it wasn’t anything like a festival today in terms of the range of facilities and things going on and great organisation.

“I’m certain they’re better in that respect, but in another way, it grieves me that young people are not out there seeking a better world in the way that we were.

“You’ve only got to look at the great anthem of Bob Dylan’s in the 60s, The Times They Are A-Changin’.

“It was the feeling at the time that things were going to change and that young people were not going to put up with what was going on.

“You had the war in Vietnam going on, you had the anti-nuclear movement, the CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament), which I’ve been a part of, and all of those sort of things were really important then.

“Nowadays it’s about entertainment and it’s good entertainment, and people have a great time.

“I now go to the Isle of Wight Festival myself, and I can see that people have a lovely time.

“There’s nothing wrong with that, that’s fantastic, but it grieves me politically that we’re not doing much to make the world a better place.”

Foulk famously managed to book Like A Rolling Stone singer Dylan for the second festival in 1969.

He said: “Without Bob Dylan coming to the 69 festival there would have been no further Isle of Wight Festivals, and none of this would have taken place.

“It would be like getting Taylor Swift suddenly arriving at some obscure festival that the whole world beats a path to the door to get tickets.

“So that’s the equivalent, the nearest equivalent you could find.

“I mean, the biggest star in the world decided to come to the Isle of Wight.

“And for us, we were very young, in our early 20s, and it was like winning the lottery to get Bob Dylan to perform.

“And what happened then, the following year, was that every artist in the world wanted to play the Isle of Wight and the list of artists at the time was incredible.

“It was a better bill than what Woodstock had the year before, and it just became so massive.”

He said booking Dylan “was very much a long shot” but they managed to persuade him and his management “partly by offering Dylan and his family a holiday in the Isle of Wight, with a chauffeur-driven limousine.”

The festival was revived in the noughties by John Giddings, who said it has “come on a million miles” since 1970.

The Experience 25 exhibition incorporates the three Isle of Wight Festivals that were organised by Foulk and his brothers – the 1970 one being known as The Last Great Event which included performances from The Doors, The Who and Leonard Cohen.

It also displays archive items from the festivals that have taken place since 2002, with performances from The Rolling Stones and Amy Winehouse (2007), Fleetwood Mac (2015) The Red Hot Chili Peppers (2014) and Bruce Springsteen (2012).

The exhibition will run at the O2’s Innovation Centre in London from September 19 to November 13.