What Actually Exists From the 1968 Isle of Wight Festival
The Isle Of Wight Festival 1968 was the first of the famous island festivals, held in September on a private farm near Dowen Lake. It drew an estimated 10,000 people and featured Donovan headlining, along with the Small Faces, The Animals, Sandie Shaw, John Mayall, and Taj Mahal. It was modest by later standards — no one had yet figured out how to stage 600,000 people — but it proved the concept worked. Here is the thing nobody tells you clearly: there is almost no professional video footage from that 1968 event. No complete live video release exists. The footage most people associate with it is actually from 1969, when the festival exploded in size. If you see a clip labeled "Isle of Wight 1968" on YouTube and it features Jimi Hendrix or Bob Dylan, that is almost certainly from the 1969 festival. I learned this the hard way after spending an afternoon cross-referencing setlists with known footage before realizing the timeline was wrong.
Isle Of Wight Festival 1968 footage and recordings
The only reliable audio from the 1968 festival comes from a few sources. The main one is a complete audio recording of Donovan's set, which circulates as an unofficial bootleg. It sounds decent — typical mono field recording from that era, a bit flat and compressed but listenable. There is also a short excerpt of The Small Faces performing, though the quality degrades quickly. For actually acquiring something authentic, your best bet is tracking down the Donovan bootleg on platforms like Discogs. It is usually listed as "Isle of Wight Festival 1968 - Donovan Complete Set." Prices range from £10 to £40 depending on condition. Avoid any "official" download that promises full festival coverage — those are almost always mislabeled 1969 material. The 1968 festival matters more as a historical footnote than as a cultural event you can experience through media. It was the proof of concept. The 1969 festival is the one with the historical recordings, the film footage, and the cultural weight. If you are researching the 1968 event specifically, you will find very little beyond newspaper clippings and a handful of grainy photographs.
One practical note: if you are looking at any documentary or book that covers both years together, pay close attention to which year each performance actually belongs to. The two festivals share the same location but are wildly different in scale and cultural significance. Mixing them up is the most common mistake anyone makes when writing about or presenting this material.
Get the Full Details
