Latitude 2021

[rseamer]

5 hours ago, grayfitz said:

Can I ask something about Wet Leg? How are they on the bill of a fairly big festival when they've got one released song? What was the rest of their set? 

They’ve been signed by Domino and Rhain (lead vocalist) has been doing it for a few years now solo. Check out her song Humdrum Drivel 

[adequate8]

23 minutes ago, rseamer said:

They’ve been signed by Domino and Rhain (lead vocalist) has been doing it for a few years now solo. Check out her song Humdrum Drivel 

Weren’t they in Plastic Mermaids?

[Homer]

5 hours ago, bethannny said:

Soul healed, body broken. No idea how I used to do a full season of these weekends.

Saw an awful lot over the weekend - one of the benefits of it being a compact site (unless you’re heading back to the campsite, what a mission). Hot Chip, Chems and Sons of Kemet for my headliners, all incredible. Accidentally saw Rick Astley doing a full covers set in the Trailer Park at midnight on Saturday, which was suitably bizarre but thoroughly enjoyable! 
 

Latitude did well to pull that off and manage to order the weather to behave too! Usual gripes - food queues did get ridiculous, main bar ‘selection’ appalling. So many teenagers that at times it felt like I was crashing a GCSE results party. Nothing that could take the shine off being at an actual real life festival again. 
 

Not sure Latitude is ever going to be in my regular rotation of festivals but it was everything I needed. 

Sounds much better than watching him sing his 'own' sh1t songs! What did he do? Am guessing the Foo Fighters was in there?

[Jacko45]

Back to Leeds by 2pm - Nice easy drive home considering it being a Monday morning rush hour near enough.

Here goes:

Positives

• Weather was about as good as it gets, fantastic as others have said it made Chems even more incredible. 
• The fact they even got a festival sorted in the timescale under such uncertainty (Especially as similar sized festival in Kendal Calling cancelled)
• The food offerings were diverse and delicious in the main part.
• As ever it felt incredibly secure and safe, happy to leave things in tent and chairs/tables out etc.
• Even though it wasn't a great line up for myself personally, all the acts I did see were phenomenal and just so up for it. 
• The showers although huge and communal were kept pretty clean, had hot water and were a god send.

Negatives

• The layout and fencing off of the camping areas seemed really strange, in Family you had parts where you had to walk 200m's then 200m back on yourself to get beyond the fence to walk back where you've just come from, it was really odd. Luckily some clever folk kept propping a panel open, making the flow much better.
• The queues for food outlets and toilets between bands was like nothing I've ever seen, it was similar to Leeds Fest main arena and just didn't seem to be enough. The family camping toilets were totally inadequate and toilets were left blocked for most of the weekend. 
• Others seem to disagree but it really did feel like day tickets were over sold, Saturday in particular, even the woodland stages/comedy were absolutely packed to the rafters, that's fine but I always loved Latitude as it felt busy but never too busy.

I think it's important to note that there will likely never be a Latitude like this again, you've basically gone to first NORMAL festival in the UK in the last 18 months, that was always going to attract folk who would never usually attend. 

Lots of people probably thought "YES A PROPER FESTIVAL" let's just go without really wanting to see many acts etc. You'd imagine next year those people will go to festivals they usually do in regular times, or chose a more specific festival for them.

I think all in all in was a fantastic weekend in a shit 18 months, organised very well considering but never any harm in trying to improve :) 

[Havors]

Just got back. Thought it was pretty good. I worked most of the first couple of days so only really got to enjoy the saturday and sunday but they were great. Rudimental, Chems, Kawala, Bombay B Club & Bastille all brilliant from what got to see. 

Dont know if it was just me but the festival seemed really small? 

[DJL]

Wow it was amazing to be back, even if only for the Sunday as I couldn't get out of work on the Saturday. Leaving Reading that morning and getting in with tent set-up in time for Bill Bailey was always going to be a gamble... what a feeling when we made it.  Thought I might cry the first time I heard live music didn't imagine it would Bill Bailey playing a flute along to the iPhone ringtone. Self Esteem that followed was truly superb. Enjoyed Vanity Fairy though would have been better with actual musicians. 

After that to be honest I paid little attention to the music. There was stuff I quite liked scattered across the smaller stages but meeting up with friends (who I have barely seen since Latitude 2 years ago) in the sunshine was far more important. 

 

Yeah there were queues around the place but I managed to avoid them, ate (veggie) twice and drank beer all day (easier if you're a man of course and agree they need to sort out the toilets situation for the ladies). Wish I'd been there for Hot Chip and the Chems though

[Copperface]

Had a bloody great time (apart from the 7.5 hour drive back home).

