Joni Mitchell, Isle of Wight 1970: the day the music nearly died

Joni Mitchell, Isle of Wight 1970: the day the music nearly died

By Laura Barton

‘They fed me to the beast’ ... Joni Mitchell at the Isle of Wight festival, 1970. Photograph: Tony Russell/Redferns

The last days of August on the Isle of Wight, the weather fair, the island relishing the height of summer holiday season.

If there was trepidation among the local community regarding the imminent music festival – the island’s third – it was hoped it might be quelled by a site relocation to Afton Down, a stretch of farmland near Freshwater Bay where the hippies and freaks could revel far from the holidaymakers, retirees and yachters.

It was a ticketed event, promising Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, Joan Baez, Free, the Who, Sly and the Family Stone and the Doors, and, going on the previous year’s success, 250,000 attendees were expected.

Quickly, however, more than 600,000 people flocked to the festival ground, knocking down security fences, setting up their blue and orange tents on a hill overlooking the site, and building an encampment out of hay bales in an area they named Desolation Row.

Full Story: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/jul/07/joni-mitchell-isle-of-wight-1970-iconic-festival-sets