Isle of Wight Festival 2024: Friday

The Isle of Wight festival has been commemorating great British bands and artists since 1968 when it began as a counterculture festival in light of the hippie movement. However, 56 years later, the festival has certainly embraced popular culture as well as a fondness for nostalgia, with esteemed headliners that included Green Day, The Prodigy and Petshop Boys. This three-day booze fest was undoubtedly a monumental 72 hours of endless entertainment; an adult playpen that celebrates and nurtures exceptional musical talent.

The Darkness opened the evening acts of the first day amid the elusive sunshine with some classic 1970s glam rock. Frontman Justin Hawkins is known for his ornate and elaborate stage swank, as well as his high-pitched vocals. However, his unabashed sense of humour also shined. With obvious influences from Freddie Mercury and Bon Scott, Hawkins appeared in a red and black jumpsuit with the entire front torso cut-out as he belted their hits from 2003: I Believe in a Thing Called Love and Love Is Only a Feeling as well as an uncanny cover of Led Zepelin’s legendary Immigrant Song.

Before the highly anticipated The Prodigy, The Streets prepared the ocean of people to channel their inner South London hood rat with some authentic UK grime from the early noughties. Described by Pitchfork as “the landmark for UK rap”, the band certainly marked their territory on the mainstage at the Isle of Wight with their hit singles, Blinded by the Lights and Dry Your Eyes from their chart-topping 2005 album, A Grand Don’t Come for Free. Lead rapper Mike Skinner’s sincere performance and emotionally stripped candour proved that these poetic spoken lyrics are deeply heartfelt and worthy of all the success as he dived into the crowd for a surf whilst reassuring that it’s “all downhill from here” after this first day of summer.

Electropunk royalty The Prodigy were a hard act to follow. A product of the formerly underground rave scene, the antisocial metal heads of the 90s breakbeat genre owned the entire weekend with their iconic dance-floor anthems, Breathe and Firestarter. Despite the great artistic loss of their frontman Keith Flint, the current remaining original band members, Liam Howlett and Maxim, exceeded all expectations as they delivered a grandiose spectacle with the aid of the unsettling backdrop that featured numbered reels reminiscent of a slot machine and hooded figures with laser eyes that penetrated back to London. Right before Firestarter, an outline of Flint’s horned head sprawled across the screen as a visual moment of silence for his tragic death back in 2019.

Although the main acts of the day were over, the party didn’t stop there. The Pretenders were rockin’ at Big Top, and partygoers could always count on Cirque de La Quirk for a guaranteed all-nighter!