Isle of Wight Festival

In the Beginning

In 2018, as part of my band ‘Cavalcade’, we entered into a competition to win a slot playing at the Isle of Wight festival.

We made it through to the semi final of the competition but unfortunately we didn’t make it to the final.. However, that turned out to not be quite so unfortunate after all!

Shortly after being knocked out, we were offered a slot there by a promoter whom we often gig with – ‘This Feeling’. So we were en route to play at the Isle of Wight Festival after all!

En route

It was our first major festival together as a band, so I’m sure you can imagine our excitement! After staying the night in Portsmouth, we headed across on the ferry to the Island itself.

For those festival goers amongst you, you will know that one thing festivals are consistent on, (other than poorly kept toilets), is that there will undoubtedly be a very long queue to get in! This was no different.

But in our spirits we didn’t mind – We had already checked in as artists, so were feeling privileged already!

This all took place on the Thursday (day of opening) and our set was due to begin later that evening.

Our stage was in a reasonably sized tent and was strategically placed in order to attract passers by. As much as we might like to think it, I’m not sure we have quite the same pull as Liam Gallagher, whom was headlining over on the Main Stage.

Judging by the crowd of passers by which we did manage to pull in, we gave it a darn good shot! The place was packed!

After the show

One thing as a performer which will really put you in a good mood, is when the crowd are visibly enjoying your music and having a good time. This good feeling was not to be lost here, we loved it! And we loved that the crowd loved us, loving it! (feel free to take a moment here….whole lotta love!)

Throughout the weekend we spent a reasonable amount of time around our performance tent, and noticed that we did very well to pack the place out like we did. (Perhaps they’ll put us on main stage next year…. hah!)

To get a feel for Cavalcade, click here: https://norrisdrums.com/cavalcade/

Throughout the remainder of the festival we felt very special and enjoyed the luxuries of being artists. Including being driven around (instead of a ridiculously long walk) and chilling backstage with the likes of Kasabian, Peter crouch (I know) and Tom Grennan.

Turns out that Crouchy is close with Serge from Kasabian (guitarist), but of course no amount of music was going to stop him from doing what he does best! Although this wasn’t so much a kick around as it was him booting balls into the crowd off the main stage!! (They were inflatable and this was all planned beforehand so I’m sure the correct safety precautions were put in place…….)

We caught the ferry back home on the Sunday afternoon, following what had been a thoroughly enjoyable weekend believing that we’re rockstars! We do very much look forward to resuming our rockstar status after this global pandemic has decided that it’s had enough and is going to leave us alone.

Join the journey ‘On The Road’ at https://www.instagram.com/ontheroad_norrisdrums/?hl=en