Main things for me were - they screwed up large on the general camping allocation of space. I arrived early and found space but others arriving later on the Thursday and on Friday were really struggling to find somewhere to pitch up.They ended up pitched in walkways, by the edge of paths and basically anywhere that was not a firebreak.

Conversely, family camping, family campervans and general campervans were wallowing in acres of space (embarrassingly so in comparison to general camping). Pink Moon etc ......many of those tents were literally pitched by the clangers, under the lights and near the generators .......I would have complained should I have been in there and paid that.

Water-  Green camping especially, the water pressure was crap - took me 30 minutes to fill an average sized water container. It was just a dribble. Clangers were normally cleanish and usable.

Naturally there were going to be pullouts of acts and they did a good job of covering those. We expected that, but there were several holes in the schedule. Sunday night Bastille vs a Covid depleted Sons of Kemet meant an early night.

Plaudits to:

Wolf Alice, confident, assured and developed in six short years into nailed on headliners.

Anna Meredith - mesmerising.

Vlure - cracking set.

Bombay Bicycle Club = not really familiar with them, but absolutely slotted it.

Chemical Brothers - Party.

Just Mustard. Loud and moody.

Supergrass/Kaiser Chiefs - did what they do well and captured the joyous spirit of people being in a field again. 

Damon Albarn - Form is temporary, class is permament - what a setting!

The Staves - seemingly missing one Stave but making no reference to it but putting in a slick performance anyway.

The weather. Hot, sweaty and  humid but we dodged a bullet with those thunderstorms.

 

I can forgive the rest. Just great to be back.

 

Roll on EoTR.

[Supernintendo Chalmers]

51 minutes ago, Copperface said:

Had a bloody great time (apart from the 7.5 hour drive back home).

Main things for me were - they screwed up large on the general camping allocation of space. I arrived early and found space but others arriving later on the Thursday and on Friday were really struggling to find somewhere to pitch up.They ended up pitched in walkways, by the edge of paths and basically anywhere that was not a firebreak.

Conversely, family camping, family campervans and general campervans were wallowing in acres of space (embarrassingly so in comparison to general camping). Pink Moon etc ......many of those tents were literally pitched by the clangers, under the lights and near the generators .......I would have complained should I have been in there and paid that.

Water-  Green camping especially, the water pressure was crap - took me 30 minutes to fill an average sized water container. It was just a dribble. Clangers were normally cleanish and usable.

Naturally there were going to be pullouts of acts and they did a good job of covering those. We expected that, but there were several holes in the schedule. Sunday night Bastille vs a Covid depleted Sons of Kemet meant an early night.

Plaudits to:

Wolf Alice, confident, assured and developed in six short years into nailed on headliners.

Anna Meredith - mesmerising.

Vlure - cracking set.

Bombay Bicycle Club = not really familiar with them, but absolutely slotted it.

Chemical Brothers - Party.

Just Mustard. Loud and moody.

Supergrass/Kaiser Chiefs - did what they do well and captured the joyous spirit of people being in a field again. 

Damon Albarn - Form is temporary, class is permament - what a setting!

The Staves - seemingly missing one Stave but making no reference to it but putting in a slick performance anyway.

The weather. Hot, sweaty and  humid but we dodged a bullet with those thunderstorms.

 

I can forgive the rest. Just great to be back.

 

Roll on EoTR.

I really liked Vlure, too. Great intro and an interesting combination of 80s synthwave and punk with some Glaswegian hard-edged poetic lyrics. The "God is a DJ" cover was inspired! 

Edited July 26, 2021 by Supernintendo Chalmers

[Sean1234321]

Just Mustard were great, as were Bdrmm later in the day. 

Both bands made a lovely amount of noise. 

[mikegday]

Back home, what a fantastic weekend. I can’t fault it at all! Thought the site was stunning, loved the sunrise arena in the woods! Was surprised how ‘Glastonbury’ like it felt tbh, the food stalls, ‘vibe’ and stuff - much more like Glastonbury than T/Vfest IMO, which I think I expected it to be more like them - so was pleasantly surprised. Weather was cracking!! First time in a camper and will find it hard to go back to a tent.

Managed to bunk into wet leg by running through the wood at the back when we realised there was no way we would get into, worth it considering we left Staves for it. CMAT, Orla Gartland, Self Esteem, Wolf Alice - too many good sets to process right now. 

