Isle of Wight Festival Experience 25 at 02 Greenwich

The venue's Innovation Centre is displaying archive images, film and artefacts documenting the festival's magic moments, from Bob Dylan playing to a 150,000-strong crowd in 1969, to Amy Winehouse duetting with Mick Jagger in 2007.

The three original events were held in 1968, ‘69 and ‘70 curated by Ray Foulk and his brothers – the 1970 one being ‘The Last Great Event’ with acts including Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, The Who and Joni Mitchell.

Jimi Hendrix played the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970 (Image: Peter Bull)

The festival was revived in 2002 by promoter John Giddings and has seen performances by Robbie Williams, Blondie, Pulp, Fleetwood Mac, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, Pink and The Who among others.

Experience 25 runs at the O2 in Greenwich until November 13th and invites visitors into an authentic recreation of Ray Foulk's office. From this chaotic workspace he and his team put together events with a hippy ethos, overcoming a series of obstacles and dramas along the way.

Also on display are original images and footage of performances by The Doors, The Who, Joni Mitchell, and Hendrix shredding in front a 500,000 strong crowd in 1970.Amy Winehouse performed a duet with Mick Jagger in 2007 (Image: Simon Wells)

Visitors are then transported to 2002, when the revived festival began its hugely successful run to the present day.

It now hosts 60,000 music fans a year with highlights including David Bowie’s headline set in 2004, Jay Z’s performance in 2010 and Dave Grohl cementing himself in rock history in 2011.

John Giddings said: “The iconic Isle of Wight festival 1970 was the Woodstock of Europe, but the IOW Member of Parliament at the time, in all his wisdom, decided to ban it for 32 years in the form of an act of parliament - allowing others to pick up the baton.

"They let us restart it for the Queen’s jubilee, and it has gone from strength to strength - re-establishing this small island off the south coast of England as a worldwide brand. Here is a celebration of the last 22 years, with the original three years added by kind courtesy of Ray Foulk, without whom it, it would not exist.”

David Bowie's appearance at the festival was his last UK performance and has been voted the most magic moment in the event's history (Image: Jennifer Burton)

At the launch Giddings told how in 2007 he came up with the idea of putting Amy Winehouse onstage with The Rolling Stones.

"I thought the hardest bit would be to get Mick Jagger to let Amy up there. So I went to him and he jumped at the opportunity… but then I went to Amy who said she could never do it; she was too nervous! It took me about half an hour to persuade her to do it but when you see the result of it… it was amazing”. 

British band The Kooks were also at the launch, with frontman Luke Pritchard sharing his own history of the festival: “My Mum’s side of the family are farmers from the Isle of Wight. They were at the festival in 1969 when there was a shortage of food on-site. The family story is that my uncle went back to the farm with some friends and collected a load of sweetcorn to bring back and sell to the artists. He was selling food to Bob Dylan”.

Ray Foulk said: “My family is delighted to contribute to this commemorative show with historic items and archives as it travels from the Island to the O2. It is with great pride that our embryonic rock festivals of more than half a century ago have been so successfully and splendidly revived”.

Back in 2004, David Bowie arrived for his headline set by ferry alongside the general public. At the launch the winner of the festival's most magic moment was revealed as the set which marked Bowie's final UK performance.

Experience 25 runs at the 02's Innovation Centre in North Greenwich until November 13th.