Florence impresses the huge crowd as Latitude sparks into life

Snaking along the A145 after a 4 hour journey with not a single motorway in sight I was pleased entry to Latitude Festival was a complete breeze.

Making my way to the arena you are immediately confronted with just how rural this festival is with little stages in the woods & as you walk through the woods a shed with a piano installed for general use provides random entertainment.

I make my way to The Obelisk Arena which is the main arena where Hockey are just starting up. Last time I saw them they had a very enthusiastic set at Glastonbury in 2009, fast forward a year & they have chilled out with the lead singer limiting his movements & actually smiling at the crowd. Making my way to the Lake Stage which is the smallest of the three main arena stages there is a nice little crowd gathered for the very interesting Alice Gold. Conversations & Runaway Love being the standouts from a swift but very good set.

Heading to the largest tented arena, The Word Arena Angus & Julia Stone walk upon the stage. Now their something going on here the way Julia looks longingly at Angus & there gentle acoustic tunes fit in perfectly with the sunny Friday afternoon vibe & a few ciders.

The Good Natured could well be the next NME darlings, with the lead singer, Sarah, in the mould of Alice Glass & backing band who wouldn't look out of place in MGMT or any of the other maked up indy clones currently masquerading on the indy tunes. There tunes are sometimes good sometimes hmmm!!!! As yet unsigned, could be ones to watch.

Back to The Word Tent & the first big hitter of the day hits the stage The Feeling, now you either love or hate The Feeling. Myself I find myself impartial, their tunes sometimes remind me of Halifax building society adverts in the nineties… However Gillespie Sells is well up for this festival telling us he came as a punter last year & had to play it. Fill My Little World gets the crowd going crazy & I even witness some crowd surfing!!!!! They were that good we will even let them off the hook for playing a newbie!

Catching a little Laura Marling seems a good time to go for some tea & a pizza & some warm salad is the order of the day…

Latitude has thrown up a massive clash for me Empire Of The Sun or Girls hmmm deciding to do a little of both I catch the first twenty minutes of EOTS, with their crazy dancers dressed in blue body suits. Walking to the Shore is the opener with Luke Steele dressed as some Japanese Samurai Warrior going into battle. We Are The People gets another costume change from the dancers into red suits with crazy hats with some psychedelic visual videos going on. So leaving the EOTS I make my way into the woods to catch some Girls. Seems the Sunrise Arena has had structural problems all day now they also have power problems too meaning Girls are delayed by a good half hour!!! Bummer for me missing out on EOTS… Still Girls are awesome with their American drawl & their cool songs they soon make up for the delay. Laura is still the standout track whilst Big Bad Mean Motherfucker deserves a mention just for the title alone…

So onto the headliner Florence And The Machine another take it or leave it artist who seems to be at every single festival in the last year. Still it's a headline set so we must show enthusiasm. Florence has, she has put a huge curtain across the stage & with the opening boom of Drumming Song the black sheet drops to reveal…. Yes Florence in the middle of the stage with one of her white flowing dresses!!!

Still it impresses the huge crowd gathered to see her… Myself after three songs can hardly contain my excitement so heads of to the waterfront stage to chill out in the provided deck chairs watching the pretty trees change colour like the sheep in the lights…

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