FOR rock fans of a certain vintage (a circumspect way of saying "over 50") the very mention of the Isle of Wight festival will stir thoughts of 1960s' idealism and counter-culture.
The festival was held in 1968, 1969 and 1970.
The first show was reputedly put on by three entrepreneurs who were seeking funds in order to build a swimming pool. The acts are strongly redolent of that era: Tyrannosaurus Rex, Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation, The Move.
The '69 festival, however, was much more ambitious in scope. Bob Dylan, in his first concert after his 1966 motorbike accident, headlined, and was joined by such names as The Who, Free and Joe Cocker. An estimated 150,000 people attended - most of them, it seems, there to see Dylan.
The 1970 festival was the world's largest; an estimated 700,000 people turned up, and the acts included The Who, Procol Harum, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Donovan, Family, Joni Mitchell, and Emerson, Lake and Palmer.
But the show was a victim of its own success. Thousands of music fans gathered on the hillside that overlooked the arena to enjoy the music for free, despite the entreaties of the organisers.
According to one later eyewitness account, a squad of Hell's Angels then dismantled part of the arena fence. The fans on the hill poured through the gap, and the organisers were forced to concede that it was now a 'free' event. But chaos, almost predictably, ensued.
"The 1970 festival," said Brian Hinton, author of a book on the event, "was a cut-off point between the 1960s dream and the 1970s reality. It was magnificent, but it was totally anarchic and uncontrollable."
A Government act passed in the wake of the 1970 show rendered it extremely difficult for anyone to stage a large event without the approval of the local authority.
In 2002, however, the Isle of Wight festival was re-born. It has been held every year since, attracting headliners of the stature of David Bowie, the Rolling Stones, Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen.
It opens again this Thursday, with the headliners being the Stone Roses (Friday), The Killers (Saturday) and Bon Jovi (Sunday). Emeli Sandé, Paul Weller, Paloma Faith and the reformed Boomtown Rats are also playing.
The big difference between the current-day festival and its late-60s forerunner is, of course, that the British summer is now knee-deep in outdoor festivals, from T in the Park to Glastonbury. But some claim to see, in the 1970 festival, the forerunner of all those big, safe, "controlled" outdoor events like Reading, which we revel in today.
l Isle of Wight Festival, June 13-16. www. isleofwightfestival.com
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