DANNY ROBINS' INDIE TRAVEL GUIDE - ISLE OF WIGHT

With Bestival happening at the weekend, this week's Indie Travel Guide washes up on the shores of the Isle of Wight. So if you're heading to Bestival, hope this whets your appetite and proves useful and if you're not, you can book to go soon when the festival crowds have gone home....

The Isle of Wight AKA 'The Island' or 'IOW' as the cool kids call it (well they don't but I'm going to start...) is all these things. It's been a popular tourist spot ever since Queen Victoria decided to make it her summer home. It's one of those places that used to be very fashionable then became a bit naff.

It is very beautiful - in fact, over half the island is designated an area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is sleepy - a lot of people retire there and I've heard it said that more people get arrested on the island for driving too slowly than for driving too fast.

And of course it is home to a couple of great festivals - the imaginatively named Isle of Wight Festival in June and Bestival in September. And here's a little fact for you 6Music listeners, the Isle of Wight was actually the location of the first ever radio station, set up in 1896 by radio pioneer Guglieimo Marconi at the Needles Battery on the Western tip of the island.

So, if you haven't been before you may be wondering exactly where it is. It's in the English Channel 3-5 miles off the coast of Hampshire. It's England's largest island. In the 15th century it was actually an independent kingdom.

You can get there easily by ferry from Southampton or Portsmouth. The crossing takes about half an hour. There's even a catamaran from Portsmouth that takes a mere 22 mins.

Or excitingly, you can go on the hovercraft from Portsmouth which takes a mere 10 minutes!

So how does it rate in the Indie stakes? Is it a cool island?

Obviously this weekend for Bestival and in June for the Isle of Wight festival it'll be overtaken by indie types, the rest of the year, I'll be honest, it's not the most indie of places.

We often judge a place's Indie credentials by how many bands it's produced. The only real indie band from the Island I could find is The Bees, who are from Ventnor.

Other IOW celebs include messianic ex-goalkeeper David Icke, crazy survivalist Bear Grylls and gardener and heart-throb Alan Titchmarsh, who actually held the title of High Sherriff of the Isle of Wight a couple of years ago. None of them, sadly, are indie icons; yet.

The cool of the festivals does seem to be rubbing off on the island a bit though - in fact, some locals are worried it's getting a bit too trendy with arty types from the mainland moving over and opening up fashionable cafes and restaurants. The seaside town of Ventnor in particular is now attracting quite a few trendies - it even had a profile piece singing it's virtues as somewhere to live in the Guardian's 'Let's Move To...' section.

But, just for hosting the Isle of Wight festival alone, the island needs a place in music history. The current festival is a reincarnation of the original legendary ones from 1968 to 1970. Bob Dylan headlined the '69 one with crowds of between 150,000-200,000. He actually chose to perform there instead of at Woodstock, even though he was actually living in Woodstock at the time.

The 1970 festival was the biggie though. Apparently it attracted up to 600,000 people (!) - that's more than 3 times the amount of people who go to Glastonbury now.

It was one of the largest ever human gatherings in history. I'm amazed the island didn't sink. It actually led to parliament passing the Isle of Wight Act, which banned gatherings of more than 5000 on the island without a special licence. It was also one of the last ever appearance of Jimi Hendrix, who died about 3 weeks later.

The modern day incarnation is on a smaller scale and with a lot less naked hippies. Obviously, you've missed it for this year, but the 2011festival will be 10th-12th June if you want to get planning ahead.

The Isle of Wight Festival and Bestival aren't the only festivals on the Island - the mix of good weather (it has its own micro-climate), seaside and pretty scenery seems to work for a whole host of events, including: The International Scootering Rally when loads of Quadrophenia-style Mods take over the island.

Good places to go out of festival time include The Folly Inn pub on the banks of the River Medina, near the town of Cowes comes highly recommended.

As does The Bonchurch Inn, a nice old pub with a courtyard with good Italian food.

Salty's Bar and restaurant in Yarmouth on the West side of the island, gets a nod.

For lots of eating tips check out Matt and Cat's Isle of Wight Eating Out Guide.

The Bestival Website gives links to a few useful websites to find out more about IOW.

There's a great guide to the island, specially aimed at Bestival goers.

Fact fans.... Did you know, the island's trains are old London underground tube trains? Never expected to see the light of day, they now run along by the sea.

The island's most famous tourist attraction is the eccentric theme park Black Gang Chine. In fact, it's Britain's oldest them park. It's like a slice of how Britain used to be - a good old fashioned unfashionable un-Disneyfied attraction. There's painted concrete dinosaurs, a wild-west town and a Hall of Mirrors.

It was recently used as the setting for the rather good video for Green Grass by ex Razorlight man Andy Burrow's new band I Am Arrows.

Sadly, it's fighting a running battle with cliff erosion. They actually had to move the Wild West town a few years back to stop it falling into the sea.

Far and away my favourite tip I've been sent though is to check out the video for Derek Sandy's 'Welcome to the Isle of Wight'. Derek is a reggae star from Trinidad and Tobago who settled on the Isle of Wight and decided he wanted to give something back so recorded this song, complete with sun-kissed video shot on location on the island.

And finally, here's some local lingo to make sure you fit in. The Isle of Wight has it's own dialect with quite a few words that will bamboozle tourists here's a quick mini-dictionary to make things clear.

Grockle - Tourist

Grockle-can - Tourist coach

Overner - A mainlander who has settled on the island

Mallishag - Caterpillar

Nammit - Food (from 'noon meat')

Gurt - Great

Gallybagger - Scarecrow

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