A REVIEW to see if the Isle of Wight Festival can keep its licence is due to continue today.
The hearing, which started yesterday, started after aerospace firm GKN lodged a complaint to the Isle of Wight Council’s regulatory committee following traffic chaos at this year’s event.
But the hearing was almost abandoned when festival promoters Solo appealed to dismiss the application.
Solo’s solicitor alleged GKN used the review process to pressurise Solo into paying £50,000 compensation — the amount GKN said it lost due to the disruption.
But the committee did not accept this and allowed the hearing to go ahead.
Police Sergeant Paul Brooks, the officer with overall responsibility for the festival, said: ‘There is no doubt the car park entrance was the single point of failure, and we have to accept the contingency planning around that was not as good as we would normally expect.
‘However, it was the worst weather for 100 years. We have never come across this issue before, that you couldn’t park on grass, and it wasn’t just the Isle of Wight that was affected.
‘But it would be unforgivable if we didn’t learn from this, and we will never allow a situation like this to happen again.’
Festival organiser John Giddings said he has a mainland site lined up as a potential alternative to the Isle of Wight, should the festival’s licence be withdrawn.
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