Sunday 26 December 2010

Isle of Wight Festival Calendar 2011

If you're thinking about coming on holiday to the Isle of Wight, we thought a round up of 2011's festival events might be useful, if you're helping to set your calendars, so here's a round-up of some of the highlights!

The Isle of Wight Walking Festival kicks off May 7th-22nd. Our properties are an ideal base, with footpaths very close to all of them. Bring your hiking boots and stride out on the feature walks in this festival in 2011.

Sailing into the nearest town to our properties is the Yarmouth Old Gaffers Festival on 3-5th June, providing a fantastic spectacle of these gracious boats cruising and racing out of Yarmouth, with great viewing along the seafront and from Yarmouth Pier.

The Isle of Wight Festival takes place 10-12th June and the line up is looking particularly fine this year, with Kings of Leon, Pulp, Foo Fighters and Kasabian breathing a new generation of life into the 'legends' theme.

Hot on the heels of the Old Gaffers is the Round the Island Sailing Race on 25th June. If you've never seen a flotilla of thousands of sailing boats racing around the world-famous Needles it is not to be missed! Some fantastic viewing locations are only a few minutes from our houses.

2011 is a very special year for the Isle of Wight - we're hosting the NatWest Island Games 25 June - 2nd July. People from Islands all around the world will converge on the Isle of Wight to take part in a wide range of events, held at numerous venues. Whether you want to spectate, or you're involved, you can find great facilities on Wightstay for this event.

The Rhythm Tree World Music Festival at Calbourne Water Mill returns 22-24th July. If you don't fancy camping and aren't so good with teepees Wightstay has accommodation available close to this jolly, small festival.

Cowes Week storms on to the Island 6-13th August, bringing with it a huge range of events and activities, in addition to the sailing. After some stunning action in 2010, the Extreme 40 racing series has just last week confirmed it will be back in Cowes in 2011 for the UK round. It really is sailing's Formula 1 racing series!

Foodies should make sure they get to the Garlic Festival 20-21st August. With all things garlic and an increasing range of other culinary delights it's an eating event not to be missed.

With acts including The Cure, Brian Wilson DJ Shadow and many others The Bestival is already hotting up to be a fantastic event.

The Isle of Wight International Classic Car Show takes place at Newport Quay on 17th September and Ryde's Eastern Gardens on September 18th, with proceeds going to different charities on either day.

This is followed up by the Sun Sea and Cycling festival 18-26th September. Many of the  properties on Wightstay are bike-friendly and provide easy access to the Isle of Wight's quiet roads and the great bridleway network - the most dense and well-maintained in the UK.

The 2011 season closes with the Autumn Walking Weekend 21-24th October, with a series of events already in place to suit a wide range of abilities.

Look out for updates from the Wightstay Team through 2011 about all of these events and more and if you're holding an event you'd like listed or covered, don't hesitate to get in contact with us!

Thursday 2 December 2010

Snow day on the Isle of Wight

For the second time this year the Isle of Wight has been hit hard with snow. It was starting to look like we might miss what the rest of country had been experiencing throughout the week, but overnight the white stuff fell constantly and we woke up this morning to a perfect blanket of snow. The pictures below were shot early this morning on a walk through Cowes. Shame it is a bit too early for Christmas, but at least there are a couple of snow laden Christmas trees on route.

Cowes Esplanade

Queens Road

Cowes Town Centre

The Union Inn

Christmas Tree outside The Vectis Tavern