 

 

[Jacko45]

1 hour ago, mikegday said:

Back home, what a fantastic weekend. I can’t fault it at all! Thought the site was stunning, loved the sunrise arena in the woods! Was surprised how ‘Glastonbury’ like it felt tbh, the food stalls, ‘vibe’ and stuff - much more like Glastonbury than T/Vfest IMO, which I think I expected it to be more like them - so was pleasantly surprised. Weather was cracking!! First time in a camper and will find it hard to go back to a tent.

Managed to bunk into wet leg by running through the wood at the back when we realised there was no way we would get into, worth it considering we left Staves for it. CMAT, Orla Gartland, Self Esteem, Wolf Alice - too many good sets to process right now. 

 

 

Yeah we rented a VW Camper last summer and they really are just that next level of comfort/ease.

Hoping that by some divine miracle I can afford one for next Latitude.

Camper section looked ace and chilled.

[gfa]

Fantastic weekend for me, Chems was the absolute and unparalleled highlight and truck cancellation a happy mistake. Latitude has a great atmosphere, quite similar to isle of wight and the late night selection is good too. Queues and prices were not great but a bit of smuggling sorted that out. Was also really impressed with Hot Chip, Rudimental, Kaisers, Shame and the Vaccines who all put on a great show. Can't say i was disappointed with anyone i saw although was gutted not to get into Wet Leg - though Rick Astley was not nearly as good as he was in 2019 at isle of wight.

[sedra]

Overall a great festival-the weather was perfect, enough mix of bands for such a short notice pull together line up. Toilets weren’t too bad - just never go just when a band ends! Some queues very long for food but generally enough choice for all. 
noticeably slightly less on offer  over all and the Lake Stage was missing from when we were last there. 
general green/red camping miles away from arena but had loads of space around us. 
beer and food prices high but traders have had a tough time of it over these  past 2 summers so can understand. 
Usual  teenagers celebrating end of school etc but forgive their rowdiness given the past 2 summers they have had as well. 
Highlights- Lynx, Sports Team, Vaccines, Bombay Bicycle Club, Supergrass, Wolf Alice, Chems, Self Esteem, Bastille, the staves. Didn’t see any theatre, comedy or smaller venues this year as wanted to keep space around me. 
worse part - walking back and forth to tent! Bonus though was not being too far from car! 
Also 10 hours to get home to Bournemouth due to horrendous traffic on A12 with it’s 2 accidents 🙁

[Copperface]

18 hours ago, adequate8 said:

Weren’t they in Plastic Mermaids?

As a self confessed Plastic Mermaids nutter I've been following her in parallel with PM. Rhain (Rhian), Flo and Hester were and are the main collaborators with PM and form the backbone of the choir/backing singers that accompany PM on tour and live. Rhain normally sings the 'Saturn' intro live as well as other bits. She has a proper powerful operatic voice, diametrically opposed to what you get with Wet Leg. Think they had a song called 'Girlfriend' out last year which got wiped from everywhere (no idea why). So not actually in Plastic Mermaids but all from the IoW and work closely with them.

[Dancers Stand Very Still]

1 hour ago, big hog said:

Real shame about Sons of Kemet. Was really looking forward to it but the reduced 3-piece band just felt a bit sad and deflating.

Incredible weekend though. So glad we went.

Yeah, it wasn't quite the show we were expecting and was a little underwhelming for a closing set. Adding Nubya Garcia into the mix made it interesting enough though and very glad they made the effort to play regardless. 

[amfy]

Working for Oxfam I found Thursday pre- entry checks heavy going. Lots of people arriving with us who had been mis-directed several times to add ons they had paid a lot of money for. People paid £100 for ‘pink parking’ ‘close to their tent’ & walked further than they would have done if they hadn’t. 2 women with 5 kids between them who had been sent one ticket short and then an email saying they could pick up the other ticket on the gate, sent from pillar to post with all their luggage (& kids) in the heat when surely they could have just sent an e-ticket, or let them stay at one gate whilst WE went and sorted it. Older people being made to walk round in circles to prove their covid status when the NHS app went down. No flexibility - we tried accepting the little blue card with photo ID but were told to stop - 70 year old doing this are not on a blag ffs! Yet whilst they took the money & didn’t seem to care about people’s actual experience, I was yelled at for sipping at the coffee Oxfam brought round for us, in between customers, because ‘it doesn’t look nice’. So all of that coloured the rest of the festival a little for me. Style over substance.

I thought Friday would be my worst shift as it was an ‘Emergency Exit Gate’ but ended up being moved around between the BBC Sounds and Obelisk. Got to see a good chunk of Mabel on my break, was on the viewing platform for Hot Chip & danced my socks off (probably more than was appropriate although we are told that as stewards people like to see us dancing). During that afternoon I spent a lot of time on the production gate and met Swim Deep, Hot Chip, Goat Girl and others. The comedian, Maisie Adam, chatted with us for a good while and was really lovely (she is the mod one from the panel shows). That shift flew!

