Isle of Wight Festival 2025 - Ticket News, Lineup, Rumours And Travel Advice (2024)

​At the time of writing, we don't know when the Isle of Wight Festival 2025 is taking place. We don't even have confirmation that the festival will definitely return. However, the official social media accounts did say "same again next year" so I'm taking that as a good sign.

However, we do know that :

• the Isle of Wight Festival 2024 was June 20th - 24th
• the Isle of Wight Festival 2023 took place from June 15th - 18th.
• In 2022, the Isle of Wight Festival was held from June 16th - 19th.
• Both 2020 and 2021 were odd years thanks to Covid, so we will ignore them.
• The Isle of Wight Festival 2019 was June 13th - 16th.

My guess is that the Isle of Wight Festival 2025 will either be June 12th - June 15th or June 19th - June 22nd.

The warning here is that my best guess was wrong last year, as it was a week later than expected.

If you decide to book accommodation early, I would go for somewhere with a generous cancellation policy!

We don't know.

But I can tell you what has happened for the last couple of years, which gives us a good guess for 2025.

Here's what happened ahead of the Isle of Wight Festival 2024:

• The Isle of Wight Festival 2024 had an early bird sale, which started on the first Friday after the 2023 festival had ended. The sale ran for five days and offered tickets at a heavily reduced price for anyone willing to take a punt without knowing the line-up. The early bird tickets sold out on 28/06/23.
• Red Funnel released early bird ferry tickets in September 2023, which were a lot cheaper than standard tickets (somewhere around £100 for a car and passengers rather than perhaps treble that price at peak times). Wightlink did a similar offer.
• A big lineup announcement was made in early November 2023, and standard price tickets went on sale a few days later.
• Day tickets went on sale in February 2024.

And here's what happened ahead of the Isle of Wight Festival 2023 (summary: it was quite similar):

• The early bird sale for the Isle of Wight Festival 2023 lasted for five days and began shortly after the previous festival.According to John Giddings, this was stopped when they sold a whopping 22,000 tickets in less than a week, out of a total capacity of 55,000.
• There was then a big line-up announcement in late October 2022, followed by a pre-sale for Barclaycard and Three customers which ended in November 2022, before the main release of tickets.
• Weekend tickets then sold out on June 8th 2023, about a week before the Festival. I think I'm right in saying that there were still a few day tickets left for Friday night on the day of the festival.

​It's also worth mentioning that campervan pitches seem to sell out quickly. I wascontacted by people who had left it too late and were looking for advice. You may want to act quickly if you need a campervan pitch.

So, my best guess is that there will be an early bird sale for the Isle of Wight Festival 2025 in late June 2024, followed by a line-up announced and general ticket release in early November 2024. Of course, I might be wrong.

You can't buy tickets for the Isle of Wight Festival, but you can sign up for Ticketmaster alerts on this page.

Search for ​Isle of Wight
​Festival 2024
​at Ticketmaster

**Discover large cottages near the Isle of Wight Festival arena with Classic Cottages**

We don't know that either (Ed: there's a pattern here)

However, we can tell you prices for the Isle of Wight Festival 2024.

Early bird prices for Isle of Wight Festival 2024:

• Early bird weekend ticket for adults:£190 (plus £19 booking fee) =£209
• Early bird weekend Student:£185 (plus £18.50 booking fee) =£203.50
• Early bird weekend Teen:£185 (plus £18.50 booking fee) =£203.50
• Early bird Islander (i.e. an Isle of Wight resident): £150 plus £15 booking fee=£165(you needed to useyour Isle of Wight postcode to unlock the discount)
• Early bird Islander teen: = £145 plus £14.50 booking fee£159.50(you used your Isle of Wight delivery postcode to unlock the discount)
• Older child (9-12): £12.50 (plus£1.50 booking fee) =£14
• Younger child (3-8): £7.50 (plus 90p booking fee) =£8.40
• Infants (2 and under): free
• Campervan:£250 (plus£25 booking fee) =£275
• Campervan with power:£400 (plus £40 booking fee)= £440
• Weekend parking bought in advance:£25

