Last week, IoW boss John Giddings caused controversy when he said that the industry wasn't nurturing enough newer acts to rise to the role of headliner, and that the pool of more established legacy acts that could be called on to top the bill was forever diminishing - adding that Ed Sheeran was 'boring' and that if he's the future, 'we're all screwed'.
When asked who should be stepping up to top the bill in future, he continued: "I think to headline a festival it just takes a back catalogue of songs that people like. I'd say now there' definitely potential for people to get to that point, we just need to let artists get to that space. A band like Royal Blood could easily headline Glastonbury in like five to ten years."
He added: "I think in terms of headlining festivals, I think George Ezra will definitely do that - Ben Howard too, Hozier, Sam Smith, I reckon he could probably do that now."
Last week, Giddings said: "We're not building headliners anymore. Nobody can invest in building a band over five albums. And if boring acts like Ed Sheeran are the future then we're all screwed."
He also noted the many festivals that met trouble and closure in 2014, saying that most new events should expect to lose money in their first few years.
"The council lost £500,000 on that first one and I put on the second year myself and lost another half million," he said. "It was only when someone said, look, this is a holiday place, you need to make it longer, and I realised they were right, that we really started to sell tickets."