The Isle of Wight festival is one of the UK’s largest, oldest, and without a doubt, most prestigious events.
Under John Giddings expert leadership, the festival has gone from strength-to-strength. It is always tough to follow in the footsteps of previous events, especially when it’s seen legendary performances from rock royalty including Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan or even The Who grace the island – but each year the festival gets bigger and better.
2025 is no exception and it can easily be said that this year, it has attracted a true superstar. Whereas the mighty Glastonbury opens this weekend and is attracting artists who have played the IOW festival in previous years, such as the Prodigy, the island attracted exclusive headliners who can rival performances from the glory days – including the self titled Prince of Pop – Justin Timberlake.
Justin even said himself on stage “I’ve been trying to get to Isle Of Wight for years and years and years and it’s everything I thought it was”‘.
Thursday was previously a day to set up tents, but now it’s a full-on four day festival, offering a diverse mix of 80s and 90s nostalgia, singalong indie and award-winning rap.
The festival began in the warm Big Top with The Smiths tribute band The Smyths – they are arguably more enjoyable to watch than Morrissey these days due to his questionable ramblings, so a tribute band is preferable. Their set included all the classic 80s tunes including ‘Ask‘, ‘Panic‘, ‘This Charming Man‘, and finishing with ‘There Is a Light That Never Goes Out‘, with the darkly-comic lyrics
“...if a double-decker bus, crashes into us
To die by your side, Is such a heavenly way to die…“
If only Morrissey would still play these timeless classic songs himself.
The party really started afterwards with Rhythm Of The 90s playing classic dance-anthem after dance-anthem and getting the crowd singing and swaying in the sweltering heat of the Big Top. Charming indie-rock from The Pigeon Detectives followed with an energetic set, before Thursday night headliner Example lept on to the stage with his heartfelt hits, including ‘Kickstarts‘ and ‘Change The Way You Kiss Me.‘ What a great opening evening, with so much more to come.
Friday began on the main stage with The Lottery Winners – one of Summer Festival Guide’s favourite festival highlights – singer Thom Rylance always entertains and makes the crowd laugh with warm stories and good humour between songs.
With both the main stage and Big Top in full flow on Friday (as well as a handful of other stages across the huge festival site), it’s impossible to see everything on offer. The Corrs family returned after a few years absence with their charming singalong moments including the classic ‘Breathless.’ It’s great to have them back and impossible not to enjoy them on a beautiful day.
Sting followed and displayed what an impressive musician and songwriter he is. Mixing his solo material with classics from The Police, including Message In A Bottle, Roxanne, Englishman In New York, and of course, Every Breath You Take. He is currently embarking on a world tour entitled Sting 3.0, and this new revival as a tight three-piece was electric.
It would seem impossible to follow Sting and many festivals across the UK would draw to a close after such a performance, but Faithless brought more glamour to the main stage. Sister Bliss performed with their full live band and impressive light show, concluding of course with the impressive Insomnia – how anyone could get to sleep after all that is a mystery.
After a strong Friday, things stepped up even further on Saturday.
Eurovision entry Mae Muller began proceedings on the main stage, playing her new song Hello Kitty for the first time. It was good to have her back on stage.
Irish charmers The Saw Doctors jigged with endless charisma and are a must-see for anyone who loves good old fashioned folk and beaming smiles – there was zero pretensions in their performance. It truly shows how eclectic the mix at the festival is that it can seamlessly mix pop classics, with these timeless singalongs from County Galway.
Razorlight followed and it was impressive quite how many well known songs Johnny Borrell has written. Arriving on the indie music scene at the same time as The Killers in the early 2000s, it’s amazing these guys aren’t bigger, with fan favourites including America, Golden Touch, In The Morning, and Somewhere Else.
Busted followed on from McFly’s great performance at the festival last year in 2024 with a high energy leaping performance, refusing to grow older gracefully with their teen angst anthem Year 3000, Air Hostess and What I Go To School For (oddly for 40 something Charlie Simpson and Matt Willis to be singing, but when it’s this entertaining, who cares…)
Over in the Big Top, Pale Waves dazzled a huge overflowing tent with their indie-pop and impressive goth imagery before English Teacher demonstrated why they confidently won the Mercury Music Prize for their debut album ‘This Could Be Texas’. Definitely ones to watch and surely they’ll be gracing the main stage in the coming years.
Paul Heaton played an incredible collection of songs from his solo work, as well as many of his tunes from The Housemartins (Happy Hour, Caravan of Love) and The Beautiful South (Rotterdam, A Little Time, Song For Whoever.) With his tour billed as Heatongrad, he’s lost none of his fight for the working man and good causes.
