Grade 2 are a Ryde punk band whose lyrics name-check the town's streets, estates, and landmarks with the specificity of people who grew up there. This free one-hour walking tour on 16 May uses those lyrics as a route guide, moving through Ryde with a commentary that connects the music to the places that inspired it. It is part punk geography, part local music history, and thoroughly unlike any other walk in the festival programme.
The route covers the parts of Ryde that residents know and visitors usually miss: the housing estates behind the town centre, the streets near the bus station, the municipal spaces that do not appear on tourist maps. For anyone who grew up listening to post-punk or who is curious about the kind of local music scene that produces bands with this level of geographical specificity, the walk works as cultural archaeology.
Free, but register via the Walking Festival. One hour, starts and ends in central Ryde. Good for adults and teenagers. More music events on the Isle of Wight running alongside the walking festival this weekend.