Standard prices for the Isle of Wight Festival 2024. There are 'no additional costs' which means theyincluded the usual booking fees:

• Weekend tickets for the Isle of Wight Festival 2024: £269.95 (including booking fees)
• Weekend teen tickets for 13-17 year olds:£225.95
• Weekend student tickets: £225.95
• Weekend islander ticket: £220.45.Isle of Wight residents could 'unlock' the discount by entering their Isle of Wight delivery postcode without spaces
• Weekend islander teen for 13-17 year olds: £192.95
• Older child ticket for 9-12 year olds:£14(can only be booked whilst buying another ticket)
• Younger child ticket for 3-8 year olds: £8.40 (can only be booked whilst buying another ticket)
• Infant ticket for 0-2 year olds:Free, but you need to book one whilst buying another ticket. You can't just turn up!
• Weekend car park ticket:£30(including a £1 green levy)
• Campervan ticket: £286- note that this doesn't include entry to the festival, you still need to buy a ticket
• Campervan with electric hookup: £434.50- again, this doesn't include entry to the festival, it's just a supplement to bring your motorhome or campervan.
• Day tickets: £120

For anyone who is interested, this is an increase of about £40 for an adult weekend ticket compared to 2023. The early bird Islander tickets were an absolute bargain at £165.

​It's worth saying thatthe Isle of Wight Festival organisers have not increased prices as much as some other major festivals since around 2011.Read the blog which waffles on this.

We have a very mixed success rate with our guesses on lineups for the Isle of Wight Festival (Ed: that's putting it politely).

We sort of predicted that Green Day might play, but we've been saying that ever since 2016, when John Giddings first suggested it.

I also had a random hunch that the Pet Shop Boys might play in 2024, but I didn't actually write it down or tell anyone so I don't think that counts (Ed: it definitely doesn't count).

However, we enjoy keeping arunning list of artists which we think are on the radar for future festivals and will keep adding to this list.

​These are mostly based on interviews with Isle of Wight Festival organiser John Giddings:

• In 2022, John Giddings was being interviewed byIsle of Wight Radioafter a Kylie Minogue song had been playing. John commented that "we should book her". Was it a throwaway comment? Probably. Are we still going to whip it up into a rumour for a future festival? Of course!There was also a story in the Daily Star in 2018 about Kylie playing at the Isle of Wight Festival. ​
• In the same Isle of Wight Radio interview in 2022 John Giddingssaid that they had "thought about Lizzo"and that she is "definitely on a list for the future".
• A 2022 interview with the Isle of Wight County Press included John Giddings saying that"Pink Floyd aren't going to reform, neither are Led Zeppelin". This reads more like an anti-rumour than a rumour but let's include it anyway as we know John Giddings is a big fan of them both.I do think it's likely that Robert Plant will be booked for a future festival. He played back in 2002 and he played at the Isle of Wight's Rhythmtree Festival in 2019 so he knows where to catch the ferry from.
• Along similar lines - in 2020, John Giddings gave an interview to the University of Exeter. He said he'd "love to reform Pink Floyd". This is a common theme, as he also told Absolute Radioin 2015 that he'd likeRoger Waters​to play. In the University of Exeter interview he also mentionedNick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets, which play old Pink Floyd songs and are managed by Solo.He also expressed his love for Little Mix though it wasn't exactly clear that he was inviting them to the Festival (they are another act which is managed by Solo).
• In 2018, John Giddings told the Isle of Wight County Press that "I would love the Arctic Monkeys to play. I asked them ages ago, but I haven't heard back from them". They've never played the Isle of Wight Festival.
• In 2016, John Giddings told the Isle of Wight County Press that he'd like to book Oasis, Green Day and The Kinks. Noel Gallagher and Liam Gallagher have both played the festival since then in 2018, 2019 and 2021, so that one has sort-of happened. The Green Day suggestion finally came true, a mere eight years after John Giddings mentioned it.
• In 2015, John Giddings dropped a few names toThe Price is Wight, includingBeyonce, Rihanna and Ed Sheeran. It was more of a wish list than any insight into conversations that had taken place. I wouldn't buy a ticket expecting to see any of them, but you never know.
• Way back in 2014,John Giddings told Glamour Magazine that 'I'd still loveColdplay, theFoo FightersorMuseto come back because they were so good'. He repeated the Foo Fighters and Coldplayline in an interview in 2015. Muse returned in 2022, so we can remove that one. Note that it took eight years for that one to come true as well!

