I don’t think that there has been a song about crossing the Solent on the ferry, unlike the famous Gerry and the Pacemaker’s song. It is however closely linked to popular musical culture, and is not far across the water to the wealth of musical entertainment on offer.

I am, of course, referring to the festivals that are hosted on the Isle of Wight, notably Bestival and the official Isle of Wight festival. The Isle of Wight festival is the biggest of the two festivals, and stretches back to the late sixties when ‘flower power’ was all the rage. Previous performers to the festival are legendary, and include some of the most famous names ever to have graced the pop music scene. In this day and age, the festival gives more opportunities to unknown artists to experience the ‘big time’ in front of audiences larger than 50,000 festival goers.

Bestival is the freshest of the Island festival attractions, having only been established for 8 or 9 years. Possibly its reputation is more concerned with the carnival atmosphere that is generated, with its importance attached to the sounds of the radio djs. Each year at Bestival, a new theme is created by the organisers, which allows people to dress in their fancy dress costume creations. If you are the lucky winner of the fancy dress costume, you could win a life-time free access to Bestival. Not bad really for a little bit of extra creative time spent with the lycra and sticky back plastic!

If you are intending travelling to one of the festivals next year, then you will have to make the trip via one of the available ferry to Isle of Wight in operation. At Portsmouth there are two terminals: one to accommodate passengers travelling on foot, and the other for owners of vehicles.