The Last Great Event: When the World Came to the Isle of Wight, with Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison

A firsthand account of the legendary 1969–1970 Isle of Wight Festivals and their modern revival under John Giddings.

Expanded edition, featuring a new chapter and photographs on the Festival’s modern revival under John Giddings.

The Isle of Wight Festival in 1969 famously stole Bob Dylan from Woodstock’ and set the benchmark for all rock and pop festivals in the UK. Its 1970 follow-up became one of the most iconic music gatherings of all time, with a line-up including Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, The Doors, Joan Baez and many more. Widely reported to have drawn 600,000 people—five times the Island’s population—it was Britain’s own Woodstock, and Hendrix’s last major performance before his death just 17 days later.

Joint organiser Ray Foulk gives a unique insider’s account of the extraordinary highs and the bitter conflicts surrounding the event, from local hostility to counterculture clashes. Controversial, chaotic, and unforgettable, the 1970 festival has been named The Last Great Event.

This expanded edition not only revisits those legendary days but also brings the story into the present, with a brand-new chapter and rare photographs covering the Festival’s rebirth under John Giddings from 2002. It explores how the event was successfully revived for a new generation, cementing the Isle of Wight Festivals reputation as one of the world’s great live music experiences.

Ray Foulk is a renowned curator and author on French Art Deco masters and twentieth century decorative art, and has also written on the 1960s counterculture and rock festivals. He is also an award winning environmental architect, Ray lives and works in Oxford, near his four grown up children and grandchildren.

Caroline Foulk has worked with her father, Ray, for many years, researching, writing, and co-promoting the in-schools project, Blue Planet Day. Together they have recently completed a screenplay for the cinema about the invention of modern art.