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Latitude Festival 2015

homeravery

By homeravery
in other UK festivals

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Thearg Newbie

Thearg

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What a great festival,had an absolute ball,my highlights were Drenge, Wolf Alice and the Two Bears,which was great as I was expecting a dj set and loads of other bands were good,was pissed off about The Unthanks,they were my highlight but they were at the other voices stage which was the size of a village hall and I couldn't get in,It would of been much better if they put them on the I arena.

Loved all the late night dj sets in various place in the woods, a great place to have a wonder and Keith Allens establishment club was a good crack too.

 

Not to crowded as well found it very easy to get near the front of the main stage by doing the pincer movement

 

looks like we got off lightly with the traffic compared to others,we left London at 6pm on thursday,took 3 hours to get there but then had to queue for 2 hours for the last eight miles so five all in all.

 

Will definitely go again  next year as long as the lineups half decent. 

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Thearg Newbie

Thearg

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This is my worry. Both Latitude and Glastonbury had absolutely killer line ups for me this year. Hard to see how any festival can top it for me for the next!

 

Judging by the lineups of the past few years,which are also pretty decent I hope so,I went to the second one 07 and found it a bit meh so never went back,I'm kicking myself now,oh well better late than never.

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Thearg Newbie

Thearg

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Is there any chance they might be trying to 'grow' Latitude? The headliners this year seemed a little bigger than the past few years and they got world coverage for their huge secret sets. So maybe seeing slightly bigger headliners?

 

I hope not,there seemed to be just the right amount of people,nice and easy to get around,obviously there was a crowd when the main acts finished.

The campsites were good too,plenty of space around us in red camping.

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Amy Lawn Community Regular

Amy Lawn

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I was thinking kinda along the same lines. I was also thinking....are Radiohead no longer 'too big' to headline? Thom Yorke obviously likes the place.....

This is just wishful thinking, isn't it?

I did think that Radiohead could now be a feasible option, but only if Thom really wants to do it. The headliners this year may have felt bigger, but Portishead are quite niche (Cardiff, Thursday night), Alt-J aren't that massive, and Noel, even though he looks like a big coup, will seemingly play anywhere. Radiohead could do it, but would be much bigger than what the festival is used to. I reckon The XX, Bjork, Massive Attack, Chemical Brothers, Gorrilaz, Jack White, Royal Blood, maybe even Neil Young could be on the cards for years to come.

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johnomatic Newbie

johnomatic

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My first time this year and - apart from really enjoying myself - one of the things I noticed was the difference in the type and style of the headliners. They were three quite different acts, appealing to largely different demographics and of different statuses (upcomingish Alt-J, never-quite-been-absolutely-massive-Portishead and the infamous household name in Noel Gallagher). And I liked that, felt like it gave the event more variety. 

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Glastoboy Apprentice

Glastoboy

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Just a little heads up for you forum members, I won't be offering this up as a suggestion again otherwise it loses its effectiveness. We left Cornwall at 6.30am and hit the back of the queue 11miles from the site at 2pm.I called up Google Maps, we veered off to the right and navigated the tiny country lanes all the way to Blythburgh where we pretty much joined the front of the queue 15mins later. This saved us 4-6 hours of queuing after our already long journey. I apologise to anyone who gets their knickers in a twist about queue jumping but I'm mightily glad we did it.

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tillyandthewall Newbie

tillyandthewall

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Right, lets get going with a proper review.

 

After two solid days on the sauce Thursday came around.  Met up with some campers and made our way to Keith Allen's Establishment club.  A tight house band playing funky stuff (we were the first to get everyone dancing) and inviting people up to have a go on stage.  Great fun (8/10)

 

Nursing the head on Friday, kicked off with the Districts on the Scary tent.  Bit ploddy but some nice feedback. (6/10).  Then we lost one of our group, with the mobile signal what it was we sat down at the Lake and saw Georgie, a drummer doing some rapping as well, very talented (8/10).  Caught a little of Unknown Mortal Orchestra (8/10) then on to the big picnic at the Obelisk for Femi Kuti, funky afrobeat for a sweltering crowd (7/10).   The evening kicked off with Caribou with a metronomic drummer banging it out and some trippy vocals (9/10).  Then my buddy sat down for a smoke by the Lake for To Kill a King (5/10).  When rolling up, he mentioned that kids always appear when he's about to smoke, and right on cue some kids started doing laps around us.  Not any old kids, these had Portishead AAA stickers on them... A look to our right revealed Beth Gibbons with her friends relaxing with all their families.  Didn't want to bother her so didn't say hello, but I thought it was so nice that the headliner enjoyed hanging out at the festival and not doing the usual turn up, play set, go.  Then on to check out the new Other Voices stage, lovely intimate setup with great decoration.  All We Are were who I was going for.  They sounded OK on record, but their live performance was astonishing.  Three supremely talented musicians sounding like the xx on 45rpm.  They all looked blown away by their performance and the crowd reaction, quite right too. (10/10)

