Covid: Isle of Wight Festival safer than supermarket, says boss

Attending the Isle of Wight Festival will be safer than going to the supermarket, its organiser has said.

The four-day event, from Thursday to Sunday, is back in Newport, after it was cancelled last year due to Covid-19.

Festival boss John Giddings said the event would be "very safe" due to the festival's Covid-19 measures.

Speaking to the BBC, he said: "To get in you have to show you've had either two jabs [Covid-19 vaccine] 14 days prior, a [negative] lateral flow test or be immune [based on a positive PCR test within the last 180 days and 10 days self-isolation].

"It's safer to come here than your local supermarket - where you don't have to show anything."

It comes after organisers moved the event from June to after 19 July - when Covid restrictions were lifted, so the event could go ahead this year, and not be cancelled for a second year in a row.

Despite assurances, some local businesses have decided to shut during the festival due to fears about Covid rates rising, as thousands of revellers descend on the town.

Fairlee Service Station - a workshop, petrol station and shop - said in a statement: "We feel it is important to put our staff first and protect them as far as possible from Covid-19."

Responding to critics, Mr Giddings added: "You need to put things together again and live life... there has to be some return to reality somewhere along the line and we have to learn to live with it to protect ourselves.

"It's open air, it's not a restaurant indoors, it's not a pub indoors."