The Script drew one of the biggest crowds of the weekend, having played the festival four times previously according to singer Danny O’Donoghue. The band confessed they did not understand their mass appeal, but upon concluding with their huge hit ‘Hall of Fame‘, it was clear many of the audience had bought their tickets purely on the basis of this band, with both male and female sexes singing every word back to the band. A truly magical moment.
It’s hard to believe after all that on Saturday that there were still two legendary bands to come (well even more if you’re a faster walker than the author…)
Legendary Welsh rockers Stereophonics returned to the Isle of Wight festival stage with a stomping version of ‘Vegas Two Times‘. before playing a greatest hits setlist, finishing with masses of ticker-tape and their song ‘Dakota’ with the beautiful line ‘You made me feel like the one‘, emblazoned on many t-shirts throughout the festival site.
Supergrass concluded the evening in style over in the Big Top, playing their classic album ‘I Should Coco‘ in full, before launching into many of their other greatest hits. It’s 30 years ago since this reviewer saw them at Glastonbury in 1995, and although both the band and the writer have grown older, the songs immediately transport back to the Britpop glory days. Hey, Gaz Coombes must have a picture of Dorian Gray in his loft as he still sounds the same, even when booming out “We Are Young…and feel Alright“
Sunday began a little jaded but with possibly the most impressive back-to-back day of music the festival has seen in many years. There was truly something on offer for everyone.
Bjorn Again began with the most impressive Abba tribute act, before Ella Eyre impressively flicked her incredible locks of hair around the newly erected runway platform with such an energetic performance. Despite confessing on her own Instagram posts that she felt so nervous before taking to the stage to a festival crowd for the first time in almost 10 years she didn’t let it break her and was a pure joy to watch.
Also making great use of the expanded stage on Sunday was Olly Murs. He’s come such a long way from his X-Factor trials, and gave the crowd some impressive moves and singalong pop tunes. With millions of views of his hits on YouTube, it could be argued he was even more impressive than his Soccer Aid friend Robbie Williams who headlined this huge festival in 2023. He’s a natural born performer and entertainer.
Texas followed and singer Sharleen Spiteri was a true professional. Joking that she was delayed getting to her dressing room as she had to wait for Olly Murs entourage to clear backstage, she clearly showed her years of experience, and Scottish charm. Dressed all in black with a beautiful lime green guitar, she played songs from her extensive catalogue including ‘Halo‘ and ‘Say What You Want‘ – we really did adore her.
In the Big Top, another Eurovision band Remember Monday graced the line-up. Although newcomers to this writers ears, it’s clear the band’s all female lineup had plenty of experience of performing, including appearances in the west end in Matilda, Mary Poppins and even Les Miserables. Of course they couldn’t leave without performing their biggest hit ‘What The Hell Just Happened‘.
What an impressive lineup. The artists listed above would be sufficient and surpass the bill of most events in the UK, even the mighty Glastonbury this weekend.
But the biggest name to grace the festival was still to arrive on stage.
Justin Timberlake. The prince of pop is a born entertainer and he did not disappoint. Prowling every inch of the stage from the left/right hand side, down the runway/walkway, and even leaving the stage to greet his adoring fans, he didn’t leave a single inch of the arena untouched.
It was clear what separates Justin from the average performer, and his band, The Tennessee Kids were equally sublime. Every move, every beat and each and every note was choreographed and executed down to the wire.
The hits flowed, with ‘Cry Me a River’, ‘Rock Your Body’, ‘Can’t Stop The Feeling’ and ‘SexyBack‘ amassing over a billion (yes one billion) views on YouTube alone.
The only tough part of the set was that Summer Festival Guide favourites James were billed at pretty much the same time within the Big Top. I guess that meant that the crowd for Justin wasn’t as diverse as it could have been, but meant there was something for everyone, particularly those who wanted to ‘Sit Down‘ after such a busy weekend at the festival.
Justin said himself “You made a Tennessee boy’s dreams come true”. He’s not the only one who loved it.
All in all, this is the best Isle of Wight festival that Summer Festival Guide have attended. The artists, the music, the ambience, the weather, but most importantly the crowd all appeared to be having the time of their lives.
Roll on 2026. Next year Glastonbury is taking a year off, so hopefully it’ll be clear to more people what the best festival in the UK now is…and it’s not on the mainland.
Early bird tickets for 2026 have already gone on sale and are available at:
https://isleofwightfestival.com/info/tickets
Review and photos: Graham Tarrant
Please do not use photos without permission.