Isle of Wight Festival promoter and Solo Agency MD John Giddings

Isle of Wight Festival promoter and Solo Agency MD John Giddings is the latest festival supremo to be interviewed for the AAA Backstage podcast.

The podcast series explores what lies behind festivals and their instigators, and this episode finds Giddings on great form discussing pertinent industry-wide issues and reflecting on an eventful career path.

Recorded at the Access All Areas Conference & Awards at The O2, the interview finds Giddings opening up about everything from losing £500,000 on a single early edition of the event, meeting his now wife Caroline who went on to run the event with him, personally financing a second stage for The Rolling Stones, hosting David Bowie’s last ever UK gig, and attending the event’s original incarnation along with 600,000 others.

Every year the Isle of Wight Festival attracts 60,000 music fans from around the world to a tiny landmass with a population of 140,000. Among the big headliners due to perform for them at this year’s festival are Sting, Stereophonics and Justin Timberlake. In this episode of the podcast, Giddings talks about the award-winning festival’s evolution from a one-day loss maker to one of the UK’s best loved festivals. He also provides passionate views about the issues impacting the industry and his events today.