The 1970 Festival site Archaeological project to feature on BBC One show Friday 23rd August 7pm

In July local archaeologists, festival veterans and Dimbola volunteers undertook a field walk and detecting survey of a significant section of the Afton Down site where the 1970 Isle of Wight Music Festival was held. The Vectis Archaeological Trust and People Media UK worked collaboratively to undertake the project with support from the Isle of Wight Heritage Music Group, Dimbola Museum and Galleries, and Tapnell Farm. Among those involved in the project Dimbola's curator Kelly Wetherick, also a landscape archaeologist and trustee of Vectis Archaeological Trust, said: “This year we (Dimbola) have an outreach exhibition for Experience 25, which is 25 years of Isle of Wight Festivals, one of which took place here (Afton Down) in 1970. “We were approached by the BBC to ask if we wanted to be involved in a short film on the archaeology of the site.“I said absolutely and put together; representatives from the trust, Vectis Searchers, Isle of Wight Natural History and Archaeology society, trustees and employees of Dimbola, the finance liaison officer of the Isle of Wight Heritage Service, and general volunteers. “We’re calling it an investigation. We’re not doing a full-scale dig, but we are looking for surface finds, and we do have metal detectorists going down to recover items. “We’ve recovered some interesting things; coins, buckles, buttons, lots of ring pulls, plectrums, a Pepsi bottle, and they all tell a story" CameronLife has also done some digging around (in the Charles Everest Archive) and found this photo of a half buried Pepsi bottle taken at the festival site back in 1970 - I wonder what the odds are for it to be the same bottle? (does anyone know how many bottles of Pepsi were consumed at the event?) Four of Charles' 1970 festival performance photos have been selected to be featured in the short film - so look out for his images of Jimi Hendrix, Leonard Cohen, Paul Rodgers, plus Roger Daltrey with Keith Moon. The Afton archaeology piece on the BBC The One Show will be shown on Friday 23rd August at 7pm. Don't forget to tune in!