How relieved are you that this years festival did not take place on it’s usual weekend? 

I am the luckiest person alive aren’t I? We had winds of 80 miles per hour on the Isle of Wight, on Friday. Half the ferries were cancelled, we wouldn’t have been able to get the audience there. Touch wood for next week but I’m pleased we moved the event shall I say that. 

How is the site looking at the moment? 

The site is still a bit wet but we’re very lucky that Sport England have spent £300,000 putting under grass drainage in the main arena which benefits us and also it slopes into the river. Our fields are much better for drainage than a lot of other festival sites so fingers, arms and legs crossed it’s all going to go according to plan.

But we do have a contingency plan in place, everybody that works for us knows what it’s like to build in the wet, I’m just more worried about the weekend, I’d rather it was wet on the build up and dry on the weekend if that makes sense.

I want the audience to enjoy themselves, I want this to be the best of the 11 years we’ve had so far. I spent lots of time and energy relaying the site, making sure the audience enjoys themselves. Someone said to me the other day, the audience pay you to come and see it, you pay the groups to come and play, the audience are the most important part of the event and you have to look after them for them to want to come back again. 

Do you feel this years line up is stronger than last years? 

I think it’s stronger in depth really because I think it appeals to different age groups and different genres. You know we’ve obviously got the American trilogy at the head of it, the classiest acts in the rock world but under that you’ve got the best of British with Noel Ghallager, Elbow, Biffy Clyro and then you’ve got Lana Del Ray, Jessie J, Labrinth, Example. You’ve even got Madness fresh from Buckingham Palace. 

Was it your personal choice that you went with 3 American headliners? 

By complete accident the act’s I’ve been targeting for the last 5/6 years. All the world collided at once so we went for the American trilogy, you know people think I’m a genius putting it together like that but it was actually by complete accident to be honest. I can pretend otherwise but that’s what happened. 

Will you be going head to head with Glastonbury next year? 

No, we’ll definitely move back to the original weekend, you can’t rival Glastonbury, they’re the granddaddy of them all. I can’t imagine what it must be like to have that many people on a site at any one given time. I enjoy going there and enjoying it and they have hundreds of bands, but it’s very hard to see more than a few. You spend half your life trying to get somewhere to watch something and by the time you get there it’s over crowded and you can’t see it.

I think Michael has built up an incredible event there and it’s fantastic, but I would never look upon ourselves trying to do the same, you know it’s 40 years in, we’re 11 years in, we’re the newcomers aren’t we? 

Will you have an App for the festival this year? 

Yes Vodaphone have done an app with us, it was very successful last year and it gets released I think by the end of this week actually. People want to know the playing times, they want to know what else is going on, they want to plan their weekend. They don’t want it to be left to chance, that’s half the fun the planning in advance. 

Are you going to be expanding your cashless system in anyway this year? 

Yes that’s going in to what’s called the Octopuses Garden which is a food and drink area and you’re going to be able to pay on your wristband there. We are trying to expand it because I think it’s probably the future of the event. 

How do you let people get round their concerns of this system?

You don’t dictate to people you let them have the opportunity to use it and you do it gradually as apposed to forcing everybody to use it overnight. 

Do you think it’s the way to go? 

Yes absolutely, I think it’s the future of open air events and I think it’s the way forward. If you go to a formula one event you’ll see there’s so much more experience and they’re ahead of the game on people getting in and people getting out than we are and we need to aspire to those levels of efficiency. 

What influences do you have if any on the Sky Arts coverage of the festival? 

I have a lot, I wouldn’t let them just set it up. They ask me who I want on the show, who I want as presenters, what the links are like, what the intro is like, we plan that all year round. I wouldn’t let them come and do it without myself having input in it because you know we’re protecting the heritage of a great event and we want to make sure it’s presented properly. 

Is the eco playground going to be at the festival again this year? 

The Kinetic Playground is going to power the beach stage and we’ve got the Spiegel Tent, there’s  lots to do! 

Are you going to make your beach area bigger this year? 

Yes we’ve made it 3 times as big because it was so successful last year, it was incredible. What I’ve been trying to do for years is bring a beach to the festival as apposed to the festival going to the beach. Even when it poured with rain people were drinking their cocktails in their swimming trunks and having a great time so why not bring it on! and we’ve brought Field of Dreams back where we’re screening films in the campsite and you can watch Euro 2012. 

Where do you get the sand from? 

The sand comes from Bembridge Harbour every two weeks, so it’s just transported down road. 

What made you decide to have the Euro there? 

I’m not a big football fan but lots of people are who like music and I didn’t really want them traipsing off into town looking for somewhere to watch it. It’s nice to create an area for them but everybody tells me England will not be in the quarter finals anyway so! There’s also a grand prix on the Sunday afternoon! 

What do you put in place for disabled visitors? 

I think we have great access for the disabled they come down the backstage road, they go through these things called the Gardening Shed. They come straight into the Festival, it’s very important you look after them, it’s part of the job isn’t it? 

What about the Love Your Tent campaign? How’s that going? 

It’s going very well indeed because last year we had 8000 tents left because they’re now so cheap people leave them as apposed to taking them away with them. I think what we’re trying to do is make people proud of their tents, clear up after themselves, protect their environment and now you can get a sticker. You can take it to different festivals as well, by the end of the summer people are going to be competing with each other for the best tent aren’t they? 

Do you think giving priority parking to people who lift share is going to encourage more people to lift share and come into the festival? 

Yes but by on the fact we’re on an island and you can only get there by boat it makes it ten times easier for people to decide how to get there. There are buses from the ferry port, the ferry port’s just down the road, you don’t need to bring a car to the island so it’s ten times easier to get into our event than other events. 

How are the bees coping with the wet weather?

Well we’ve got to protect the bee’s haven’t we because without them the whole environment would come to a close so our bees are doing very well indeed, they’re surviving! I mean before we started the festival I didn’t know that bee’s were so necessary to keep the world going and now we do it I’m really proud of the fact. So the festival has actually taught me something about living for the future. 

Anything else? 

It’s the best thing I’ve ever done, it’s really enjoyable to provide entertainment for a vast number of people. I appreciate them coming and I want to make it better every year and I appreciate all the input so thank you for coming on our behalf!

Isle of Wight Festival takes place Seaclose Park, Fairlee Road, Newport, Isle of Wight, PO30 2EA  Thu 21st to Sun 24th June 2012

There is still a few non camping tickets left but they are selling fast.Tickets HERE

Interview with Linda Game