 

Saturday was on shift, within earshot but not in sight of the Obelisk.  So... going on sound only, it was JP Cooper who sounded great in soundcheck but a bit flatter in performance (6/10).  Some heavy blues with Benjamin Booker (7/10) and a complete bellend, Badly Drawn Boy (4/10).  Jose Gonzalez was perfect relaxation for the crowd laying down on the grass, but a sedative for those working (7/10).  Nice soulful stuff from Lianne La Havas got a good crowd reaction (7/10) and Laura Marling brought some intensity to proceedings (7/10).  After my shift ended, on to the Lavish Lounge for Jesca Hoop being her usual kooky self and duetting with the soundclash from the Waterfront stage (8/10) then on to the main event, Portishead (10/10).  Though if I had never seen them before I would have given them (11/10) but they still delivered.  A fruitless follow of the crowd to the Sunrise for Thom soured the night a little.

 

Sunday started with a look at the 6music to see if there was any secret sets in the 12-2 slot, there was none.  Probably a 'reserve' slot in case any bands had to reschedule, like James last year.  Then some old-school soul with Naomi Shelton which got the crowd booty-shaking (8/10) .  An afternoon break then led to Warpaint (8/10) with some memorable songs, and then on to the Manics (8/10), never my cup of tea but seemed to get an appreciative audience.  The SBTRKT/2 Bears/Roni Size clash ended up in favour of Reprazent.  A 30-something crowd that should know better raving it up (9/10).  Then finally the Alabama 3.  Pounding uptempo darkness to round off the night (8/10).

 

Overall the main theme of what I saw was shit-hot drummers, everywhere.  Though I noticed that when Alabama 3 were soundchecking, the bass drum was being kicked in a 4-to-the-floor beat without anybody there.  Is it all done by machines these days?  Say it ain't so!

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tillyandthewall Newbie

tillyandthewall

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Oh, and I noticed that Sky Arts has 2x two hour highlights shows, on Saturday and Sunday at 9pm.  I don't have Sky, but am I right in thinking that I can buy this Now TV box for £13, and can stream Sky Arts to my TV if I activate the pass?  I usually fly the jolly roger for TV so I'm a bit new to this.

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tillyandthewall Newbie

tillyandthewall

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The only downers were the mobile phone signal, one of the first topics of conversation there.  O2 was ok but if you were on EE you had a brick for the duration.  Free Wi-fi didn't really make up for it as it was only in small areas. 

 

The dust was a real issue, this was the only year I've seen dust masks issued as PPE for staff.  A Glasto-style truck watering the tracks down would have helped, but for In The Woods it couldn't get through there.  Stewards with backpacks for there maybe?  Though with their capacity it might be like emptying the ocean with a teaspoon.

 

And the traffic, wasn't affected by it myself.  As a Cities Skylines player I am now a fully fledged traffic engineer.  My thought was to put a huge one way loop around the perimiter, left lane for through traffic, right lane for Latitude in/out movements so there's no right-turn conflicts.  But then a trip on Google Maps revealed that Middle Barn Lane is a single-lane track and not suitable for trucks to Lowestoft so that idea falls down.  Yes putting the day car-park inside the car-park would help with the right turns and the pedestrian crossing, but most of the queues were on Thursday when the day people weren't arriving.  There's no easy solution...

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PDAD Collaborator

PDAD

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What a festival! Absolutely loved the weekend. Portishead was definitely the best show I've ever seen, and Caribou, Horace Andy, Alabama 3, Warpaint and Wolf Alice all stood out as other highlights. I'll definitely be back next year!

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Amy Lawn Community Regular

Amy Lawn

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Oo, my PB is 15. Didn't find any in the arena this year so couldn't challenge it

I was woken up by a full bladder in the small hours of Monday morning, dashed out of my tent to the bogs in hiking boots, boxer shorts and a blanket wrapped around me, hosed out a mighty stream that probably would have been well into the 20s if the metal flap wasn't lazily stuck in the open position.

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