The second iteration of the Isle of Wight festival kicked off in Wootton, England on August 30, 1969. The legendary event drew over 150,000 fans and featured performances by Bob Dylan and the Band, the Who, Free, Joe Cocker and the Moody Blues. It was a triumphant homecoming for the Who, as the group had recently crossed over into massive international stardom. They arrived on the island via helicopter just moments before they were set to take the stage, and NME reporter Richard Green recalls the entrance in Mark Wilkerson’s biography of Pete Townshend, saying: “All of us backstage got covered in all sorts of flying muck, and NME’s intrepid photographer Stuart Richman was almost decapitated by a sheet or hardboard that suddenly took flight.”