Fishermen have criticised the Isle of Wight Festival after finding several large foil balloons in the sea, believed to be from the festival which was celebrating its 50th anniversary this year with a golden theme.
The gold foil balloon letters, which appear to spell out the word ‘festival’, were found 10 miles south of Ventnor on Monday and Tuesday.
Ed Blake, of Ventnor Haven Fishery, said: “With the recent attention on plastics polluting the seas and oceans we are appalled by what appears to be concerted littering by the Isle of Wight Festival.”
The festival, which is based at Seaclose Park in Newport, supports green campaigns and has worked with Richard Storey, of Eco Action Partnership, for 11 years. He said festival organiser John Giddings had ‘always been so supportive’ which was ‘a refreshing change’.
“A festival with 55,000 people attending can only be as green as it can be,” he added.
Balloons are not on the festival’s list of banned items, which does include flags and banners.
Organisers of the festival, which ran from Thursday 21 to Sunday 24 June, have not yet commented.
Codes of practise issued by industry organisations BAPIA and EBPC both recommend their own versions of the ‘pin it and bin it’ approach to responsible balloon disposal.