Saturday was our day off and was amazing. Started with Nadia Rose who was great fun, and this was the point where I felt pretty emotional as I watched my first non-working gig. Just watching young people jump and dance was a truly beautiful thing. Then of course, Rudimental and The Chemical Brothers just lit the place up. Out of anything you could have given me after all those months of nothingness, The Chems would have been my choice - everything that you would want in a crowd and a show. There’s nothing I can add to what’s already been said.

Sunday - Well, ‘What Did You Expect’ from the Vaccines. Had to be there & summed the whole thing up when Justin said ‘I feel like I won a competition to have my old life back for a day’. You also know exactly what you are getting with The Vaccines - always one great pop tune after another, even the ones you don’t know yet, you know by the first chorus. Happy times.

Last shift was supposed to be The Comedy tent but ended after Jo Brand - who was lovely and fun, but I think comedy is always really hard at a festival because there is always so much background noise. Then we got moved to the viewing platform on the main stage and we’re around for Bombay Bicycle Club and Bastille. Found Bastille incredibly disappointing. I’m not a massive fan but caught part of their Glastonbury set a couple of years ago and it looked great fun, but the whole ‘re-orchestrated’ thing seemed to be the sound of them spending an hour and a half disappearing up their own arse.

Ended the festival very very tired. Got pinged on the way back but been for a PCR and it’s negative. Feet still hurt.

Really glad I went in the current circumstances. I had a great time and consider myself really lucky to have been there, but overall, Latitude doesn’t have enough for us to do that 8 hour drive again in normal times.

Edited July 27, 2021 by amfy
Typo

[balthazarstarbuck]

 

2 hours ago, big hog said:

Real shame about Sons of Kemet. Was really looking forward to it but the reduced 3-piece band just felt a bit sad and deflating.

Incredible weekend though. So glad we went.

It was a bit anti-climatic, but I’d still rather take 3/4 of Sons of Kemet over Bastille. I regret nothing.

Edited July 27, 2021 by balthazarstarbuck
Double typed

[DirtyLurker]

Let's see how much of the 5 days in a field I can actually remember 😅

So, arrived Weds around 3pm ish, campervan set up gin poured, Covid passes & wristbanded by around 3.30ish - and happily that was the last time I even thought about the pandemic all weekend!

Thurs we had a wander around the rest of the camping areas earlyafternoon as the steward on CV gate said it was all open... it was not, the arena opened at 5pm as usual.  Wandered around Thurs eve, which felt much, much busier than any previous Thurs eve, but was totally expected to be honest.

Worried there was no gin bar after a full sweep of the site.... found the gin bar hidden in the Forbidden Forrest, it soon became our second home 😉

Saw The Mighty Flux  in The Trailer Park - brilliant fun - danced to a jungle track telling us not to destroy the jungle.  More gin...

Fri - wow so many people everywhere!  More gin.  Definitely saw Maisie Adams on Comedy stage, some of Hot Chip, had dinner with a pair of nurses who were 90s clubbers (as were we, excellent conversations) taught another couple the pincer move of sweeping up outside the left hand side of a tent/stage and winding up "front left, by the speaker" More gin.

Sat - finally accepting of the sheer volume of people, leaning into being surrounded by sweaty, dusty festivallers - ah yes, this is home!  Churros for breakfast.  Kerry Godliman set luckily started later than scheduled so we managed to see it all.  Gin.  Preparations for evening shenanigans.  The Chemical Brothers - absolutely wow! Met another couple of 90s clubbers & he was sooooooo excited totally made my night, hugged strangers, danced in warm rain, lightning!  3Ds at The Out Post - yes please.  Emergency tunes from the Ambulance in the Kids field.

Sun - scraped selves up, grabbed a charity taxi, Bill Bailey!  Pretty close to the front, begged & borrowed sunscreen- it was cloudy when we left the van!  I'm an idiot😅  Vegan Dog yum, fuckin, yum. Gin...

 

There may very well be more but that's what I can currently remember 😁 yes there were some queues for food but if you have to queue then the food will be good!  I waited over half hour for a Vegan Dog, it was well and truly worth it. 

Toilets; never had to queue too long, it there were massive lines I'd just head for another block, nothing is too far away.  The ones at the back of kids field usually no queues at all.  You just have to be smart about when to go to the loo 😅 

There were definitely fewer food traders but us hospitality bods have had it tough the last 18 months, many traders have gone out of business, many traders will stay at their more local food led events where the pitch fees are cheaper, and chatting to 1 trader they said they were having to use Festival Republics payment systems (card readers etc) and that FR were keeping the payments for over 7 days before they would release the £££££ - if that is correct then a lot of traders may not have wanted to go that route.

