A weekend of music at the Isle of Wight Festival 2019

Many of the music fans are staying at the venue in Newport for the weekend

The festival season has begun with typical festival weather as ninety thousand people have arrived on the Isle of Wight for a weekend of music - and mud!

After a week of wet weather, teams of tractors have been spreading sawdust at the Isle of Wight music festival at Seaclose Park in Newport to try to improve the muddy conditions.

The event began on Thursday night with performers on stage including Wet Wet Wet, Heather Small, James Walsh and Simply Dylan on the Big Top Stage. It was also an evening with rain and thunder.

During a sunny spell on Friday afternoon, the organiser, John Giddings congratulated the crowd for putting up with the bad weather. He said:

The theme for this year's festival is Summer of '69: Peace and Love.The idea marks fifty years since Bob Dylan headlined the event in 1969, when he sang to an estimated audience of 200,000 people.

Watch Chloe Oliver's report below.