Earning his Spurs - Pitchcare

“Why the hell is he doing
that when 65,000 people
are about to jump up and
down on it?”
Earley... and
At the mention of the Isle of Wight
you’d be forgiven if Cowes Week
came first to mind, the largest
sailing regatta of its type in the world.
However, the island is also home to
another monumental annual event.
The Isle of Wight Festival is a three day
music gathering that has played host to
some of the biggest names in music
including Jimi Hendrix, Free and Bob
Dylan. After an absence of thirty-two
years, the festival returned to the island
in 2002, and has grown in popularity
year on year. June 2010 will see 65,000
revellers descend upon Seaclose Park and
call the Isle of Wight their home for
three days.
Pan Publicity’s’ Greg Doggett
combined his love of music, and a tip off
from client Charterhouse Turf
Machinery, to find out whose job it was
to plan and prepare the island’s grounds
for such a massive event - and then
58
return it to normal again after the
festival goers have staggered off the
island!
Seaclose Park is a multi sports venue
owned by the Isle of Wight Council and
the job falls to Andrew Earley, Contracts
Inspector for the Parks and Countryside
Division. The task of getting the island
‘festival ready’ is enormous, and the buck
does ultimately stop with him.
It helps that Andrew was born and
bred on the island, and that he has
worked at the Council since he left
Carisbrooke High School (near Newport)
in 1985. “I always liked being outdoors
and knew that a desk job wasn’t for me,”
he explained. “When I left school at
sixteen, I applied for a place on a
government funded Grounds
Maintenance Youth Training Scheme.
This supplied me with a good, broad
overview of the skills that I would need
later on to look after all of the different
grounds on the island. Once the course
was completed, I took a job at the
council as a School’s Groundsman,
looking after a catchment area of sixty
schools”.
In 1990, the Grounds Maintenance
Department was privatised to become
‘Group 90’ and then ‘N-viro Grounds
Maintenance’ where Andrew became the
Contracts Manager. But, by 2002, and
coincidentally the same year the Festival
was re-established, he took up the
position of Contracts Inspector back with
the Council.
“I contract monitor a core workforce of
fifteen to oversee the maintenance and
upkeep of 100 sites all over the northern
part of the island, including football
pitches, bowling greens, parks, gardens,
ornamental areas and a pitch and putt,
in addition to the festival that is held on
Seaclose Park each year. You can
appreciate I’m kept very busy!” says