An Englishman in Newport – Sting wows Isle of Wight Festival
Wearing a white T-shirt and tight black trousers, the 73-year-old raced straight into fan favourite Message In A Bottle which got the crowd singing along.
Half way through his one-and-a-half-hour slot, Sting said to the Newport audience: 'We are delighted to be back at the Isle of Wight festival, it's a historic festival.
'Thank you for inviting us.'
After bounding through An Englishman in New York, Walking On The Moon and Every Breath You Take, the band went off before returning for an encore of Roxanne which the crowds enthusiastically sang along to.
Sting then finished with Fragile, the only acoustic song in the set.
Other bands taking to the Main Stage on Friday included Lottery Winners, Amy Macdonald, The Corrs and Faithless ending the night while Clean Bandit headlined the Big Top.
Some 55,000 partygoers have crossed the Solent to reach Seaclose Park in Newport for the four-day event also being headlined by Stereophonics and Justin Timberlake.
John Giddings, who has run the festival since re-launching it in 2002 following the legendary events which ran from 1968 to 1970, has said he goes with 'gut feeling' when choosing the acts.
The 72-year-old told the PA news agency: 'You want to book acts that have a catalogue that's going to entertain an audience for an hour, hour and a half, and, secondly, someone who's capable of performing to an audience of 50,000 people in a field, because they need to be able to project to entertain.'
Other acts performing during the weekend include The Script, Jess Glynne, Supergrass, Example, Busted and Texas.
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