• We predicted that some of the bands which dropped out of the Isle of Wight Festival 2021 might play at future festivals. The festival was delayed twice and the lineup changed due to artist availability and travel restrictions. One of those turned out to be true - Chemical Brothers.Other cancelled acts which have yet to appear include Lionel Richie,Black Eyed Peas,DidoandJess Glynne (Ed: *raises eyebrows*).
• We know that organisers of the Isle of Wight Festival are keen to feature more female acts. As previously discussed, the headline acts at the Isle of Wight Festival have been very male-dominated. John Giddings sent out a request for 'more non-cis male acts' for one of the smaller stages in 2021 so the imbalance is certainly on their radar. Who could that be? Perhaps a femaleact which has already played at the Isle of Wight Festival such as Florence + The Machine (2010) or Pink (also 2010)? Am I just plucking names out of the air or do I have secret insider information? (Ed: it's the former, stop pretending).

If you've not been to the Isle of Wight before, seeourferry travel guide for beginners.​​Your options are:

• Wightlink car ferry from Portmouth(40 minutes)
• Wightlink foot passenger ferry from Portsmouth(20 minutes)
• Wightlink ferry from Lymington(40 minutes)
• Red Funnel car ferry from Southampton(55 minutes)​
• Red Funnel foot passenger ferry from Southampton(20 minutes)
• ​Hovertravel from Southsea(10 minutes)​

If you stay in accommodation off site you can usuallyask your accommodation provider to book the ferry for youat a special rate (e.g.Away Resorts). They get trade rates on the ferry which can sometimes be up to half price, and can pass the saving on to you.

There are shuttle buses that will get you to the Isle of Wight Festival bus station.

Last time we checked, these departed from:

• Cowes (ferry departs from Southampton)
• East Cowes (ferry departs from Southampton)
• Ryde (ferry departs from Portsmouth Harbour or Hovercraft from Southsea)
• Yarmouth (ferry departs from Lymington, next to Lymington Pier railway station).

Note that there wasn't a shuttle bus from Fishbourne, which is where the Wightlink car ferry from Portsmouth arrives. It's about four miles from the Festival site.

In 2024, the shuttle bus was £16 return per adult, £14 for a child or £66 for a group of 5. They ran from Thursday morning until Monday lunchtime.

It is cheaper to use the 'normal' buses on the Isle of Wight, butyou don't end up as close to the festival site. The walk from Newport bus station to the camping entrance (Gate A3) is about 1.5 miles, which is about 30 minutes or perhaps a bit more if you are dragging bags on a hot day.

You may also find that a taxi full of people is cheaper than the shuttle bus, but I haven't tried that out myself.

The biggest bands at the Isle of Wight Festival are on Friday, Saturday and Sunday but there are discos and smaller stages toencourage people to arrive on Wednesday or Thursday.

In recent years, the Thursday headliners have been:

• Bjorn Again (2008)
• The Human League (2009)
• Squeeze (2010)
• ABC and Boy George (2011)
• Primal Scream (2012)
• Happy Mondays and The Farm (2013)
• Boy George and Inspiral Carpets (2014)
• Billy Idol (2015)
• Status Quo (2016)
• Razorlight (2017)
• Wombats (2018)​
• Wet Wet Wet and Heather Small (2019)
• Happy Mondays (originally booked for 2020 but cancelled)
• Scouting for Girls (2021)
• Happy Mondays (2022)
• Groove Armada DJ Set (2023)
• ​Scouting for Girls (2024)

Ferries are cheaper if you book early - click here to read our guide