Music-lovers have been singing along in the sunshine as Sting is set to headline the first full day of the Isle of Wight Festival.
A total of 55,000 party-goers have crossed the Solent to reach Seaclose Park in Newport for the four-day event also being headlined by Stereophonics and Justin Timberlake.
The Police frontman is headlining on Friday evening – the first night of the main stage – followed by Faithless.
The gates opened on Thursday, with tribute band The Smyths being the first act to take to the Big Top stage, which also featured The Pigeon Detectives before headliner Example took over.
A festival spokeswoman said: “With festival-goers suitably ready for the weekend of music, they descended back to the Big Top stage for The Pigeon Detectives, whose phenomenal live set featured songs from across their 20-year career and six albums that have made them a firm festival favourite.
“As the sun began to set on night one of the festival, Big Top headliner Example brought an electrifying, high energy set of hits from across his catalogue including Change The Way You Kiss Me, Kickstarts and more.”
John Giddings, who has run the festival since relaunching it in 2002 following the infamous events which ran from 1968 to 1970, said he goes with “gut feeling” when choosing the acts.
The 72-year-old told the PA news agency: “You want to book acts that have a catalogue that’s going to entertain an audience for an hour, hour-and-a-half, and, secondly, someone who’s capable of performing to an audience of 50,000 people in a field, because they need to be able to project to entertain.”
Other acts performing during the weekend include The Script, Jess Glynne, Clean Bandit, Supergrass, Example, The Corrs, Busted, and Texas.