To surmise; bloody hell if was good to get back in a field, to not have internet so no BBC news app jumping in and spoiling the fun with its "breaking news", to totally forget about the real world, get back to the basics, campervan, nature, fresh air, live music, comedy, gin - more please 😁

Fuck me though how fucking good was the Chems gig 😍😍😍

[incident]

25 minutes ago, amfy said:

Older people being made to walk round in circles to prove their covid status when the NHS app went down. No flexibility - we tried accepting the little blue card with photo ID but were told to stop - 70 year old doing this are not on a blag ffs! Yet whilst they took the money & didn’t seem to care about people’s actual experience, I was yelled at for sipping at the coffee Oxfam brought round for us, in between customers, because ‘it doesn’t look nice’. So all of that coloured the rest of the festival a little for me. Style over substance.

That sounds poor - were the complaints about drinking coffee from your supervisor, the gate manager, or from some other Festival Republic type? The buggy never actually reached us but there was no problem with us drinking water etc (albeit we had to walk a fair distance to get it). I was doing COVID checks on Memorial Gate on Thursday evening and didn't see nearly as many of those issues - the Gate Manager told us to accept the Blue Cards while the app was playing up, and we eventually got access to a Wifi network broadcasting at the gate that we could share with customers who were struggling which helped with the app. I was hoping it'd be broadcasting elsewhere on site but no such luck.

[Dancers Stand Very Still]

39 minutes ago, big hog said:

Ah that sounds cool. We left before she came on sadly, just weren't feeling it at all. But I did catch a bit of her set earlier on.

She was busy! Played 4 sets that I'm aware of - her own slot, late night surprise BBC Intro on Sunday, with Joe Armon-Jones and with Sons of Kemet. Anybody know of any more?! 

[amfy]

20 minutes ago, incident said:

That sounds poor - were the complaints about drinking coffee from your supervisor, the gate manager, or from some other Festival Republic type? The buggy never actually reached us but there was no problem with us drinking water etc (albeit we had to walk a fair distance to get it). I was doing COVID checks on Memorial Gate on Thursday evening and didn't see nearly as many of those issues - the Gate Manager told us to accept the Blue Cards while the app was playing up, and we eventually got access to a Wifi network broadcasting at the gate that we could share with customers who were struggling which helped with the app. I was hoping it'd be broadcasting elsewhere on site but no such luck.

The complaint was from an FR person. He really shouted at me. I had put my coffee down and was only sipping it when there were gaps between customers yet he started by shouting ‘what do you think you’re doing? What if you throw it over a customer?’. I tried to assure him that I hadn’t drunk it anywhere near a customer but then he just started shouting ‘It just doesn’t look nice’. So I just started saying ‘Sorry’ repeatedly to just stop him going on at me - but he kept shouting until eventually he was shouting ‘There’s no need for you to be sorry, you have nothing to apologise for. You’ve done nothing wrong!’ But he was still shouting - right in my face with no mask (I was wearing one due to my position in pre- festival covid clearance). I was thoroughly pissed off for about half an hour after that tbh.

 

in terms of network, I was hotspotting customers off my phone and data to get them through. I couldn’t have been more helpful. Those are the things customers remember, not ‘she was sipping a coffee when I came round the corner’.

I’m glad some other stewards had a better experience of ‘helping’ on day one though. It didn’t sit right. You partially do this to ‘give something back’ not to be part of a rip off and it left a bit of a sour taste for me so I’m happy that it was better at some other gates.

Edited July 27, 2021 by amfy
Added last para

[Paul ™]

Who was it shouting at you? Did you get a name/position? 

[incident]

Wow, that guy sounds like an utter dick. Sorry you had to deal with that - you expect the odd problematic customer, but it really shouldn't be coming from the organisers. Make sure you put it on the feedback form when it comes through.

Edited July 27, 2021 by incident

[amfy]

2 minutes ago, Paul ™ said:

Who was it shouting at you? Did you get a name/position? 

He told me his name and position and I remember his name, but I’ve no wish to follow it up tbh. It was just the contrast between poor customer service in all the areas that mattered, & then making a fuss about that. 

[glimmers_of_hope]

Does anyone know when there will be any data about whether there was an increase of covid cases due to the festival. I'm really interested to see what the results are. I would have thought it will be 5 to 10 days at least but don't know how these things work.