The ‘Inter-Island’ Games were born in the Isle of Man in 1985, with the intention of bringing together a number of small islands from different parts of the world in friendly competition as part of the Isle of Man’s Year of Sport.

Athletes came from as far a field as Iceland and Scandinavia in the northern hemisphere, the British Isles, the Mediterranean, down to St. Helena in the South Atlantic. In total 15 islands took part.

The idea was to provide an opportunity for hundreds of young sportsmen and women from small island communities, to compete and enjoy international competition against other islanders with similar standards of performance. Other benefits of such a unique festival of sport are the opportunities for cultural exchange and social interaction with visiting teams, and to establish new lifelong friendships with fellow islanders.

In many ways, sporting competition is only one aspect of the success of this event. As important are the opportunities it affords to share thoughts and experiences relating to our unique island stories. With that in mind, the theme for our advertising has been NatWest – bringing islands together.

The Festival was such a success that it was agreed to continue it every other year, with Guernsey hosting the Games in 1987. The Games have subsequently been held in the Faroe Islands, Aland, Isle of Wight, Gibraltar, Jersey, Gotland in 1999 (the first Games of NatWest offshore’s sponsorship), Isle of Man and Guernsey.

The number of Islands participating has grown substantially, and now 25 Islands are members of the International Island Games Association.