Travel
Getting to the Isle of Wight couldn't be easier
All you need to do is get yourself (or catch a Big Green Coach - info below) to one of the four mainland ferry ports at Southampton, Portsmouth, Lymington or Southsea.
After a short crossing, you will arrive on the Island and you'll be at Barclaycard presents the Isle of Wight Festival in no time at all.
The ferry ports are served by good rail and road links.
Both Southampton & Portsmouth are served by excellent rail links, you can get there in 90mins from London!
*TOP TIP* If you book a train journey using a railcard from wherever you are to West Cowes (via Southampton) or Ryde Esplanade (via Portsmouth) or Ryde Hoverport you'll get the best prices!
RED FUNNEL
Red Funnel offers two services for people travelling on foot: the ferry from Southampton to East Cowes or the Red Jet from Southampton to West Cowes. There are bus stations at both Cowes’ terminals where you can catch the bus to take you directly to the Festival.
WIGHTLINK
Wightlink offers two services for people travelling on foot: the ferry from Lymington to Yarmouth and the Catamaran from Portsmouth Harbour to Ryde. There are bus stations at both Island terminals where you can catch the bus to take you directly to Festival.
* We would not advise taking the Portsmouth to Fishbourne ferry if you are travelling without a vehicle, as there is no transport at the Fishbourne terminal to take you to the Festival.
HOVERTRAVEL
Hovertravel operates a hovercraft service from Southsea to Ryde taking only 10 minutes to cross the Solent. They have a quick and easy Hoverbus service connecting from all Portsmouth stations with every Hovercraft service. If you book a rail through ticket to Ryde Hoverport reserve your chosen flight by completing the online reservation form: https://www.hovertravel.co.uk/reserve-your-flight Onward bus travel to the Festival site is only a short 2 minute walk from their Ryde terminal.
RIB TRANSFERS
Rib transfers operate from Hamble, Southampton directly to the Island Harbour Marina. From here there is a 5 minute walk from the Marina to the Campsite entrance.
Big Green Coach is once again the OFFICIAL and EXCLUSIVE coach travel partner to the Isle of Wight Festival 2024 and all coach services are carbon neutral!
They have official IOW weekend camping tickets with coach travel as a package, or you can simply buy your return coach travel.
You can book a coach seat from just £1 today, and a coach & Festival ticket package for only £10 with the rest as scheduled monthly payments.
All coaches arrive on Thursday (with additional London service on Friday) and depart the festival on the Monday, direct from the official coach station next to the festival entrance. The coach travels on the ferry so no need to carry your luggage to queue for the shuttle bus!
This is Big Green Coach’s eighth year being the official coach partner for the festival and they have transported thousands of excited festival goers to the Isle of Wight! In fact, they are the only coach company authorised to drop you inside those official gates.
Forget about behaving yourself on the last night, book with Big Green Coach, because it’s NOT about driving home whilst your mates sleep off the weekend!
They will also have a friendly team on site at the festival to help with your luggage, point you in the right direction and help you with anything you need.
TRAVEL FROM ONE OF THESE PICKUP LOCATIONS: Birmingham, Bournemouth, Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff, Leeds, Liverpool, London Croydon, London Victoria, London Richmond Manchester, Nottingham, Oxford, Reading and Sheffield.
Go Green. Travelling by coach takes loads of cars off the roads and helps reduce overall emissions of the festival. Big Green Coach go carbon neutral on all journeys. Book low-cost return travel, save the hassle of sorting ferries AND save the planet!
Interested in travelling with us but can’t see a pick up point that you can get to? Email us at [email protected] and if we get enough interest, we might just do something about it!
There are two companies that operate car ferry travel across the water from the mainland to the Isle of Wight. Red Funnel operates a crossing from Southampton to East Cowes (1hr crossing). Wightlink operates two services, one from Lymington to Yarmouth (40min crossing) and the other from Portsmouth to Fishbourne (45min crossing).
All you need to do is book your travel, drive to the ferry terminal, board the ferry in your car, drive off at the other side and follow the directional signage to the Festival. You can park at the Festival site. We recommend that you pay for your car parking in advance when you buy your Festival ticket.
The Festival Shuttle buses run regularly to and from all major ports and towns direct into the festival bus station.
From the Ferry Ports
Southern Vectis run regular shuttle buses to and from most ferry ports direct into the festival bus station:
• Yarmouth, for Wightlink from Lymington
• West Cowes, for high-speed Red Jet from Southampton
• East Cowes, for vehicle ferry Red Funnel from Southampton
• Ryde Esplanade, for Wightlink from Portsmouth and Hovertravel from Southsea
Ferry port shuttle buses will operate from around 8am through until 3am Thursday to Monday. The last buses will be at midday on Monday.
There are also regular service buses that will bring to Newport where you can walk up to the Festival or catch a shuttle to the Festival campsites.
